Handbook for Current and New Students
To access the various Toronto Metropolitan University online resources, new students must first activate their online identity after they have been matriculated by the Graduate Studies Admissions & Recruitment Office.
"Matriculation" is a process by which a new student's status changes from an 'applicant' to a 'student'. The Fall term matriculation process normally takes place early to mid-August. This process can only be performed by the Graduate Studies Admissions Office for applicants who do not have any outstanding admission conditions or whose admission conditions have been cleared. New students should refer to the formal admission letter for instructions and the final date to submit the required documents to the admissions office for the re-assessment of the conditions.
New students who are not matriculated will not be able to activate their online identity. They will not be able to self-enrol in any courses, and scholarship funding transfer may also be delayed.
New students may contact the Graduate Admissions Office if they have any questions concerning the admission conditions stated in the formal admission letter, the procedures for submitting the required documents and getting an email confirmation of conditions clearance.
E-mail: gradhelp@torontomu.ca or telephone: 416-979-5150.
To activate your online identity, please visit the CCS website.
For technical assistance, contact the Computing Communication Services (CCS) Help Desk for students.
The university requires that any official or formal electronic communications from students be sent from their university e-mail account. Electronic communications from the university and the program will be sent to the student's university e-mail only. A student is responsible for ensuring his/her university e-mail account has sufficient capacity to receive messages and information.
Visit the CCS website, refer to information in the section "Email and Learning Systems".
To facilitate communication with new students before the first term of study begins, the program administrator uses new students' personal e-mail addresses for e-mail communication until the first week of fall term classes (or earlier).
To communicate with the program administrator by e-mail, the program's e-mail address should be used at all times (iss@torontomu.ca). The program administrator works for more than one graduate program. Using the program email address will help the program to manage student e-mail communications efficiently.
To communicate with the program director or individual faculty member by e-mail, use the individual's university e-mail address. To look up a professor's e-mail address, use the university's online directory.
Graduate Program Fees are published online on the Yeates School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies' Financing Your Studies website. Visit the detailed graduate tuition and fees information page for the program fees of each graduate program.
The graduate program's annual program fees are broken down into three amounts by term in the Fall, Winter and Summer. The fee payment deadline in each term is published in the Graduate Studies Important Dates. Full-time students who are scholarship or award recipients should refer to additional information about scholarship and award disbursement in this Handbook.
Graduate students are charged program fees based on the student's program of registration, the status in the program as a full-time or part-time student, and as a Canadian domestic or international student. Graduate students are not charged fees based on the number of courses they take in a term. Graduate students must maintain continuous program registration in every term from the term of admission to graduation or withdrawal (voluntarily or involuntarily) unless a student has been approved for a Leave of Absence due to medical reasons or maternity/parental leave. Detailed information about Leave of Absence is available in (PDF file) Graduate Status, Enrolment and Evaluation Policy (#164). Graduate students are responsible for paying the program fees in each term while they are actively registered in a graduate program.
A student's individual fees statement for each term is available online in the student's financial account in
"my.torontomu -> MyServiceHub". Visit MyServiceHub Support: Student Fees.
Graduate Studies Important Dates are published on the Yeates School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies website. Each academic year is comprised of three terms. The important dates are listed term by term:
- Fall term (September - December)
- Winter term (January-April), and
- Spring/Summer term (May-August)
A few of the academic dates which students frequently inquire about are available in the Important Dates, for example:
- The date when final grades are available online in MyServiceHub for student's access
- First and last dates of classes in each term
- Last day to add a course in a term
- Last day to drop a registered course in a term
- The official end of term in each term
- Holidays
After the post-matriculation online identity activation process has been completed by a new student, the student’s university email address will be automatically added to the ISS program students mailing lists according to the student's program of registration.
The program student mailing lists allow the list administrators (namely the program director and the program administrator) to communicate information to ISS students broadly via email. Students receive the messages in their university e-mail. Students can quickly identify messages sent from the ISS program by the program mailing list addresses: gisslist@torontomu.ca or gisplist@torontomu.ca.
Students should note that they cannot use the program mailing lists (gisslist@ or gisplist@) to disseminate information to other ISS students or communicate with each other because the lists only allow the list administrators to ‘post’ messages.
Only academic, program- or university-related communications will be sent by the program student mailing lists. In general, messages that are personal in nature or messages that advocate or promote activities of special interest groups outside the academic realm will not be posted.
This is a student's university multipurpose photo-ID card. To look up information about the different functions of this card and instructions to apply, visit the university's One Card Office web site. Advanced online application is required of new students. Online application is generally available from June 1 to August 15 - visit the One Card web site for details.
New graduate students must meet with the assigned faculty advisor to complete an initial Plan of Study within the first four weeks in the first Fall term. This form will be sent to new students by e-mail in early September.
The Plan of Study sets the stage for new students to plan and think ahead: how to complete the program requirements within the required time frame and what research directions they would like to pursue to complete the research component of the program. Information in the initial Plan of Study form may and could be modified later by completing the updated Plan of Study which a graduate student in the program must complete at the end of the first Winter term of study.
A new full-time student will know the name of his/her Faculty Advisor no later than the first week of classes in the first term of study. The Program Director will announce the faculty advisor assignment by e-mail. The Program Director acts as the Faculty Advisor for part-time students until a student has started the research work.
