Graduate Appeals on Admission or Readmission Decisions

Note that many fully-qualified applicants cannot be offered admission for various reasons such as unavailability of supervision, lack of funding, limited capacity, rigorous competition, etc.

Applicants who believe they have been unjustly denied admission or readmission to a program due to an error in process, or who believe that they deserve special consideration due to mitigating circumstances, should discuss the matter with the graduate program to which they applied immediately upon receipt of their final admission or readmission decision.

If a satisfactory resolution cannot be achieved, the applicant may submit a written appeal to the College of Graduate Studies for review by the Dean of the College or designate. This written appeal must be received by the College of Graduate Studies within 14 calendar days of the date of issue on the notification of an admission or readmission decision.

Appeals on admission or readmission decisions will be considered on applications for the current year only.

If the appeal is denied by the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies, the applicant may submit a written appeal to the Senate Admission and Awards Committee for review, and the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies will send a written explanation of his/her reason for denying the appeal.

The decision of the Committee will be communicated in writing to the appellant and the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies. The Committee’s decision is final.

Appeals on Revoked Admission Offers

Graduate offers of admission may contain conditions that applicants are required to fulfill before they are able to register for their programs. Offers may be revoked if these conditions are not met by the applicant.

Applicants who have provided untrue, incomplete, fraudulent or plagiarized information within their application may at the sole discretion of UBC have their admission offer revoked.

Applicants who believe that their offer of admission has been unjustly revoked by the College of Graduate Studies due to an error in the process or who believe that they deserve special consideration due to mitigating circumstances may submit a written appeal to the College of Graduate Studies for review by the Dean of the College or designate. This written appeal must be received by the College of Graduate Studies within 14 calendar days of the date of the revocation decision email notifying that the offer of admission has been revoked.

If the appeal is denied by the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies, the applicant may submit a written appeal to the Senate Admissions and Awards Committee.

Appeals to the Senate Admissions and Awards Committee on admission decisions will be considered on applications for the current year only.

The appeal will be sent to the Senate Admissions and Awards Committee for review, and the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies will send a written explanation of his/her reasons for denying the appeal.

The Committee may allow an appeal where it decides that the College of Graduate Studies may have overlooked or misinterpreted information provided by the applicant, arrived at a decision without reasonable consideration of mitigating circumstances, or acted contrary to the College's published procedures.

The decision of the Committee will be communicated in writing to the appellant and to the Dean of the College of Graduate Studies. The Committee's decision is final.


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