BISC Graduate Student Funding Policy

Funding Policy (Effective Fall 2024)

The primary goal in the development of this minimum funding guarantee is to ensure fair distribution of financial support that will allow our graduate students to focus on doing great research.

1.    Students enrolled in the PhD program in Biological Sciences are expected to complete the program in 12 terms. Students in the program will be funded for a minimum of 12 terms. Students enrolled in the MSc and MPM programs are expected to complete the program in 6 terms. Students in the MSc and MPM programs will be funded for a minimum of 6 terms. Students in the MET program are admitted without assurance of financial support and are not covered by this policy.

2.    In the case that there is a conflict between this policy and GGR 1.17, GGR 1.17 will prevail.

3.    Students in the PhD program will receive guaranteed minimum funding in the amount of $33,400¹ per year for the term of the funding guarantee provided in 1. Students in the MSc and MPM programs will receive guaranteed minimum funding in the amount of $30,000 per year for the term of the funding guarantee provided in 1. Those minima will apply to each student who is eligible as provided under 1. and 5. without respect to the original funding offer in the student’s admission letter.

4.    As part of this guaranteed minimum funding, all eligible students will receive a $4000 Graduate Fellowship at the start of the academic year in September.

5.    Eligibility criteria for minimum funding include a CGPA of 3.5 or higher, making satisfactory progress in the program, and meeting the supervisor’s reasonable expectations as detailed in the annual progress review (completed via the Graduate Program Report).  Each student is expected to apply for major internal and external awards for which the student is eligible. Each student is expected to apply for and accept up to 8.34 base units of TAships per year toward the minimum funding. The supervisor must ensure that the funding minimum is met or exceeded for each eligible student, and the supervisor is expected to contribute funding from research grants (as scholarships or research assistantships) toward that goal. In some years that supervisor contribution may be more than half of the minimum funding. A supervisor may not require a student to TA more than 8.34 base units per year to meet the minimum funding requirement.

6.    All of the following count toward meeting the student’s minimum guaranteed funding amount:

• Scholarship payment from the supervisor’s research grant
• up to 8.34 base units of TA funding
• RA funding
• PhD Research Scholarship[1]
• Graduate Fellowships, including the $4000 GF to each student each September (see 4.)
• Tri-Agency awards
• External scholarships including, for example, those adjudicated by Graduate Studies
• Internal scholarships adjudicated by Graduate Studies
• Program-specific awards, including donor awards
• Student funding from commercial partners, government agencies, NGOs, or other external sources

7.    Income from the following sources is not counted toward the student’s guaranteed funding amount:

• Travel and Research Awards

8.    It is possible that a student’s funding may be provided in unequal increments over the course of the academic year. Students are advised to budget accordingly.

9.    The funding year begins in Fall and ends in Summer for all students enrolled in each program. Students who begin the program in a semester other than the semester in which the funding year begins will have their funding accordingly pro-rated for the remaining portion of the academic year.

10.The time spent in non-required Co-operative Education or Internship programs will count against the total terms of guaranteed funding.

11.Important secondary goals of this policy are to reward scholarship success by some students and to ensure fair distribution of funds among other students who are not supported by scholarships. Students who hold a major competitive scholarship or award (e.g., Special Graduate Entrance Scholarship, NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship) will remain eligible for all other sources of funding noted under 6. Students with such scholarships will receive the $4000 GF each September, and are encouraged to apply for and accept teaching assistantships in addition to scholarship and GF support. Both of those sources of support may allow scholarship holders to have income greater than the funding minimum. Supervisors are strongly encouraged to support scholarship holders with funding from grants so that scholarship holders have income greater than the funding minimum. Supervisors must ensure that scholarship holders are supported at least to the minimum funding level.

[1] Students who receive a tuition waiver will not be eligible for the PhD Research Scholarship and may have their total minimum funding amount reduced accordingly.