What You Need to Know
Handbook on Student Rights and Responsibilities
Charter of Students' Rights, Articles 18-19
Article 18
- The University has an obligation to make reasonable efforts to provide adequate research supervision for graduate work, with due regard to the preference of the student.
Article 19
- Every student has a right to the due and explicit acknowledgement of any indebtedness owed to him or her by a member of the University for research or assistance in the preparation of an academic work.
Policy on Conflicts of Interest in Academic Supervision and Evaluation
1. Where a member of the academic staff or a teaching assistant and a student are in a close personal relationship such that there is, or may be perceived to be, a conflict of interest or possible favouritism, then the staff member or teaching assistant shall decline or terminate a supervisory or evaluative role with respect to that student, and, where necessary, make appropriate alternative arrangements for the supervision and evaluation of the student’s work.
2. For the purposes of this chapter, a close personal relationship shall include spouses, parent and child, siblings, and consensual amorous relationships.
3. The alternative arrangements for supervision and evaluation shall be made in confidence and shall not prejudice the status of the student, staff member or teaching assistant.
4. Nothing in this chapter shall be construed as condoning consensual amorous relationships between academic staff or teaching assistants and students.
For more information see the Regulation on the Conduct of Research and the Policy on the Ethical Conduct of Research Involving Human Subjects in the Handbook on Student Rights and Responsibilities.
Who You Can Talk To
- Your research or project supervisor
- Your Graduate Program Director
- The Post-Graduate Students' Society Committee on Graduate Student Support
What Else You Can Do
If you encounter a problem, you may choose to contact:
- The Associate Dean, Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
- The Office of the Ombudsperson
- File a grievance:
Handbook on Student Rights and Responsibilities, Code of Student Grievance Procedures, Article 2.1: Any student has a right to lodge a grievance resulting from an act or a failure to act by a member of the University occupying a position of authority vis-à-vis the student in a University-related matter.