To be considered for admission, applicants should hold or obtain a baccalaureate degree in an honours program or equivalent from a recognized university or college and have an average academic standing of at least second-class honours (73% or 'B') during the last four semesters or two years of study.

Students in the MSc degree program are required to take courses, prepare and defend an acceptable research proposal, and prepare and defend an acceptable thesis.

Courses (minimum of 1.5 credits) which are acceptable to the department and the Dean of Graduate Studies as graduate credits, are required. Courses included in the Graduate Calendar have graduate credit. IBIO*6630 Scientific Communication I and IBIO*6640 Scientific Communication II are mandatory for MSc students in the Department of Integrative Biology. Undergraduate courses may be taken on the advisory committee's recommendation as additional courses.

Students must prepare a written research proposal on their research topic which is acceptable to their advisory committee. The oral presentation of the proposal is public. The research proposal may be taken as a course. MSc students in the Department of Integrative Biology must take IBIO*6630 and IBIO*6640 as mentioned above. MSc students in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology may take MBG*6080 Research Topics Course.

An acceptable thesis has to be prepared for the final MSc oral examination, at which time the thesis is defended. The usual duration of the MSc program is six semesters.