Preliminary Pages

Preliminary pages must appear in this order:

Committee Page (Required)

The committee page:

  • is the second page of the thesis and is numbered ii
  • does not have a heading or title
  • lists all examining committee members and supervisory committee members with their titles, departments, and if they are not at UBC, their universities
  • lists examining committee members with supervisor first, co-supervisor(s) second
  • does not include signatures
  • is not listed in the table of contents

See Resources for Thesis Preparation and Checking for examples and templates.

After you have listed your committee, please remove excess lines.

Doctoral students: Please include this page in the copy for the External Examiner, with your supervisory committee entered. If you know which members of the committee will be on the Examining Committee you can include them there; otherwise, they can go under Additional Supervisory Committee Members. Please remember to update the page before final post-defence submission. You must list the full examining committee, including both University Examiners, but listing the External Examiner is optional. We recommend you or your program ask the External Examiner whether or not they wish to be included on the committee page. Please do not include the Chair of the exam committee on this page.

Abstract (required - maximum 350 words)

The abstract:

  • is the third page of the thesis and is numbered iii
  • is a concise and accurate summary of the thesis
  • should state the problem, the methods of investigation, and the general conclusions
  • must not contain tables, graphs or illustrations
  • must not exceed 350 words
  • should contain keywords that will facilitate automated information retrieval
  • must be the only abstract in the thesis

350 words is the maximum allowed by online bibliographic listings; anything beyond 350 words will be arbitrarily cut off. The abstract in your thesis and the one you enter online at final submission must be identical.

Please do not put a list of keywords with your abstract.

Lay Summary (required - maximum 150 words)

The lay or public summary explains the key goals and contributions of the research/scholarly work in terms that can be understood by the general public. It should not exceed 150 words in length.

Preface (Required)

For detailed information about what to include in the Preface, see “Structure of Theses and Dissertations”.

Sample Prefaces

Table of Contents (Required)

Every thesis must have a table of contents that lists the preliminary and end pages and the content.

If you think your thesis does not require a table of contents, contact the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Thesis Section to confirm this.

The title page and committee page do not appear in the table of contents.

For additional information on formatting a table of contents (including lists of tables and lists of figures) see Formatting Requirements/Table of Contents.

List of tables (required if document has tables)

  • tables must be listed with their numbers, titles, and page numbers
  • each entry must have leader lines (dots) between entry and page number
  • the list must start at the top of a new page

List of Figures (required if document has figures)

  • must appear after the List of Tables
  • figures must be listed with their numbers, titles, and page numbers
  • each entry must have leader lines (dots) between entry and page number
  • the list must start at the top of a new page

List of Illustrations (NORMALLY required if document has Illustrations)

  • must appear after the List of Tables / List of Figures
  • illustrations must be listed with their numbers, titles, and page numbers
  • each entry must have leader lines (dots) between entry and page number
  • the list must start at the top of a new page

If you think your thesis does not require a List of Illustrations, contact the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Thesis Section to confirm this.

List of multimedia materials (Required if thesis includes multimedia

List of material submitted that is not included in the PDF (Required if thesis includes these)

Other Lists

Examples:

  • list of symbols
  • list of abbreviations
  • list of acronyms
  • glossary

All these:

  • must appear after the List of Tables / List of Figures / List of Illustrations
  • each list must start at the top of a new page

You must include a List of Multimedia Materials or List of Audio/Video files if you are submitting any with your thesis.

Acknowledgements (optional)

In this section you can:

  • include a land acknowledgement in recognition of any Indigenous lands upon which you undertook your work. UBC Vancouver is situated on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam people. Additional information: Musqueam & UBC.
  • acknowledge the extent to which assistance has been given by members of staff, fellow students, data technicians, editors, and/or others
  • recognize the supervision and advice given by your supervisor and committee members
  • acknowledge colleagues with whom you have written journal articles

Note: We highly recommend you ensure that you have permission to include names of individuals in the Acknowledgements. Once your thesis is in the Library's electronic repository, cIRcle, you will not be able to make changes.

Dedication (optional)

The dedication is usually quite short, and is a personal rather than an academic recognition. You can use any font or language you wish for the dedication page.