Office of the
Dean of Graduate Studies

Message from the dean

Dear graduate students,

Thank you for choosing the University of Victoria and welcome to the Faculty of Graduate Studies! The coming years will be exciting and challenging ones for you. As graduate students at the University of Victoria, you are a vitally important part of our larger UVic community. The work that you do during your time here will have great value not only for you personally but you will also contribute to the advancement of knowledge and betterment of society as a whole.

As graduate student researchers you have the opportunity to create new ideas, knowledge, applications, and art which will not only earn you your degrees but will also make significant contributions to the growth and well-being of many aspects of society. What you study, what you discover, what you create, will make a difference in the lives of people in places and ways that you cannot yet imagine.  

Many of you will also work as educators while you are graduate students at the University of Victoria. In your roles as teachers you will have the opportunity to challenge minds and change the world. Helping to train the next generation to think creatively about the problems that face us is a huge responsibility and one to which I also encourage you to bring all of your best energies. The rewards for doing so are great.

You are joining a team of almost 3000 current graduate students at UVic. You come from 87 different countries around the world as well as all of our Canadian provinces and territories. Collectively you make up almost 18 per cent of the student body at the University of Victoria.

The Faculty of Graduate Studies offers more than 160 different academic programs spread across 46 academic units ranging from physics to the fine arts. We also offer a customized interdisciplinary program option for those whose interests and talents have them thinking outside the box.

We have 860 regular faculty members and more than another 600 associated and emeritus scholars, as well as more than 100 graduate advisers and graduate secretaries who are dedicated to ensuring that you get the very best training in your chosen field of study. 

We are here to help you to get the most out of your graduate education. Come by our offices on the second floor of the University Centre and find out how we can help to make your time at the University of Victoria both rewarding and memorable. I look forward to seeing you soon.

Aaron Devor, Dean of Graduate Studies
GradDean@uvic.ca

Graduate Admissions
and Records Office

The Graduate Admissions and Records office (GARO) is an arm of the Office of the Registrar at UVic.

They take care of all of your routine paperwork from your first application right through to your graduation. If you need special consideration, they will send your request to the Faculty of Graduate Studies to see if we can make an exception for you.

• Registration 
• Personal leaves, compassionate/medical leaves and withdrawals 
• Graduation/degree completion (other than oral examination) requirements 
• Final thesis/dissertation submissions
• Graduate admissions handbook

Faculties, departments
and programs

You will spend most of your time in your home academic units. Your own supervisor, your graduate adviser (who looks after the graduate programs in your academic unit) and the graduate secretary in your unit’s office are the people who will do the most to support you and keep you on track. They will make sure that you learn what you came to UVic to learn and that you know what you need to do to get your paperwork done right.

Your home unit will decide when your courses are scheduled, if you get a scholarship or research work, if you get to work as a teaching assistant, what space and equipment is available to you, and most of the other details of your everyday life as a graduate student.

Always go to them first with your questions. They know you and your program best!