Intellectual Development

The Graduate Studies Program is very important to all members of the Department of Family Medicine - it provides an important stimulus and focus for our academic mission and offers a wonderful opportunity to contribute to the development of our discipline around the world. The two week onsite component of the program provides an important contact between the graduate students and the rest of the Department. 

• to introduce students to the faculty; 
• to give students an overview of the program; 
• to introduce students to the research interest of the members of the Faculty of Graduate Studies within the Department of Family Medicine; 
• to have students visit the Information Technology Services, the Canadian Library of Family Medicine and the Allyn & Betty Taylor Library of the University of Western Ontario and their resources available to the students; 
• and through Information Technology Services (ITS) to introduce the students to the appropriate computer technology that is required to function within the program. 

Mentoring & Personal Interviews 

Each graduate student is assigned a mentor. The mentor's role is to monitor the progress of the student during his/her academic program, to answer any questions that he/she may have and to help problem solve any areas of concern that have not been resolved to the students satisfaction by the program Chair or any course instructors. The graduate students are provided with a list of the e-mail addresses of the faculty in the Graduate Studies Program and are expected to dialog with any of them regarding possible research areas of interest. When they have identified an area of interest for their thesis and/or research project/major essay, they are to present their proposal to the program Chair who will then, in consultation with the Graduate Studies Committee, identify appropriate supervisory faculty. The students are encouraged to develop their research interests in the multiple areas that coincide with the members of the faculty of the Graduate Studies in the Department of Family Medicine. 

Each year during the on-site component, the graduate students will have a personal interview with the program Chair to answer any questions, to identify individual learning objectives, and to make them aware of any of the rules and regulations regarding the Graduate Studies Program. Evaluation of the program by the students is conducted at the completion of their on-site component and at the completion of each of the courses in the program, and this is followed by an exit interview at the completion of the program. 

1. Year one will see the completion of two courses and the opportunity for work on the thesis or research project/essay during the summer term when there are no courses offered. It is also at this time that other suitable courses (as approved by the program Director, and by the Faculty of Graduate Studies) might be undertaken from other Universities. 
2. Year two will see the completion of two additional credit courses. The summer term offers another opportunity for additional credit(s) from other approved masters programs. 
3. Year three - during this final year the student will complete the program by finishing and defending the thesis (thesis stream) or completing a research project, major essay and an additional course (non-thesis stream). 

During the summer terms of year 2 and 3, faculty will be available for supervision of the thesis, and/or research project/major essay with the students. Hence, it would be possible to have all the requirements for the course credits completed by the end of nine terms. Depending on the extent and nature of their research project/major essay and/or thesis, an additional one to three terms in a fourth year might be required. Based on past experience, we expect the students to complete the program by twelve terms. In exceptional circumstances, up to three additional terms could be required for the completion of the research and thesis components of the program.