The Master’s degree provides candidates with the opportunity to broaden their academic and research experience. The student’s background, the selection of the thesis topic, the approach to research, and the program electives, govern whether the Masters of Art or Masters of Science degree program is pursued. A research investigation producing a scholarly contribution to the particular area of study is necessary. Normally, these programs will take two (2) years to complete, including at least one year of residence. Provision is available for candidates who demonstrate outstanding academic and research ability to transfer to the Ph.D. program after completion of one year’s residency.
The Master’s degree requirement is a minimum of 36 credits, including a 12-credit thesis. The remaining 24 credits are comprised of course work. At least 18 credits must be in courses numbered 500 or above. Twelve of the 24 credits must be selected from RMES (Resources Management Environmental Studies) core courses while the remaining 12 are open to electives, but only six of which may be numbered below 500. A methods course of 3 credits is also mandatory. Please note these requirements are for currently enrolled students. All those entering from September 2011 onwards are encouraged to take our new curriculum, information on this can be found here.
Elective courses should be chosen in discussion with your thesis supervisor. Masters students are required to take 12 credits of electives that can be comprised of any graduate level courses (courses numbered 500 and above). For a complete list of UBC course offerings please visit the student services website.
The student’s supervisor and committee must approve the chosen academic program. There is no option to complete the MA or MSc without a thesis. The goals of the program are to ensure that the student learns to do research and to write an integrative thesis. Upon completion of the thesis, an external examiner (on or off campus) will be appointed to the examination committee for the thesis defense.
Thesis
The thesis in Resource Management and Environmental Studies is a fundamental and essential component of the program. It is the main evidence that is available to the academic community by which the candidate is assessed in his/her abilities to synthesize and integrate biophysical and socio-economic sciences into new paradigms or knowledge.
Although there is debate about ‘how’ research is done, the concept of the thesis research in RMES is, in general, the same as in any graduate program. That is, there is a statement of an issue, a rationale of the significance of the issue, a set of research questions (these may be presented as hypotheses, objectives, questions, propositions), a set of methods or tools from various disciplines that will be brought to bear to address the research questions, a discussion of theoretical and analytical frameworks relevant to the issue, research tools selected, expected results, a summary and/or conclusions of the research and a discussion of how the research has contributed to the overall issue. Specifics among the various sections will vary by the nature of the research topic, the graduate student and the supervisor/ supervisory committee. It is important that discussion take place EARLY in a graduate student’s program on the issues of how to do the research and what will be expected from the dissertation. These discussions should be re-examined at formal meetings of the graduate student’s supervisory committee.
The following guidelines are from the Faculty of Graduate Studies and can be consulted in more detail by clicking here.
