Cape Breton University is a smaller institution than most of the Canadian universities with published thesis guides, and its graduate offering reflects that. Everything at graduate level is at master's level. There is no doctoral programme, and no central graduate school thesis manual of the kind larger universities publish. What exists instead is programme-level documentation, and the Master of Education handbook is by far the most detailed of it.
That has a practical consequence. If you are writing a thesis at CBU, most of the rules that bind you come from your school or programme, not from a single university-wide page. Read on, but read your programme's own document alongside this.
What CBU actually offers
The Office of Research and Graduate Studies lists CBU's master's programmes, which include the MBA in Community Economic Development, the Master of Artificial Intelligence and Business Analytics, the Master of Digital Marketing, the Master of Healthcare Leadership and Innovation, and the Master of Education streams. Most take students in the Fall, while the MBA in CED also has Winter and Spring/Summer intakes.
No doctoral programme is published at CBU. If a service or a site tells you otherwise, it is wrong. Nothing here should be read as advice about a PhD at this institution.
Thesis, project or coursework
Not every CBU master's student writes a thesis, and in some programmes it is not an option at all.
The MBA in Community Economic Development is a two-year, 48-credit degree whose culminating requirement is an Applied Research Project, completed under a research advisor and grounded in direct work with a community, company, government agency or non-profit. CBU describes the mandatory research project as a distinguishing feature of the degree. There is no separate thesis route published for it.
In the Master of Education programmes, the thesis is a deliberate choice you make against a project route and a course route. The MEd Thesis Handbook sets the two side by side:
| Thesis | Applied Research Project | |
|---|---|---|
| Length | Approximately 80 pages | Approximately 35 to 40 pages |
| Supervision | Supervisory team | Set course schedule and instructor |
| Centred on | A research question | A practical, real-world project |
| Ends with | Oral defence | Course completion |
| Doctoral applications | Considered an asset | Equal in academic quality, more limited in scope |
Both are expected to be independent pieces of scholarship.
Eligibility for the MEd thesis route
This is the requirement most likely to catch you out, because it is a threshold rather than a preference. You need a minimum 3.7 cumulative GPA, equivalent to an 80 to 84 per cent average in the programme, and you must be in good academic and financial standing. You also need the prerequisite courses, which are set out in your programme progression document, so check them before you plan around the thesis.
The thesis route is available in the MEd in Holistic School Health and Well-Being, the MEd in Critical Curriculum Studies, and the MEd in Sustainability, Creativity and Innovation, each with its own thesis course registration.
Two clocks run. You must complete your entire degree within seven years, in line with the stale date policy, and once you register for the thesis you have 12 months to complete and submit it. Start and end dates go on the tutorial form before you are registered. Miss the 12 months and you may face a continued enrolment fee, so speak to your supervisor before that point rather than after it.
If the thesis stops working for you, switching to the project or course route is possible, but depending on how far along you are it can mean an incomplete, a 0 or an F in the thesis course, fees are not refunded, and the other routes require additional coursework.
Supervision
Your primary supervisor must be a full-time CBU Education faculty member with expertise in your subject field and research approach. In exceptional circumstances, and with the support of the Chair, you can seek an exception from the Dean. Supervisors and committee members are approved by the Dean of the School of Education and Health.
You submit a Supervisor Request Form naming up to three preferred supervisors, with a short account of your research interest and how each aligns with it, to the Manager, Graduate Programs in Education. The Manager contacts them about availability. Requests cannot be guaranteed.
Beyond your supervisor, two additional committee members contribute expertise. They are not your main point of contact; your supervisor liaises with them and asks them to read your work as it progresses.
If your supervisor cannot help with a problem, the handbook names the Manager, Graduate Programs in Education as the person to contact. Use that route early rather than letting a supervision problem sit.
Format and citation style
The MEd handbook is explicit that the thesis format "will align with your ontological and theoretical grounding" and suits your content area and inquiry aims, discussed with your committee. It names APA as the citation style, pointing to the current Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association as the official source.
CBU does not publish a university-wide graduate thesis formatting standard. The MEd handbook sets no margin, font size or line spacing. Do not assume figures from another university apply here. Ask your supervisor and the Manager, Graduate Programs in Education for the current expectation before you format anything.
The one CBU document that does give figures is the Regulations for Honours Theses, approved for undergraduate honours work. It is not binding on a master's thesis, but it is the closest thing to a published house style, and it tells you what CBU readers are used to seeing:
| Element | Honours regulation |
|---|---|
| Margins | 1 inch / 2.54 cm all around |
| Font | Standard font, no smaller than 11 point throughout, consistent in size and style |
| Line spacing | Double, except where the discipline allows single-spaced quotations, footnotes and bibliography entries |
| Citation style | Set by discipline, as long as it is used correctly and consistently |
| Page numbering | All pages numbered, including illustrations |
| Sections | Each preliminary page and each chapter starts on a new page |
The MEd handbook does include a sample thesis title page as an appendix, showing the title, your name, the degree statement, Cape Breton University, Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, and your supervisor's name and signature line. Use it rather than inventing one.
Ethics review
Before you conduct research at CBU you must complete the TCPS 2 CORE certificate and submit it to the Manager, Graduate Programs in Education, and append it to your proposal. That is on top of the certificate requirement for the ethics application itself.
