This section is only for final, post-defence submission of theses and dissertations.
NOTE ON DEADLINES:
Thesis approval deadlines are for having your thesis fully approved in cIRcle, not just submitted. You are expected to submit at least five days ahead of any deadline in order to allow yourself time to make any needed corrections.
Please follow these steps in order:
1. Download and complete the following forms from the Graduate Studies website:
- Dissertation Approval form (doctoral students only)
- Thesis Approval form (master's students only)
- Electronic Thesis/Dissertation Submission Cover Sheet
When you have completed your thesis defence and any changes required by the examining committee, your supervisor and committee member(s) will sign the Thesis or Dissertation Approval form.
Ensure your completed forms are submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.
Thesis or Dissertation Approval forms must be submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies by your graduate program. The program will ensure that the form is complete and that the signatures/endorsements are genuine, and will forward the form to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies on your behalf.
It is preferable for you to submit the Thesis/Dissertation Cover Sheet to your program office rather than directly to Grad Studies, so that both forms arrive as a complete package.
Please ensure your forms are sent ahead of your planned submission date. Your cIRcle account cannot be activated until Graduate Studies has received all your thesis forms.
2. Register for a cIRcle Login by following the instructions at Submitting Theses and Dissertations to cIRcle on the cIRcle website.
3. IMPORTANT: After setting your password, send an email to graduate.thesis@ubc.ca to activate your account. You must include your name and email address in the body of the email. You will be notified when your account has been activated and you are able to submit your thesis. Please send the email AFTER you have submitted your forms, as your account cannot be activated until the forms have arrived at the appropriate Grad Studies office.
CREATIVE ARTS ONLY: IMPORTANT: If you are submitting an MFA or MMus thesis to the "Electronic Theses and Dissertations in Creative Arts, 2017+ (CWL ACCESS)" collection, you must state this in the email to graduate.thesis@ubc.ca. Otherwise you will not be able to submit to this collection.
4. Create a PDF of the text portion of your thesis. You should check the internal PDF title (under Document Properties / Description) to ensure it is appropriate. Ensure that you name the PDF file according to the instructions in Step 5.
And finally...
5. Submit your thesis by following the steps at Submitting Theses and Dissertations to cIRcle on the cIRcle website.
CREATIVE ARTS ONLY: For MFA and MMus theses, convert the text portion(s) of your thesis to a single non-secured PDF. Ensure that multimedia files are in formats that are accepted by the UBC Library, and then follow the steps in the section Submitting Creative Arts Theses and Dissertations to cIRcle on the cIRcle website.
The preferred conversion tool for PDFs is Adobe Acrobat.
Name the PDF file using the following format, all lower case:
ubc_gradyear_gradmonth_lastname_firstname.pdf
Example: ubc_2024_november_houdini_harry.pdf
Your gradmonth is the month in which your degree will formally be conferred by Senate. It will be either May or November.
IMPORTANT: Ensure that there are no spaces in your file name; use underscores instead. The file name must be all lower case.
Requesting a Delay in Publication of your Thesis
If you want to request a delay in publication of your thesis, you must do this before you submit electronically. See How to Request a Delay in Publication for instructions.