Degree of Master of Science

RESOLUTION

The Degree of Master of Science is governed by Resolution No. 558 of the University Court which came into effect on 1 October 2006, as subsequently amended, with provision that:

1.    The Degree of Master of Science (MSc) may be awarded by the University of Glasgow in each of its Colleges; the Degrees of Master of Science (Adult & Continuing Education), Master of Science (Adult & Continuing Education (Teaching Adults)), Master of Science (Adult & Continuing Education (Community Development)) and Master of Science (Inter-professional Science Education and Communication) in the College of Social Sciences, the Degree of Master of Science (Medical Science) and the Degree of Master of Science (Veterinary Science) in the College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences.

2.    The Degree of Master of Science may also be awarded on the recommendation of SRUC (Scotland’s Rural College).

3.    The Degree of Master of Science or the Degree of Master of Science (Inter-professional Science Education and Communication), or the Degree of Master of Science (Medical Science) or the Degree of Master of Science (Veterinary Science) may be conferred (a) as an Honorary degree upon persons who have done work deserving of such recognition in any School in the Colleges of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences and Science & Engineering, (b) iure officii upon any person holding office in the University who is not already a graduate of the University.

4.    The Senate may make regulations, which are subject to the approval of the University Court, governing the award of these Degrees – these are set out in the section entitled ‘Regulations’.

REGULATIONS

1.     Candidates for the Degree may undertake, subject to the decision of the College concerned, research in accordance with the requirements of Schedule A.[1]

Such research shall be prosecuted in the Uni­versity of Glasgow or in another institution recognised for the purpose by the University Court on the recommendation of the Senate, except as provided under Clause 4.

2.     Before being admitted to study qualifying for the Degree of Master of Science, every candidate must satisfy the following conditions, namely:

a)   i)    he or she must have obtained a Degree in a University or College recog­nised for this purpose by the University Court on the recommen­dation of the Senate, or a Degree awarded by the Council for National Academic Awards; or

ii)   he or she must have obtained a diploma or certificate recognised as equivalent to a Degree for this purpose by the University Court on the recommendation of the Senate; or

iii)  in the case of the intercalated Master of Science (Veterinary Science), he or she must be registered on and have successfully completed three years of the Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery; or

iv)  in exceptional circumstances, he or she must have obtained such other qualification(s) as may be recognised for this purpose by the University Court on the recommendation of the Senate; and

b)   he or she must have fulfilled such other entrance requirements as may be specified for a particular programme of research; and

c)   he or she must have satisfied the Senateof his or her fitness to undertake advanced study.

3.     a)   Candidates may be permitted to pursue research on either a full-time or a part-time basis. Full-time candidates must devote the major part of the day to their studies; provided that candidates shall be subject to the same provisions regarding minimum periods of study as full-time candidates if they have pursued their studies while holding appointment as a member of the teaching staff of the Uni­versity of Glasgow, or as a Research Assistant or Research Fellow of the University of Glasgow paid through the Finance Office or directly by a grant-awarding body approved by the University Court.

b)   The minimum period of study for each candidate shall be determined by the appropriate College at the time of his or her admission, according to his or her qualifications and other relevant factors, and shall normally be:

i)    for full-time candidates, either 12 months or two academic years of full-time study;

ii)   for part-time candidates, either two or three academic years of part-time study.

c)   To qualify for the shorter minimum periods of study specified in (b), candidates should normally possess a Degree with Honours of the First or Second Class of an approved University, or a qualification deemed equivalent by the College concerned.

d)   Where the longer minimum period of study has been initially pre­scribed but the candidate has made sufficient progress, the Senatemay subsequently reduce the total period of study to not less than 12 months of full-time study or two academic years of part-time study as appropriate.

4.     The Senatemay for special reasons permit a candidate, whether full-time or part-time, to prosecute part of his or her studies elsewhere, provided that normally at least half of the candidate’s total period of study is prosecuted in the University of Glasgow or in a recognised Institution.

5.     The College concerned shall designate for each candidate a supervisor who shall report at least once a year to the College Graduate School on the progress of the candidate.

Schedule A: Master of Science by Research

1.     Research Students within the meaning of Ordinance 350 (General No 12) may be candidates for the Degree of Master of Science, or Master of Science (Medical Science) or Master of Science (Veterinary Science) in any appropriate area of study in the College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences and Science & Engineering and Social Sciences.

2.     On completion of the prescribed period of research, each candidate shall present a thesis embodying the results of his work. The thesis must be in English. The thesis may be either a record of original research, or a critical review of existing knowledge. In either case, either a written or an oral examination, or both, may be required, and candidates shall be notified of such requirements through their supervisors.

