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 Uploading Electronic Theses and Dissertations 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 PDF title (under Document Properties / Description) to ensure it reflects the thesis title.
And finally...
5. Submit your thesis by following the steps at Uploading Electronic Theses and Dissertations on the cIRcle website. If you have multimedia files as part of your thesis, please follow the steps in the section Upload Your Thesis File 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 Upload Your Thesis File on the cIRcle website.
The preferred conversion tool for PDFs is Adobe Acrobat. This ETD Tutorial provides information about PDFs including conversion from Microsoft Word to PDF.
Name the PDF file using the following format, all lower case:
ubc_gradyear_gradmonth_lastname_firstname.pdf
Example: ubc_2023_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.
cIRcle Instructions
Important: This section is only for final, post-defence submission of theses and dissertations.
cIRcle is the UBC Library's Information Repository. You will submit your thesis electronically through the cIRcle website.
Important: Once it has been approved by the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and accepted by cIRcle, your thesis cannot be recalled. Please be sure you have thoroughly proofread your thesis before submitting.
Complete instructions are available on the cIRcle website "Uploading Electronic Theses and Dissertations".
CREATIVE ARTS ONLY: Complete instructions for MFA and MMus theses ONLY are available on the cIRcle website "Submitting Creative Arts Theses to cIRcle".
Tips
Choosing your collection in cIRcle: Submit to the collection "Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) 2008+". Do NOT submit to the "Graduate Research [non-thesis]" collection.
CREATIVE ARTS ONLY: For MFA and MMus theses, you may choose to submit to the collection "Electronic Theses and Dissertations in Creative Arts, 2017+ (CWL ACCESS)". Access to this collection is permanently restricted to individuals with a Campus-Wide Login. Please see cIRcle: Uploading Electronic Creative Arts Theses for specific details and instructions. if you are uploading more than one multimedia file, please ensure that each file name is unique.
Supervisor/co-supervisors: List these with supervisor first, co-supervisor(s) second. Co-supervisors should be listed in the same order as they are on the committee page.
Graduation date: You will be asked to select a graduation date from a drop-down menu. Although there are four options - February, May, September, and November - you may only choose either May or November. The other dates are for UBCO students only.
Embargoes: If you have not requested an embargo and received an email confirming an embargo period, please leave the field "Embargo Access until Specific Date" blank.
Deadlines: It is your responsibility to meet all formatting and submission requirements. If the thesis does not meet formatting requirements it will not be approved. You must continue to check your email after submission so that you can make required corrections and re-submit the thesis. Your submission is not complete and you will not meet deadlines until your thesis has been approved, and you have received an official email receipt.
When your thesis meets Graduate Studies' requirements, you will receive email notification that it has been added to the UBC Library's cIRcle Institutional Repository.
Any delay caused by correcting and re-submitting the thesis is your responsibility, and may cause you to miss important deadlines. You are encouraged to submit your thesis well in advance of deadlines.
Submitting Multimedia
Multimedia/non-text material that cannot easily be included in a PDF of your thesis may have special formatting or archiving requirements. If multimedia form part of your thesis, please review "Multimedia Material" on this website.
IMPORTANT: Multimedia material files should comply with the cIRcle File Format Guidelines. Before you start, be sure to review the guidelines for information on file size, acceptable file formats, and tips for making your work more accessible.
Preparing and submitting multimedia material
Create a “List of Multimedia Material” (or other)
The list goes in the preliminary pages of your thesis following the List of Tables and List of Figures. Ensure that “List of Multimedia Material” is included in the table of contents. Alternates are possible; e.g. "List of Videos"; "List of recordings"; or other as appropriate.
Rename Your Thesis and Multimedia Files
For PDF files:
A single PDF of the preliminary pages must accompany all multimedia theses. Ensure the PDF file is compatible with Adobe Acrobat version 5 and is NOT in "secured" format or password-protected. cIRcle does not accept secured or password-protected PDFs due to access and preservation concerns. It is also recommended that you do NOT save your PDF using Fast Web View. A scan to PDF is not acceptable. Before uploading your thesis file, make sure that you have saved the file name using all lower case and in the format shown directly below:
- ubc_gradyear_gradmonth_lastname_firstname.pdf
- E.g.: ubc_2024_may_houdini_harry.pdf
All digital files submitted to cIRcle must follow the cIRcle naming conventions. Please ensure that each file name is unique.
For additional document files:
Should your thesis have additional documents, such as a concert programme, script, etc., you may choose to include a digital copy (.pdf) of those documents.
Please use the following naming style:
- ubc_gradyear_gradmonth_lastname_firstname_programme.pdf
- ubc_gradyear_gradmonth_lastname_firstname_script.pdf
For multimedia files:
There could be some variance depending on the type and number of multimedia files you submit. Please name your files clearly, with the following naming style as a guide:ubc_YYYY_gradmonth_lastname_firstname_tracknumber.fileextension
- E.g.: ubc_2024_september_shelley_mary_track07.mp3
Upload your Thesis and Multimedia Files
Submit the PDF first, and then the multimedia files. Select the "Browse" button and locate the file on your computer. Then, select "Upload". Verify that you have uploaded the correct file.
When you have finished, select "Next" to continue.
Please note, the length of time required to upload a file will depend on its size and the speed of your connection. At its quickest, uploading should only take a few moments. If you have trouble uploading your file, use the cIRcle Contact Us form.
Creative Arts Theses (MFA and MMus only)
For MFA and MMus theses only, you may choose to submit to the collection in cIRcle “Electronic Theses and Dissertations in Creative Arts, 2017+ (CWL ACCESS)”. Access to this collection is permanently restricted to individuals who have a Campus-Wide Login (CWL). The collection is not available to the public. The following must be submitted:
MFA in Creative Writing:
- title page, committee page, abstract, lay summary, preface, table of contents, and thesis (creative work) as a single PDF document. The document must follow all formatting requirements for a UBC thesis.
MFA in Creative Writing and Theatre, Film Production, Film Production and Creative Writing, Theatre, or Visual Arts:
- title page, committee page, abstract, lay summary, preface, table of contents, list of electronic files, and the written portion of the thesis as a single PDF document. The document must follow all formatting requirements for a UBC thesis.
- electronic files of audio/video recordings or images in acceptable formats.
Master of Music:
- title page, committee page, abstract, lay summary, preface, table of contents, list of electronic files, and the performance programme as a single PDF document. The document must follow all formatting requirements for a UBC thesis.
- electronic files of audio/video recordings in acceptable formats.
For instructions on how to submit your Creative Arts thesis, see cIRcle Instructions above and the following two links on the Library's cIRcle website: