Graduate Funding and Awards

Aboriginal Graduate Fellowships
Category: University
The University of British Columbia offers several fellowships and scholarships to Canadian Aboriginal graduate students, an Aboriginal person being a First Nations, Métis or Inuit person of Canada. Award winners are selected on the basis of academic merit through an annual competition. The Faculty of Graduate Studies administers the awards in consultation with the First Nations House of Learning. Applicants may or may not be UBC graduate students at the time of application - the competition is open to both incoming and continuing graduate students. However, awardees must be enrolled as full-time graduate students at UBC for the coming academic year. Awards range in value from approximately $5,000 to $20,000, and are offered for one or multi-year terms. The application for the annual Aboriginal Graduate Fellowships competition will be posted approximately 6-8 weeks ahead of the application deadline. Find the form online at http://www.grad.ubc.ca/forms/aboriginal-graduate-fellowship-application-form.

Affiliated Fellowships
Category: University
The Faculty of Graduate Studies offers approximately 220 University Graduate Fellowships each year to meritorious students for full-time study and/or research leading to a graduate degree. Awards are made on the basis of academic excellence, and are open to currently registered, full-time UBC graduate students regardless of citizenship or visa status. Students must submit their applications to their departments. Departments recommend only their highest-ranked candidates to the Faculty of Graduate Studies. Only the top graduate students with a minimum first class standing [80% or higher at UBC] in each of the last two years of full-time study are nominated. Competition for Affiliated Fellowships is strong each year, and there are always many more nominations than available awards. Further information is available at www.grad.ubc.ca/awards.

Andrew MacIntosh Memorial Book Prize in Fine Arts, MA or PhD
Category: Departmental
Book prize for best essay in graduate Art History seminars. Students are recommended to the Awards Committee by faculty members.

Andrew MacIntosh Memorial Book Prize in Fine Arts, MFA
Category: Departmental
Book prize for best essay in the graduate seminar. Students are recommended to the Awards Committee by faculty members.

Art History Travel Research Scholarship
Category: Departmental
Scholarships totalling $6,500 have been endowed for graduate students in Art History to assist them in the study of works of art in galleries and museums around the world. The awards are made on the recommendation of the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory in consultation with the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

Audain Foundation Graduate Fellowship
Category: Departmental
Awarded on the basis of academic excellence to graduate students in the Critical and Curatorial Studies Program. The Fellowship is a major gift from philanthropist Michael Audain. The gift creates endowments that will augment the Critical & Curatorial (CCST) program and provide financial suport to CCST students through three annual fellowships.

BC Binning Memorial Fellowship
Category: Departmental
A fellowship of $18,000 has been endowed in memory of Professor Emeritus B.C. Binning, painter and founder of the Department of Fine Arts at UBC The award is made on the recommendation of the Department, to a student entering the second year in the MFA Program in the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory, and showing exceptional promise in drawing. Preference is given to a candidate who is a Canadian citizen or a landed immigrant.

Four Year Doctoral Fellowship (4YF)
Category: Departmental
The Four Year Doctoral Fellowship (4YF) program will ensure UBC's best PhD students are provided with financial support of at least $20,000 per year for the first four years of their PhD studies. This program allows UBC to continue to attract and support outstanding domestic and international PhD students, and provide those students with stable, base-level funding for the first four years of their PhD studies and research.

Governor General's Gold Medal
Category: External
A gold medal is awarded to the graduate student who has achieved the most outstanding academic record in the graduating class for the Doctoral degree. A second gold medal is awarded to the graduate student who has achieved most outstanding academic record in the graduating class for the Master's degree with thesis. This is an opportunity to honour the best in the graduating class within the Faculty of Graduate Studies, as there is only one award for approximately 1,000 Master’s graduates and one award for more than 300 Doctoral graduates. Medals are presented on behalf of the Governor General of Canada by participating educational institutions, along with a personalized certificate signed by the Governor General. There is no monetary award associated with the medals.

Graduate Support Initiative (GSI)
Category: University
Graduate Support Initiative awards are offered to the best and brightest incoming masters and doctoral students for full-time graduate study. All applicants to the program are automatically considered for this award. In the event that a student receives another funding offer, in excess of GSI allocation, the department reserves the right to withdraw the offer so that another student can receive funding.

Graduate Teaching Assistant Teaching Awards
Category: Departmental
The Faculty of Arts normally awards up to 3 GTA awards per year. Administered by the Dean's Office based on departmental nominations. The award is open to any graduate teaching assistant who acts or has acted in this position during the current and/or preceding academic year.

Helen Belkin Memorial Scholarship in Fine Arts
Category: Departmental
A scholarship of $2,000 has been endowed by the President's Fund to honour the memory of Helen Mary Emily Belkin. The scholarship is offered to a fine arts student on the recommendation of the Department. Undergraduate and Graduate students are eligible.

Hugo E. Meilicke Memorial Fellowship
Category: University
This fund was established by the late Hugo E. Meilicke who gave distinguished service to the community through his business associations and through active participation in organizations such as the Kiwanis Club, the Salvation Army, the Vancouver Foundation, the Crippled Children's Hospital, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Vancouver Symphony Society. The annual income of $39,000 provides awards in various fields such as agriculture, political science, commerce, fine arts, and music. The awards are made on the recommendation of the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

Roloff Beny Foundation Scholarship
Category: Departmental
The Roloff Beny Foundation has endowed a $10,000 scholarship (or two awards of equal value to a total of $10,000) for undergraduate or graduate students in the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory whose work focuses on photo-based practices. Roloff Beny, a famous Canadian photographer, painter and designer, died in March 1984. For the outstanding photography and design of his beautiful books, he won numerous awards, including the Gold Medal of the Leipzig International Book Fair, the Charles Blanc Medallion of the French Academy, and the Order of Canada. The award is made on the recommendation of the Department and, in the case of graduate students, in consultation with the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Masters and Doctoral Scholarships and Fellowships
Category: External
Awards based on academic excellence. Students who are either Canadian citizens or Landed Immigrants with first-class averages in their last two years of full-time study may be eligible to submit applications for these prestigious national awards. Applications are submitted to the Department in the fall. Further information is available at www.sshrc.ca

Teaching Assistantships
Category: University
TA positions are normally offered to students entering their second year of graduate programs. Notices of teaching assistantships are posted in the Department on April 1st. Duties include leading discussion sections and marking exams and papers for certain undergraduate courses, for a maximum of 12 hours per week.

Travel Fund - Conferences (Faculty of Graduate Studies)
Category: University
Graduate students are eligible for reimbursement from the Graduate Student Travel Fund once per degree program. The Travel Fund provides travel support to a maximum of $400 per graduate student who presents a paper or poster at an official conference or symposium (student workshops are ineligible) or who participate in a music competition. The conference or competition must take place while the student is enrolled full-time in a graduate degree program.

UBC-CCA Collection Research Grant
Category: Departmental
PhD candidates in the department of Art History Visual Art and Theory can apply to participate in a joint fellowship offered by The Canadian Centre for Architecture to undertake research in CCA's collection and library.

Vanier Scholarship
Category: External
The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (Vanier CGS) program is designed to attract and retain world-class doctoral students by offering them a significant financial award to assist them during their studies at Canadian universities. Vanier Scholars demonstrate leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in the social sciences and humanities, natural sciences and engineering, and health-related fields. Canadian and international students are eligible to be nominated for a Vanier Scholarship, which is valued at $50,000 per year for up to three years. For more information, visit www.vanier.gc.ca/eng/home-accueil.aspx.

Funding and Awards for Graduate Students