3.     In no case shall the thesis required from a candidate be submitted before the completion of 12 months from the date of his admission as a research student. Except by special permission of the Senate, a thesis may not be presented after the lapse of 12 months from the date on which the candidate ceases to be a registered student.

4.     Application for examination for the Degree of MSc, or the Degree of MSc (Medical Science) or the Degree of MSc (Veterinary Science), must be submitted in accordance with the procedures of the appropriate College, details of which may be obtained from the College Graduate School on request.

5.     A Committee of Examiners shall be appointed to examine the thesis of each candidate. The Committee shall consist of one or more members appointed by the Senate, together with one or more external examiners appointed by the University Court on the recommendation of the Senate. The Examiners shall conduct such oral and written examinations as they may desire or as the Senate may prescribe in each case, but in no case shall the examination of the thesis constitute less than half of the final assessment.

6.     A candidate must submit two bound printed or typewritten copies of his or her thesis. The thesis must include a summary (250-1,000 words), which must be accompanied by a declaration by the candidate that it has been composed by himself or herself. The candidate must also state the extent to which he or she has availed himself or herself of the work of others, and must further state which portions of the thesis, if any, he or she claims as original. The submitted copies of the thesis may be soft-bound but otherwise should generally conform to the British Standards Insti­tution’s Recommendations for the Presentation of Theses and Dissertations (BS4821:1990) which is available for consultation in the University Library or from the College Graduate School.

7.     If the Examiners consider that the thesis, portfolio, or project work has not achieved the standard required for the award of the Degree, the candidate may be permitted to revise the thesis, portfolio or project and resubmit it, on one occasion only, under such conditions as the Examiners may prescribe in each particular case. Normally, resubmission should be no later than 6 months after the date of the meeting of the Board of Examiners.

8.     If approved for the degree, one bound copy of the thesis and one electronic copy shall be deposited with the University Library.  The bound copy should normally be produced to the standard defined in BS4821:1990, and the electronic copy must conform to University Library specifications published at http://theses.gla.ac.uk/format.html. It is the University's normal practice to make the bound copy available for consultation in the Library, and to permit computer download of the electronic copy through its repository service, Enlighten.  Such access may, however, be restricted under provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 or the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

Schedule D: General Provisions

1.     a)   The following institutions are recognised for the purpose of Section 2 of the Resolution:

College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences

Central Public Health Laboratory, Colindale, London, UK

Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, UK

Centre for Integrated Research & Understanding of Sleep, University of Sydney, Australia

Children's Hospital, Tabriz, Iran

Department of Clinical Physics and Bioengineering of the West of Scotland Health Boards, UK

Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Lagos State University, Nigeria

European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany

Fisheries Research Services, Freshwater Laboratory, Pitlochry, UK

Fisheries Research Services, Marine Laboratory, Aberdeen, UK

Glasgow and West of Scotland Blood Transfusion Service, UK

Glaxo SmithKline, Stevenage, UK

Institute for Animal Health, Compton Laboratory, Newbury, Berkshire, UK

Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, UK

Moredun Research Institute, Pentlands Science Park, Penicuik, UK

National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, UK

Natural History Museum, London, UK

Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, UK

Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, UK

Scottish Association for Marine Science, Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory, UK

Scottish Crops Research Institute, Invergowrie, UK

Specialist Virology Laboratory, Gartnavel General Hospital, Glasgow, UK

SRUC (Scotland’s Rural College), UK

Swarts Center Institute for Neyral Computation University of California San Diego La Jolla USA

The Fredric Rieders Foundation 2300 Stratford Avenue, Willow Grove PA 19090, USA

The Pirbright Institute, Ash Road, Pirbright, Woking, Surrey, UK

Universities Marine Biological Station, Millport, UK

Virginia Commonwealth University, USA

College of Science & Engineering

Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

Center for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain

Charles University Prague, Czech Republic

College de France, Paris, France

Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA

Columbia University, New York, New York, USA

Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

Department of Mathematics, Macquarie University, Australia

Department of Physics/MAX-lab, University of Lund, Sweden

Deutsches Electronen Synchrotron Laboratory (DESY) Hamburg, Germany

Diamond Light Source, UK

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, France

European Nuclear Research Centre (CERN), Geneva

European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble, France

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Chicago, IL, USA

GSI (Society for Heavy Ion Research) Darmstadt, Germany

Henrich-Heine University, Dusseldorf, Germany

Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, Japan

Institute Laue-Langevin, Grenoble, France

Institute of Nuclear Physics, University of Mainz, Germany