Program and Admission Requirements

Admission Requirements

Applicants to the Canadian Studies Certificate Program Students will be required to meet the minimum academic standards for admission to UB, except under extraordinary circumstances. Students seeking only the Certificate, and not intending to enroll in formal degree programs at UB, will not be required to supply GRE scores for admission.

Students wishing to pursue the Certificate simultaneously as they work on other graduate degrees at UB will be subject (only) to the admission requirements of their chosen degree program. No additional specific requirements will be required for admission to the Certificate program.

Apply to the Advanced Graduate Certificate Program in Canadian Studies

Program Requirments

The graduate certificate requires the completion of  15 credit hours of approved coursework and /or internship credit.  Two courses – a 3-credit offering – CDN 500 “An Overview of Canadian Studies” – and CDN 505 –Canadian-American and Cross-Border Relations” would be required of all students. Additional coursework will be approved by the program director in advance on the basis of an individual application that identifies courses with significant Canadian content in departments in the College (e.g., in Romance Languages and Literatures, History, Geography, Sociology, English, Comparative Literature, Political Science, etc.) or in other schools (e.g. Law School, Architecture and Planning, etc.).  In courses offered for fulfillment of the Canadian Studies certificate, it will be expected that any required research project would include a significant Canadian component. A maximum of 3 credits of approved Canada-related internship experience could be counted towards completion of the certificate. 

Other courses listed under Canadian Studies will serve as electives, enabling students to develop their own chosen aspect of expertise in the context of Canada or the Canadian-American relationship. Beyond these offerings within Canadian Studies, additional coursework will be available from a list of graduate and professional courses that either have substantial Canadian content or in which the instructors have agreed in advance to allow certificate students to prepare all research papers or projects using Canadian materials (see Appendix Two). While the list of courses is still being compiled, we have about forty-five courses available under this arrangement, offered by more than two dozen different full-time faculty members.  While most of these courses are offered within the College of Arts and Sciences, some courses have been drawn from offerings in UB’s Law School and its Graduate School of Education.  At least one elective course (in addition to the two required courses) will be taken by all students in the program.

Graduate Certificate in Canadian Studies

Required total – 15 credit hours of approved graduate study

There are many ways in which the required 15 credit hours can be fulfilled. Below is a summary of the alternative sources of approved credit for the Certificate. A minimum of six hours of coursework in Canadian Studies will be required of all students. The remaining 9 credit hours can be fulfilled in a variety of ways.

Required courses (6 credits):

• CDN 500 – An Overview of Canadian Studies (3 credit hours)
• CDN 505 – Canadian-American Relations and Cross-Border Issues (3 credit hours)

Electives (9 credits):

• At least one 3 credit hour course drawn from the list of affiliated graduate courses;
• Other graduate courses with appropriate agreement of the instructor and approval of the Program Director;
• Up to a maximum of 6 credit hours of approved internship experience or a combination of a 3 credit hour internship and an approved 3 credit hour independent study