Progression & Milestones

Stack of books The LIS PhD program begins in the Fall. To proceed in the program, a student must meet all progression milestones and:
  • Maintain an overall average of at least 75% with no more than one course in the C range (60-69%) and no course below 60%.
  • To maintain funding, a student must meet all progression milestones and achieve at least 78% standing averaged over all courses in each term, with no course below 60%.

Course requirements

Doctoral students are required to complete six courses, including:

Required courses

  • 9801 - Advanced Research Methods 1 (fall of first year)
  • 9802 - Advanced Research Methods 2 (winter of first year)
  • 9800 - Introduction to Doctoral-Level Scholarship in Library and Information Science (one half course taken over  Fall/Winter)

Three elective courses

Three electives, including at least one of: GRADLIS 9811 Information Policy, FIMS 9878 Human Information Practices, GRADLIS 9822 Information Retrieval, must be completed in the program.

Students may elect to take a course from the doctoral program in Media Studies, one or two relevant one-term courses from other Western graduate programs, and MLIS courses with additional, higher level workload and evaluation criteria.

Non-course requirements

◾ Comprehensive Examination Milestone (written exam)
◾ Research Proposal Milestone (including an oral presentation to the broader FIMS community)
◾ Thesis submission and Examination
◾ Presentation of a public lecture on thesis (at time of Thesis Examination)
◾ Attendance at all LIS research colloquia for the duration of the student's residency