Research involving human participants needs approval from the Research Ethics Board before it begins. Minimal risk research generally gets expedited review; more than minimal risk goes to full board review.
The REB accepts protocols monthly, on published dates through the year. Your application package includes the CBU REB application form, informed consent forms, questionnaires, interview guides and recruitment materials, a TCPS 2 tutorial certificate for every member of the research team, and a signed supervisor signature form. Students must have the application reviewed and approved by their supervisor before it goes in. Ongoing protocols need an annual progress report or renewal.
Two additional approvals catch people out:
- Research in schools may need approval from the regional centre for education, which will typically ask for a copy of your approved university ethics application.
- Research involving Indigenous peoples may need to go to Mi'kmaw Ethics Watch, established by the Mi'kmaw Grand Council in 1999 and now operating under the Union of Nova Scotia Mi'kmaq, with CBU as its administrative base. It reviews research touching collective Indigenous knowledge, culture, spirituality or traditions, or anything that could affect treaty or Indigenous rights.
Each of those is a separate queue with its own timing. Build them into your plan before you commit to a data collection window.
External examination
When you and your supervisor agree the thesis is ready, your supervisor sends it to your committee members. Only after their required revisions are complete, and your supervisor has signed the front matter as ready for submission, does it go for external examination, coordinated by the Manager, Graduate Programs in Education.
You may suggest an external examiner who holds a doctorate in a relevant area, and so may your supervisor or committee, but the examiner must be arms length: no personal or professional relationship with you is permissible. They have approximately three weeks to review.
| Outcome | What follows |
|---|---|
| Pass with no revisions | Oral defence can be scheduled |
| Pass with minor revisions | One month from the examination date to complete them; supervisor withholds signature until satisfied |
| Major revisions required | Completed and resubmitted to the examination committee within six months; defence cannot be scheduled until the committee is satisfied |
| Fail | One resubmission permitted, no sooner than six months and no later than 12 months from the first exam date |
The oral defence
Defences take place online, typically via Microsoft Teams. The presentation is public, and audiences usually include other students, faculty, staff, family and friends.
Present at the defence are your supervisory committee, the external examiner, and a neutral chair who is a CBU faculty or research staff member. The chair sits in on the deliberations but does not inform the decision and does not vote.
The public portion closes before questions begin. There are two rounds of questions, and the external examiner, each committee member and your supervisor get 10 minutes per round. Then the committee and external examiner deliberate privately and decide by majority vote: pass, fail, or failure to reach a decision. Your supervisor tells you the result immediately after deliberations.
A fail, or a failure to reach a decision, means retaking the oral component within six months. A revised thesis must be submitted at least four weeks before the new defence. A second failure means being required to withdraw, and you have the right to appeal under CBU's appeal procedures.
A successful defence plus any required revisions gives you a grade of "Pass" for the thesis course.
Copyright, permissions and deposit
You retain copyright in your thesis. You are also responsible for making sure it does not breach privacy, intellectual property or copyright rules, and that permissions for all third-party material, including images, lyrics, illustrations and substantial extracts of text, are obtained before the thesis goes to your supervisors. Chasing a permission after the defence is a miserable way to spend a month.
Completed master's theses must be deposited in CBU Scholar, the university's open access repository. You self-deposit: log in with your CBU email, use the "+" button to create a new item, select the Graduate Research thesis and dissertation collection, complete the metadata, upload and click Deposit. The library reviews the submission for errors and completeness before it is published, and extracts student theses for submission to Library and Archives Canada.
CBU does not publish an embargo or delayed-release policy for graduate theses that we could find. If you have a reason to restrict access, for example pending publication or a community agreement about sensitive material, raise it with your supervisor and the library before you deposit rather than afterwards.
Pre-submission checklist
- Thesis route eligibility confirmed: 3.7 cGPA, prerequisites, good academic and financial standing
- Supervisor Request Form submitted; supervisor and two committee members approved by the Dean
- Start and end dates recorded, and the 12-month thesis window plus the 7-year degree limit understood
- TCPS 2 CORE certificate completed and sent to the Manager, Graduate Programs in Education
- REB application submitted by a monthly deadline, with supervisor signature form and every team member's certificate
- Regional centre for education and Mi'kmaw Ethics Watch approvals obtained where they apply
- APA citation and references consistent throughout
- Title page follows the handbook's sample
- Third-party permissions obtained for all images, extracts and other copyrighted material
- Committee revisions complete and supervisor's signature on the front matter obtained
- External examiner proposed at arms length, with a doctorate in a relevant area
- Post-defence revisions done, then thesis self-deposited to CBU Scholar
Where to get help
Your supervisor is the first stop for scope, method and formatting, since CBU sets very little of that centrally. The Manager, Graduate Programs in Education coordinates supervisor assignment, the external examination and the defence date for MEd students, and is the named escalation route if supervision is not working. The liaison librarian helps with search terms, past theses on CBU Scholar and the deposit itself. The Research Ethics Board answers protocol questions, and Mi'kmaw Ethics Watch handles its own applications directly rather than through the university board.
If the difficulty is getting the writing moving rather than navigating the process, our thesis writing support works chapter by chapter, at whatever stage you are actually at.
