Quick Facts
One gold medal is awarded to the student who has achieved the most outstanding academic record as a doctoral student. A second gold medal is awarded to the graduate student who has achieved most outstanding academic record as a Master’s student completing a thesis. This is an opportunity to honour the best in the graduating class within the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, as there is only one award for approximately 1,000 Master’s graduates and one award for more than 300 doctoral graduates. Medals are presented on behalf of the Governor General of Canada by participating educational institutions, along with a personalized certificate signed by the Governor General. There is no monetary award associated with the medals.
Eligibility
Students must have submitted the final copy of their thesis to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2014.
Procedures
Graduate Programs
Graduate programs must check with their respective Dean’s Office for their Faculty’s internal nomination deadline. Internal nomination deadlines are normally several weeks before the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies deadline of March 6, 2015. Each graduate program nomination must include the following:
- Application form filled out by the student
- All university-level transcripts (original or certified true copy of official transcripts from universities besides UBC; copy of Academic History from SISC will be accepted in place of official UBC transcript)
- Copy of External Examiner’s report
- Letter of support from thesis supervisor
- Letter of support from Department Head
Faculty Dean’s Offices
Deans review nominations submitted by their graduate programs and nominate up to two students to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, one for the Master’s medal and one for the doctoral medal. Each Faculty nomination must include the following:
- Cover memo with the names of the recommended students and a brief description of the Faculty’s internal review process and the rationale for ranking candidates
- Nomination package for each student as submitted by graduate program (see section above)
The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies forms a committee to review the recommendations from all Faculties and select the two winners.
The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies submits a 150-word citation for each winner to Ceremonies and Events, both of which are read at Congregation in May 2015 and informs the winners and confirms attendance at Congregation. Some winners may have graduated at an earlier Congregation, but are invited to attend the May 2015 ceremony.
Governor General Recommendation Forms for the winners are then submitted to the Student Financial Assistance and Awards office, which assigns the awards on the Student Information System.
Further Information
Questions about Governor General's Gold Medal should be directed to Graduate Awards Clerk Joanne Tsui.
Further information about the Governor General's Academic Medals can be found on the website for the Governor General of Canada.