Examiner and Appraiser (Dual Role)

Responsibilities:

Submits a written appraisal of the thesis (or research proposal) at least one week prior to the examination and attends the exam
The written appraisal is not distributed to student and committee before the examination (the supervisor receives a copy during the exam)
Reviews the IMS Examination Rules of Procedure

Member of the UofT graduate faculty with expertise in the field OR
Non-UofT graduate faculty with expertise in the field and demonstrable graduate experience
The most ‘arms-length’ examiner to both the supervisor and the student
Not affiliated with the student’s research project in any way, nor collaborating with the supervisor or student in the last 6 years on research papers or reviews, and have no other perceived or actual conflict of interest*
If internal to UofT, must have an active SGS graduate appointment (Full Member or Emeritus preferred)
If internal to UofT, must not share the same primary academic department as the supervisor
- Primary academic department = the department with which the Faculty member gets their first UofT appointment (IMS is never a primary academic department)
- In the case of larger academic departments such as the Department of Medicine, Surgery or Psychiatry, they cannot share the same Division as the Supervisor

*Conflict of interest is as defined by CIHR.

In addition:

If the supervisor and an examiner appear together on grants then that is a collaboration
If the supervisor and an examiner appear together on a paper with one of them as first or senior author, then that will be deemed a collaboration
If, however, the supervisor and an examiner appear together as middle authors on multi-author paper, then the extent of the apparent collaboration needs to be explained

Any joint publications can easily be searched in pub-med and should be checked carefully by the student and supervisor before submission of the examination package to IMS