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Master of Science in Botany (MSc)

The Master of Science in Botany (MSc) program at the University of British Columbia is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the structure, evolution, properties, and biochemical processes of all forms of plant life. The program is well-suited to meet the challenges posed by biodiversity loss and impacts of climate change.

Overview

The Botany Department is one of the largest and strongest plant-focused departments in North America, with roots extending back to the founding of UBC in 1915. The departmental community consists of 40 full-time faculty members, several part-time faculty or associates, about 100 graduate students, numerous post-doctoral fellows and research associates, laboratory technicians, and a support staff of secretarial, equipment, herbarium, stores, workshop, and greenhouse personnel.

What makes the program unique?

The Botany Department offers unparalleled opportunities for research and teaching/learning with faculty members at the leading edge of their disciplines. Specializations within Botany range from molecular genetics to climate change impacts on marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Collaborations between Botany faculty and other departments, including Zoology, Chemistry, Forestry, Earth Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, and the Michael Smith Laboratories, bring a rich array of potential topic areas for research to Botany graduate students. State-of-the-art facilities for bio-imaging, as well as a world-class herbarium and access to living collections in the Canadian Centre for the Culture of Microorganisms, add to the overall uniqueness of the Botany program.

Quick Facts

• Faculty: Faculty of Science
• Academic Unit: Department of Botany
• Specialization: Botany
• Mode of delivery: In person at UBC Vancouver
• Program Components: Coursework + Options
• Tuition (First Year):
  • Domestic: $5,626.02
  • International: $9,883.98

Admission Information & Requirements

Check Eligibility

• Minimum Academic Requirements: The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies establishes the minimum admission requirements common to all applicants, usually a minimum overall average in the B+ range (76% at UBC).
• English Language Test: Applicants from a university outside Canada in which English is not the primary language of instruction must provide results of an English language proficiency examination as part of their application.
  • TOEFL:
    • Overall score requirement: 92
    • Reading: 22
    • Writing: 22
    • Speaking: 22
    • Listening: 22
  • IELTS:
    • Overall score requirement: 6.5
    • Reading: 6.0
    • Writing: 6.0
    • Speaking: 6.0
    • Listening: 6.0

Prior degree, course and other requirements

• The GRE is not required.

Deadlines

• Program Name: Master of Science in Botany (MSc)
• Intake:
  • September 2026:
    • Canadian Applicant Deadline: 1 February 2026
    • International Applicant Deadline: 1 February 2026
  • January 2027:
    • Canadian Applicant Deadline: 1 July 2026
    • International Applicant Deadline: 1 July 2026

Prepare Application

• Transcripts: All applicants have to submit transcripts from all past post-secondary study.
• Letters of reference: Applicants have to submit 2 references to apply to this graduate program.
• Statement of Interest: Many programs require a statement of interest, sometimes called a "statement of intent", "description of research interests" or something similar.
• Supervision: Students in research-based programs usually require a faculty member to function as their thesis supervisor.

Tuition & Financial Support

Tuition

• Fees:
  • Application Fee:
    • Canadian Citizen / Permanent Resident / Refugee / Diplomat: $118.50
    • International: $168.25
  • Tuition:
    • Canadian Citizen / Permanent Resident / Refugee / Diplomat: $5,626.02 per year
    • International: $9,883.98 per year
• Other Fees and Costs:
  • Student Fees (yearly): $1,144.10 (approx.)
  • Costs of living: Estimate your costs of living with our interactive tool in order to start developing a financial plan for your graduate studies.

Financial Support

• Program Funding Packages: All students admitted to the Botany Graduate Program are guaranteed a minimum level of financial support.
• Scholarships & awards: All applicants are encouraged to review the awards listing to identify potential opportunities to fund their graduate education.
• Graduate Research Assistantships (GRA): Many professors are able to provide Research Assistantships (GRA) from their research grants to support full-time graduate students studying under their supervision.
• Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTA): Graduate programs may have Teaching Assistantships available for registered full-time graduate students.
• Graduate Academic Assistantships (GAA): Academic Assistantships are employment opportunities to perform work that is relevant to the university or to an individual faculty member, but not to support the student’s graduate research and thesis.

