Each year, the University of Ottawa awards ten prizes for theses—four for masters’ theses and six for doctoral theses.
Thesis prize nomination and selection
For a thesis to be eligible for inclusion in the annual thesis prize competition, the jury must have voted to recommend it for a prize at the thesis defence. Over 100 theses are recommended each year. The University of Ottawa keeps track of all the recommendations and organizes the competition. The University provides each academic unit with a list of those students whose theses were recommended. If more than one thesis was recommended, the academic unit must decide which one it will forward to the university for inclusion in the competition. The University of Ottawa requires a curriculum vitae for each student competing and a letter of support signed by the director of graduate studies or the chair of the academic unit. The letter of support must outline the following: the merits of the thesis, the student's contribution to the thesis research, the student's contribution in other areas of scholarly endeavour, and the student's potential as a researcher. For doctoral theses, the external examiner’s report is particularly important, especially since it is the only report considered in thesis prize competitions external to the university.
The winning theses are selected by two selection committees, one for the humanities and one for the sciences, with three professors on each committee. The theses that win the internal prize competition are automatically eligible to be sent forward for external prizes.
Only the winners are contacted by the University. Students whose theses do not win a prize are entitled to include in their curriculum vitae the fact that the thesis was recommended.
For further details, visit the Master's and PhD thesis prizes page.