Financial support for Graduate Students

The policy of the Department of Psychology is that all graduate students should receive financial support (pending annual budgetary approval).  For students who do not hold a major external award (a fellowship or scholarship), funding is made available through Graduate Teaching Fellowships in the amount of approximately $20,000 per year, with a work requirement of about 240 hours per year (as a teaching assistant or research assistant).  

Students are expected to apply at least once each year for an external fellowship (e.g., SSHRC, CIHR, NSERC) until/unless they receive one.  Students who are awarded major external fellowships as a result of their application may be offered a monetary top-up. Most students obtain external fellowships on admission or in the course of their first three years in the program.

Assignment of TA Hours

The number of TA hours that each graduate student is assigned is based on the type of funding they receive.  There are basically four different categories of funding and each one has a designated number of TA hours associated with it.  The following is a list of types of funding and the associated TA hours.

• GTF funding - 240 TA hours
• Dean's Scholarship (3rd year) - 180 TA hours

The department is committed to funding students for four years, pending annual budgetary approval: one year at the MA level, and three years at the PhD level. For clinical graduate students year 5 funding is normally provided by the internship at $23,000 to $37,000 for the year.

In our program as in many others, students are required to report any work outside the program, including paid work within the university, to the Associate Department Head and the program chairs.