Obtaining signatures from committee members on the Approval page

Instructions for students

Under deposit step #3, upon completion of the final oral defense the student must obtain a signature from each member of the approved Master's/Doctoral committee, and submit via email the fully signed Approval page to graduate studies, as outlined under Step 3 of 3 of the deposit instructions. The following guidelines are provided to assist students in obtaining signatures electronically.

The student creates the Approval page as MS Word document following the Approval page Template (MS Word). As an alternative to printing the Approval page and obtaining handwritten signatures by each committee member, the Approval page may be circulated via email to each committee member in turn, and the committee member can either input an electronic signature (see suggested options below), or manually sign and return the scanned signed form to the student. The process is repeated until all signatures are received. Alternatively, the student can post the Approval page on OneDrive and share it with the Committee members (see how to share OneDrive files) so each member can input their electronic signature into the shared Approval page when they are satisfied that all requested changes/edits have been completed by the student.

A signature on the Approval page indicates a committee member's approval of the final document. Signatures on the Approval page must be obtained after the defense from each member of the student's Master's/ Doctoral Committee, including from a committee member who attended the defense virtually or was absent at the defense. If a committee member was absent at the defense and is unable to sign the approval page, an email in lieu of signature would be acceptable, as outlined below:

Suggested options for obtaining a committee member's approval and signature

Committee members may sign the approval page electronically using any preferred method of their choice, or using one of the following suggested options:

  • the committee member can take a photograph of their hand-written signature (e.g. using a cell phone / digital camera) to create a picture file, then upload the image to their computer (e.g. as a .jpg file), and insert it into the Approval page (from the "Insert" menu in MS Word select "Picture").
  • the committee member can create and insert a scanned handwritten signature
  • the committee member can add a digital signature. Note: A digital signature can be added to Word documents only if using the full desktop Word version. The web Word version has no command for inserting a digital signature so signatures can be added as an image only - review instructions for inserting a scanned handwritten signature in a Word document using Word for the web.
  • if a committee member was absent at the defense and/or is unable to insert a digital or scanned handwritten signature, an email from that committee member confirming their approval will be acceptable. The email must state e.g. "This email is in lieu of my signature on the Approval form for ...(student name) to confirm that I have approved the final thesis/major paper/dissertation and it can be deposited with the Graduate Studies office". The student will forward a copy of the email along with the Approval page when they complete the final deposit.