University Graduate Fellowship (UGF)

Award Description:

The University Graduate Fellowship (UGF) is a merit-based scholarship that is awarded to graduate students engaged in full-time study or research in a thesis-based program. Incoming students are automatically considered for University Graduate Fellowship funding upon consideration for admission. Current students, enrolled in an Okanagan graduate degree program, must apply annually for University Graduate Fellowship funding.

Annual Value: awarded in units of $3,000 or $6,000; multiple units may be awarded to one student.
Deadline: January 30, 2015 by 4:00pm.

Eligibility:

Academic Standing:

• Students must have obtained a GPA of first-class standing in each of the last two completed years of full-time study (or full-time equivalent) to be eligible to receive funding.
• For UBC courses, first-class standing is 80% and higher. Questions regarding GPA calculations can be directed to the College of Graduate Studies.

Number of Months of Study:

• Master’s students must have completed, as of December 31, 2014 no more than 24 months of study in the master’s program for which they are requesting funding.
• PhD students must have completed, as of December 31, 2014 no more than 48 months of study in the doctoral program for which they are requesting funding.

Citizenship:

• Domestic and international students are eligible to apply.
• Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada are strongly encouraged to apply to one of the three federal granting agencies, if eligible. Please see the federal granting agencies’ websites for direct information regarding eligibility:

• NSERC
• SSHRC
• CIHR

• International students and current domestic students that did not apply to one of the federal granting agencies must complete a UGF application form.

Degree Level:

• Master’s
• Doctoral

Applicant Status:

• Incoming students
• Current students

Evaluation Criteria:

Please see the College of Graduate Studies University Graduate Fellowship Evaluation criteria.

Application Procedures:

All applicants are to submit their application materials directly to the College of Graduate Studies.

• Important note: current master’s students that submitted a Canada Graduate Scholarships – Master’s Program application (CGSM) for the 2014 competition, will be automatically considered for UGF funding; no additional application is required.
• NSERC or SSHRC doctoral applicants only: doctoral students that submitted an application for NSERC or SSHRC funding during the 2014 competition will be automatically considered for UGF funding. These students are able to update their NSERC or SSHRC application by submitting a UGF form by the UGF deadline. New reference letters are not required.
• CIHR doctoral applicants must complete a UGF application form to be considered for UGF funding. The College of Graduate Studies does not have access to CIHR doctoral applications.
• Current graduate students that did not apply to one of the three federal granting agencies are encouraged to complete a UGF application by the annual deadline date.
• Incoming students of the May 2015, September 2015 and January 2016 intakes will be automatically considered for UGF funding upon consideration for admission. No additional application is needed for incoming students. Incoming students are not able to update or make changes to their admission application for the purpose of this scholarship. Important note: UGFs are non-renewable; therefore, incoming students will have to apply the following competition year to be considered for continued funding.

Nomination Procedures:

UGF award funding is allocated to graduate programs annually. Graduate programs will review and evaluate each application. Graduate programs will notify the College of Graduate Studies which students have been nominated to receive a UGF.

Graduate programs may provide nominations to the College of Graduate Studies on an on-going basis as nominations are determined. Graduate programs may allocate the awards over the course of two or more rounds, for example:

• Round one: offers are made to the top-ranked student(s), including incoming students from the May and September admission periods.
• Round two: offers are made to the top-ranked student(s), including incoming students from the January admission period. If further funding is available, graduate programs may offer additional funding to students that received award offers previously (i.e. Top-ups).

A maximum of $15,000 may be awarded to a student that externally funded (i.e. a Tri-Council award holder). There is no maximum for students that do not have external funding.

Conditions for Award Holders:

Conditions Pertaining to Satisfactory Progress:

• Award holders must maintain satisfactory progress in their program of study and remain registered as a full-time student for each term of the scholarship payment.
• If the College of Graduate Studies is notified of a student’s unsatisfactory progress, the College of Graduate Studies reserves the right to cancel a UGF award.

Conditions Pertaining to Deferrals:

• Students are able to defer a UGF provided it is awarded within the same funding year (prior to March 31). Please see the following table:

**A student may be granted special permission to defer to May if the nominating program permits. In this case, the nominating program must agree to maintain the financial commitment to the student for the following funding year.

Conditions Pertaining to a Leave of Absence:

• If an award holder pursues an approved leave of absence, upon permission from the nominating program, the student may be granted permission to take up the award upon his/her return to studies.  The nominating program must agree to maintain the financial commitment to the student for the following year.
• A student may only defer his/her award for a maximum of one year from the initial academic term when it was originally awarded.
• If the leave of absence is granted after the student has received a portion of the scholarship, only the remaining amount that has yet to be paid to the student can be considered for deferment.
• Students on a leave of absence are not permitted to take-up the award while on leave.

Conditions Pertaining to Withdrawals:

• If an award holder withdraws from the program that nominated them for the scholarship, the funding received during the term for which the withdrawal is processed, will be recovered by the College of Graduate Studies and returned to the nominating program for further allocation.

Conditions Pertaining to Transferring to Another Area of Study:

• If an award holder “transfers” out of the program that nominated them for the award (i.e. from one unit within IGS to another unit within IGS), the student may retain the full scholarship payment only if both programs are in agreement.
• Note: the recipient program could agree to “repay” the scholarship allocation to the “source” program.

Conditions Pertaining to Program Completion:

• If an award holder completes the requirements of his/her program prior to receiving the full scholarship payment, the award holder will receive the remaining scholarship payment prior to the closing of his/her program.