Career Options

Botany is the branch of biology that involves the study of the structure, evolution, properties, and biochemical processes of all forms of plant life. A degree in Botany is well-suited to meet the challenges posed by biodiversity loss and impacts of climate change. Positions for people with botany backgrounds are usually in educational institutions, government and environmental organizations, and in the biotechnology industry including companies seeking new drugs and medicines, and useful genes for improvement of crop plants.

Enrolment, Duration & Other Stats

• ENROLMENT DATA:
  • Applications:
    • 2023: 41
    • 2022: 25
    • 2021: 44
    • 2020: 32
    • 2019: 26
  • Offers:
    • 2023: 16
    • 2022: 7
    • 2021: 16
    • 2020: 11
    • 2019: 9
  • New Enrolment:
    • 2023: 11
    • 2022: 5
    • 2021: 11
    • 2020: 10
    • 2019: 8
  • Total Enrolment:
    • 2023: 25
    • 2022: 23
    • 2021: 31
    • 2020: 30
    • 2019: 24
• Completion Rates & Times:
  • Graduation rate: 96% based on 24 students admitted between 2015 - 2018.
  • Minimum time to completion: 1.7 years
  • Maximum time to completion: 5.12 years
  • Average time to completion: 2.95 years

Research Supervisors

• Instructions regarding thesis supervisor contact for this program: Applicants should browse faculty profiles and indicate in their application who they are interested in working with. No commitment from a supervisor prior to applying is necessary, but contacting faculty members is encouraged.
• List of faculty members with full supervisory privileges:
  • Adams, Keith
  • Angert, Amy
  • Ashraf, Mohammad Arif
  • Bohlmann, Joerg
  • Cronk, Quentin Charles
  • Davies, Jonathan
  • Fast, Naomi
  • Fischer, Monika
  • Gaynor, Kaitlyn
  • Graham, Sean
  • Jetter, Reinhard
  • Keeling, Patrick John
  • Leander, Brian
  • Li, Xin
  • Mansfield, Shawn
  • Martone, Patrick
  • Michaletz, Sean
  • Moore, Alex
  • Moutouama, Jacob Koundouonon
  • Parfrey, Laura
  • Rieseberg, Loren
  • Rosado Rey, Abel
  • Salesse-Smith, Coralie
  • Samuels, Anne Lacey
  • Song, Liang

Sample Thesis Submissions

• Quantifying the insect and microbial diversity supported by native and introduced trees on a large urban university campus
• Genetic dissection of sclerotial formation in Sclerotinia sclerotiorum
• Shifts in plant functional phenotypes reflect resource-use strategies across an experimental nitrogen gradient
• Regulatory mechanism of AtSDR4L/DIG1 transcriptional co-repressors
• Generating a null background for the expression of microtubule organization 1 (MOR1) translational reporter constructs by CRISPR/Cas9 and recombineering technologies
• Simulated invasion suggests rapid evolution of biotic resistance to a range-shifting competitor
• Genome reassembly and meiotic recombination in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii
• Characterization of a novel family of repressors affecting many processes during Arabidopsis thaliana seed development
• Taxonomy and phylogeny of the leaf–inhabiting sooty molds in family Metacapnodiaceae
• The cost of co-occurrence : reproductive interference between close relatives in an open-pollinated common garden
• Characterization of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii ammonium insensitive mutants
• Dissecting the roles of monolignol supply and oxidative enzymes in Arabidopsis thaliana lignification

Related Programs

• Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD)

Further Information

• Specialization: Botany
• Research in Botany extends from genomics, molecular genetics, biochemistry, and physiology of plants and eukaryotic microorganisms (e.g., fungi and protists) through to cytology and development to systematics, ecology, and phytogeography.
• UBC Calendar: graduate-and-postdoctoral-studies/degree-programs/botany
• Program Website:
• Faculty: Faculty of Science
• Academic Unit: Department of Botany
• Program Identifier: VGMMSC-C2
• Classification:
  • Natural sciences » Biological sciences » Ecology (except applications) » Plant physiological ecology
  • Natural sciences » Biological sciences » Ecology (except applications) » Plant-animal interactions
  • Natural sciences » Biological sciences » Plant biology
  • Natural sciences » Biological sciences » Microbiology » Mycology