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Supporting Research Graduate Students
VPRI portfolio lead
Dugan O'Neil
Vice-President, Research and Innovation
Faculty lead
Mary O'Brien
Dean and Vice-Provost, Graduate Studies
On this Page:
Challenge
Graduate students are key drivers of research activity in an institution. Vancouver is an attractive destination, but the high cost of living presents a challenge to our graduate students.
Action
Working closely with the provost, the dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies, SFU Advancement and with graduate students (through the Graduate Student Society), we will study ways to shift our limited resources to better support research graduate students. This includes study of tuition waivers, scholarships and bursaries. We will also work with SFU Advancement, provincial and federal funding agencies to grow resources available for graduate student support both for existing graduate students and to grow our research graduate student body. Within a year, we will set a university-wide minimum funding level for PhD students.
Project Goals
1. Consult on minimum funding for research master’s students
- November 2024
Data collection was completed in Fall 2024 and BASS funding consultations started in Fall 2024. - September 2024
Data collection continues and will be completed early in fall 2024. Consultations will continue throughout the fall term. - March 2024
Consultation and data gathering for programs will commence in summer 2024.
2. Encourage and support more, higher-quality scholarship applications
- November 2024
Graduate Studies held several workshops to introduce and provide an overview of scholarships and awards as well as workshops focused on writing Tri-Agency research proposals. - September 2024
Graduate Studies also provides weekly “office hours” for students who have questions about applying for scholarships. April 2024
Workshops for students preparing scholarship applications will begin in summer 2024.
3. Enhance supports for high-quality supervision
- November 2024
The Graduate Program Chair Handbook has been updated to provide additional resources to aid Graduate Program Chairs with supporting the graduate student journey.
- November 2024
Consulations began on the scope of program-level supervisory policies.
- September 2024
The program-level supervisory policy will continue to be reviewed in fall 2024 - September 2024
To enhance supports for high-quality supervision, in fall 2024, Graduate Studies hosted various supervision workshops for new faculty members, continuing faculty members across different campuses as well as worshop for new Graduate Program chairs. - April 2024
A program-level supervisory policy will be reviewed in summer 2024. - March 2024
Three supervisor workshops were held in March 2024. Workshop plan for the remainder of the year is under development.
4. Provide research-oriented supports and workshops for students
- September 2024
This fall, Graduate Studies offered two workshops for research graduate students. - April 2024
A workshop in the form of a roundtable discussion with SFU faculty members who serve as journal editors held in April 2024 for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Workshop plan for the remainder of the year is under development.
5. Create/update plan for Graduate Student Housing at the university
- September 2024
A mediated consultation took place between Residence and Housing and Graduate Student Society representatives in summer 2024 to discuss the current and potential future states for on-campus graduate student housing at all three campuses. - March 2024
Higher level conversations are underway in the Housing committee to prioritise housing for graduate students.
6. Create a dashboard/integrated system to track graduate student funding
- November 2024
A system is being developed by IT Services that can track student funding to ensure that minimum funding commitments are being upheld. - April 2024
Discussions are ongoing with IT services to create a system by Fall 2024 that can generate reports for student funding for different programs. A more dynamic tracking system will be developed by end of 2024.
Examine all support mechanisms (e.g., scholarships, bursaries, tuition, housing) for graduate students
In June 2023, the Board of Governors approved a $5,400 scholarship for eligible PhD students entering programs in fall 2023 and those in the first four years of their program. This is the PhD Research Scholarship.
Set a university-wide minimum funding level for PhD students by the end of 2023
A minimum funding policy (annual funding of at least $28,000 for 12 terms) that applies to all research PhD students was approved by the Senate as a graduate general regulation in December 2023. Programs will develop their own funding policies that align with the university-wide policy. These will be approved by Graduate Program Committees and Graduate Studies.