SFU Graduate Student Handbook

Offer of Funding

Your offer of admission and funding is valid for 21 days, unless otherwise specified in your admission letter. If you applied to several different programs, you may only accept one offer of admission and your funding will be tied to the department in which you accepted admission. You may or may not be offered funding for all programs.

The following rules apply to the Offer of Funding outlined within your admission offer:

• Your funding is tied to your academic term of admission and subject to the availability. If you must defer your admission, your offer of funding may no longer be valid; some funding sources cannot be deferred. You should consult the program that has made you the offer of funding to discuss options.
• The offer of funding is based on you not receiving support from external granting agencies, either domestic or international (ie., CIHR, NSERC or SSHRC). If you receive external granting agency funding at any time after accepting your offer of admission, you must notify your graduate program and Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. In such instances, your offer of funding from SFU may be reviewed and changed, but in all cases the total amount of funding that you receive from your external award plus SFU funding sources will exceed your original offer of funding/financial support.
• Most funding offers are based on an annual amount. The amount received each term may vary.
• Most funding offers include a variety of sources of financial support including Teaching Assistantships (TA) and Research Assistantships (RA). In some instances, the funding sources may need to vary to meet the funding obligation but, subject to available funding, the total amount of support will equal or exceed the offer of funding.
• Incidents beyond the control of your home department (e.g. a faculty member losing his or her research grant, job action, or changes in banking interest rates) may affect your funding. For example, if you are scheduled to TA in the fall term, but there is a strike, your annual funding will be reduced accordingly.
• Teaching and research assistantship support is governed by collective agreements and funding agency policies. For example, your TA funding is covered in the collective terms of Teaching Support Staff Union (TSSU).
• If you decline any component of your funding offer (i.e. award or TA) your funding will be reduced by this amount for that academic year.
• The offer of funding, exempting TSSU funding, is subject to your continued good academic standing and continued satisfactory performance and progress in courses and research. If you have been offered a specific award, you must continue to meet the terms of reference/eligibility for that award.
• All major SFU entrance award recipients (ie., GDES, BCGS and IGES) are required to apply each year for external funding as long as they are eligible, such as CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC and/or an equivalent. Students who do not apply will forfeit remaining funding.
• Your offer of funding is connected to both the degree and the program that has recommended you for admission and funding. Cancellation of your funding will likely occur if you change your degree program, enroll in less than 6 units if in a per unit fee program, withdraw from your courses, choose to take time off from your program, or are not progressing at an acceptable rate. For example, if your offer of funding includes a scholarship and a Research Assistantship (RA) in an MASc program in engineering, you will forfeit all your funding if you switch to an MEng program. It will be up to the new program to determine if a financial offer will accompany your admission to that program.
• If you transfer to a PhD program from your master’s degree prior to completing your degree, a new funding offer is required at the time of transfer, as your previous funding offer was tied to your master’s degree. Your PhD is then considered to have begun with your first course registration in your master’s program. The first term of your master’s is considered the ‘start date’ of your PhD.
• If you are offered an RA position at the time of admission, but choose to switch supervisors, you will forfeit your RA position offered by the original supervisor.