Change in supervision

In rare circumstances, a change of supervisor may be appropriate. If you are considering requesting to change your supervisor, consult with the Graduate Academic Specialists to explore your options.

Graduate Calendar: Supervisory Appointments

Considerations

Changing your supervisor may lead to a change in your thesis topic, funding, access to research data and may affect your publications.

Thesis topic

A change in supervisor could lead to a change in research direction and the need for a new research proposal and/or candidacy examination.

Access to research data

You and your former supervisor must agree on if you will have access to previously generated data. The new supervisor and Graduate Program Director should be involved in this discussion.

Authorship and publication

You decide on the scope of your future research and publications. However, the former supervisor should be consulted about a manuscript if their contribution is that of a co-author.

You may not need to consult with your former supervisor for future manuscripts that head in a new direction. Ask your new supervisor or the Associate Dean of the supervisor’s faculty for guidance.

Funding

Changing a supervisor may disrupt your funding. Discuss your funding with your new supervisor and Graduate Program Director.

You can request a change in supervision by consulting wth your GPD or our Graduate Academic Specialists