Students are generally eligible for financial support for up to five years of funding at a level which is equal to or exceeds the A&S base funding package. Graduate units determine which years and which programs to fund. They may fund one or more years of the Master’s program and may choose to fund a given year at 50%. If a program is funded, funding commences in the first session of registration in the program.1
In general, each graduate unit has a “funded cohort” that consists of:
- the first year of a Master’s program or the first four years of a PhD program (the “1 and 4” option), or
- a 50% funded one-year Master’s program and four fully funded years, plus one 50% funded year, of a PhD Program (the “0.5 and 4.5 option”), or
- the first five years of a PhD program with an unfunded Master’s program (the “0 and 5” option)
- if a Direct Entry option exists, the first five years of a Direct Entry PhD program
In some instances, Master’s students are funded up to 1.33 years, with the remainder of the funding applied to the PhD program. Funding always begins in the first session of registration in a funded program. The table below indicates each department’s funded cohort.
The 2020-21 A&S Base Package is $25,859 for the Humanities & Social Sciences, $26,359 for the Sciences. The base package includes tuition and fees and will increase by $500 in 2021-22. Some graduate units provide packages that exceed the A&S base. These amounts do not include Program Level Fellowship funds.
| Graduate Unit | Years of Funding | Funding Package | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Master's | PhD | PhD Direct Entry | Actual 2020-21 | Estimated 2021-22 | |
| Anthropology | 1 | 4 | 5 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| Art | 0 | 5 | 5 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| Astronomy and Astrophysics | 1 | 4 | 5 | 33,609 | 34,250 |
| Cell and Systems Biology | 2 | 4 | 5 | 27,359 | 28,000 |
| Chemistry | 1 to 2 | 4 | 5 | 33,259 | 33,900 |
| Cinema Studies | 1 | 4 | 0 | 27,859 | 28,000 |
| Classics | 1 | 4 | 5 | 31,859 | 32,000 |
| Comparative Literature | 0.5 | 4.5 | 5 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| Computer Science | 1.33 | 3.67 | 5 | 26,359 | 27,000 |
| Criminology and Sociolegal Studies | 0 | 5 | 0 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies | 0.5 | 4.5 | 5 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| Earth Sciences | 1 | 4 | 5 | 27,859 | 28,500 |
| East Asian Studies | 0 | 5 | 5 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | 1 | 4 | 5 | 28,459 | 29,500 |
| Economics | 0 | 5 | 5 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| English | 0 | 5 | 5 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| French Language and Literature | 0.5 | 4.5 | 5 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| Geography and Planning | 1 | 4 | 5 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| Germanic Languages and Literatures | 0 | 5 | 5 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| History | 0 | 5 | 5 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| History & Philosophy of Science & Technology | 1 | 4 | 5 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| Industrial Relations and Human Resources | 0 | 4 | 5 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| Italian Studies | 0.5 | 4.5 | 5 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| Linguistics | 1 | 4 | 5 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| Mathematics | 1 | 4 | 5 | 28,359 | 29,000 |
| Medieval Studies | 0 | 5 | 5 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations | 0 | 5 | 5 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| Philosophy | 1 | 4 | 5 | 30,859 | 31,000 |
| Physics | 1 | 4 | 5 | 32,491 | 33,000 |
| Political Science | 0 | 5 | 5 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| Psychology | 1 | 4 | 5 | 28,859 | 30,000 |
| Religion | 0 | 5 | 0 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| Slavic Languages and Literatures | 1 | 4 | 0 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| Sociology | 1 | 4 | 5 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| Spanish | 1 | 4 | 0 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
| Statistical Sciences | 0 | 5 | 5 | 28,500 | 30,000 |
| Women and Gender Studies | 1 | 4 | 5 | 25,859 | 26,500 |
1Funding commences in the first session of registration in the program, unless program design dictates otherwise. If program funding commences in year one, students cannot defer funding to a subsequent session or year.
2The Earth Sciences base is for the MSc program only. The PhD base is $32,000.