A Faculty Advisor serves as an academic contact to a student and provides general academic guidance. The faculty advisor does not necessarily become the student's research faculty supervisor in the Major Research Paper (MRP) although a student may seek advice from his/her faculty advisor regarding the search for a suitable research supervisor. ISS students begin the process of looking for a research faculty supervisor for the Major Research Paper (MRP) in the term when they are enrolled in the Research Methods course (IS 8904).
The Program Director's signature on the Plan of Study form is not required because they will be passed on collectively to the director for his/her signature. The forms submitted by full-time students must be signed by the student and the assigned faculty advisor. Part-time students have the option of making an appointment with the program director to complete the Program of Study form or submitting it without the program director's signature.
The preferred method of submitting the report is by email as a file attachment in pdf format to iss@torontomu.ca. Other methods of document submission to the program are available in the last section of this online Handbook below.
All graduate students, both full- and part-time, must meet with the faculty advisor or, where appropriate, the MRP faculty supervisor to complete the updated Plan of Study once a year following the end of the Winter term.
Full-time students can ask their MRP supervisor to sign their Winter Plan of Study at the same time they complete and sign the MRP proposal form and student-supervisor MRP checklist. Full-time students may submit the plan of study to the program without the program director's signature, but it must be signed by the student and the MRP supervisor.
Part-time students in their first year of study can ask the Program Director to complete the plan of study in the first year and their MRP supervisor in the second year of study.
Students who have an outstanding plan of study may have limited access to MyServiceHub.
The preferred method of submitting the report is by email as a file attachment in pdf format to iss@torontomu.ca. Other methods of document submission are available in the last section of this online Handbook below.
In MyServiceHub, students are able to view the personal class schedules of the courses they are enrolled in, access the final grades, download an unofficial academic transcript, apply to graduate, update personal information, etc.
Where is MyServiceHub? After you have successfully logged into my.torontomu.ca, click the "MyServiceHub" tab.
[Note: New students have limited MyServiceHub functions before matriculation].
What is MyServiceHub? Review the information provided on the MySeviceHub Support website for detailed information about what MyServiceHub can do for you.
Graduate students should note that they cannot select courses, register for courses or change course registration online in MyServiceHub. Refer to the program's Course Selection/Registration Instructions for information about course selection, registration and changing course registration.
Information in this section is for full-time students who are fellowship, scholarship and/or award recipients.
The Fees Payment Deadline for each term stated in the Graduate Studies Important Dates DOES NOT apply to full-time students who are recipients of the fellowship, scholarship or award in the list immediately below:
- Toronto Metropolitan Graduate Fellowship (RGF)
- Toronto Metropolitan Graduate Development Award (RGDA)
- Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS)
- Ontario Graduate Fellowship (OGF)
- QEII-GSST
As stated in the scholarship/award terms and conditions form, the annual scholarship and award fund is divided into three equal installments, and each installment will be deposited to the student's fees account in the first month of each term to offset any outstanding balances. If there is a credit balance remaining, the student must request a refund cheque, otherwise, the student must pay the outstanding balance before the end of the first month of a term to avoid any late fees.
Full-time students who are scholarship/award recipients may visit the financial account in MyserviceHub on the dates suggested in each term below to verify when an installment has been transferred and, where applicable when the refund cheque has been mailed.
- Fall term scholarship/award installment: verify your financial account in MyserviceHub during the first week of classes. Pay any outstanding fees before the end of September.
- Winter term scholarship/award installment: verify your financial account in MyserviceHub during the first week of classes. Pay any outstanding fees before the end of January.
- Spring/Summer term scholarship/award installment: verify your financial account in MyserviceHub during the first week of classes. Pay any outstanding fees before the end of May.
The information indicated above does not apply to Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) scholarship recipients. Due to the federal scholarship granting council instructions, NSERC and SSHRC funding disbursement methods are different from other scholarship disbursement methods described above; the university will not apply the scholarship funding to the student’s fees or any outstanding balance in the student’s financial (fees) account. SSHRC and NSERC scholarship recipients should refer to the form “Terms & Conditions – Federal & Provincial Awards” for details about scholarship fund disbursement (or payments) to students.
Toronto Metropolitan University students who will travel outside of Canada (including the United States) for academic purposes such as research, course work, conference attendance must complete the pre-departure assessment process successfully before they may participate in any academic activities that take place overseas. Visit International office website for detailed information.
Document Submission to the Program: The preferred method is by email as a file attachment in pdf format to iss@torontomu.ca. Students will have a record of the date of submission and an electronic copy of the document kept in the email account
To submit any document in person, you may visit the Graduate Studies office at the address below and ask for or leave any documents to the attention of the Program Administrator. Read information about the hours of building access below (Location and Hours). Keep a copy of the document before submission for future reference.
DO NOT use the YSGPS drop-box to submit any course work/assignment to any faculty member.
The office of the program administrator (PA) is located in the administrative offices of the Yeates School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (YSGPS), room 1109B, at One Dundas West, 11th Floor. The building code is ‘Yonge-Dunas 1- YDI’ in the university online Campus Map.
YSGPS normal business hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. In-person service operating hours are Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. The elevator of the YDI building is not accessible on weekdays after 6:00 p.m. as well as the entire days of Saturday and Sunday.
Students who wish to see the program administrator (PA) in person are encouraged to make an appointment in advance. The PA may be contacted by email: iss@torontomu.ca or by phone 416-979-5000, ext 554836. The PA does not check voice mails or emails on non-working days.
Offices of the program director and faculty members are located in different parts of the university campus and not in YSGPS. To look up professors' office locations and contact information, use the university's online directory.