*General Funding Policy for PhD and MASc Students
Acquiring sufficient funding for your studies is an essential component of successfully completing your graduate degree. For PhD and MASc students, financial support provided by the department and supervisor takes into account the student’s own ability to contribute to the cost of their education.
Graduate students are encouraged to apply for major scholarships and seek out Teaching Assistant and Research Assistant opportunities.
A graduate student’s funding package is determined by the scholarships, awards, and other eligible sources of funding that students receive.
Eligible sources may include:
- Fellowships
- Scholarships and awards (e.g. SSHRC, CIHR, OGS, QEII, any other grants/scholarships/fellowships, which includes the IBET fellowship)
- Research stipends
- Training stipends
- Research assistantships
- Teaching assistantships
Your graduate department will determine your funding package based on the eligible sources of funding above.
Scholarships contribute to the student’s base funding package and their values are not added entirely to the student’s annual base funding as the base funding level has been established for students who do not have any awards of scholarships at a particular time in their program. Please refer to the department funding policy for a breakdown. A PhD or MASc student without any scholarships and other awards will be provided the entire value of the base funding package for financial support during the period of guaranteed funding when they are in good academic standing. This period of guaranteed funding is at least four years in the PhD program but no more than five years and at least one year in the MASc program but no more than two years.
As a result, a student’s funding package may:
- appear different from another student’s because of different income sources, as well as different department funding policies (e.g., a student who is registered in MIE versus CHE)
- Be re-assessed and updated during the academic year if any funding changes occur (e.g., new fellowship awarded, leave of absence approved).
- Vary in funding source composition from year-to-year because funding sources and amounts may change over time.
See School of Graduate Studies (SGS) guidance on how funding works for research stream students.