We provide funding opportunities to graduate students in several forms, including graduate fellowships, scholarships and awards, bursaries and employment income. Graduate funding may vary based on student type and degree pathway and is communicated to students within an offer of admission.
Central FUNDING AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Graduate Fellowship
Eligibility: Full-time thesis pathway students*
Our Graduate Fellowship is provided for the defined length of a student’s graduate program. Graduate program lengths are noted on our program web pages. Payment details of the fellowship are below.
*If a student receives an external scholarship/funding or a Brock Educational Assistance / Brock Tuition Waiver, they are no longer eligible for a Graduate Fellowship. In lieu, recipients of external scholarships will receive a Dean of Graduate Studies Excellence Scholarship for the duration of the external scholarship; recipients of Brock Educational Assistance / Tuition Waiver will receive a Graduate Educational Assistance Scholarship for the defined length of your graduate program. Annual scholarship values will be determined yearly and subject to budgetary approval.
Graduate Assistantship (Teaching Assistants and Research Assistant positions)
Eligibility: Full-time research-based students
Graduate Programs administer Graduate Assistantships. The Graduate Assistantship is employment income paid bi-weekly to your personal bank account. Payment for Graduate Assistantship work is contingent on the fulfillment of employment obligations. Please note that ongoing employment is subject to maintaining satisfactory work performance. To receive a Graduate Assistantship, students must be legally eligible to work in Canada.
Full-time grad students can find the Request for approval of extra on-campus employment hours form and hour limitations here.
Teaching Assistants
A Graduate Student Teaching Assistantship is a nominal workload of 120 hours per term. The Graduate Student Teaching Assistantship can include Teaching Assistant, Marker-Grader, Course Coordinator and/or Lab Demonstrator duties. The rate of pay is determined annually by the CUPE collective agreement (see CUPE 4207 Unit 1).
Research Assistants
A Research Assistantship’s work does not have to be directly related to the student’s thesis, project or studies. It can be related to data collection, data entry, analysis, laboratory maintenance, literature searches, etc., to assist a faculty member in their research or academic and professional benefit.
The rate of pay is determined by Brock’s People and Culture department.
Payment of your Funding Package
The annual graduate fellowship is divided equally amongst the three terms (Fall, Winter and Spring) and posted to your student financial account (my.brocku.ca) at the beginning of each term, and will be directly applied to any outstanding tuition.
The fellowship is not available for part-time students. For students with a remaining positive balance, a refund may be requested after the last day to add/drop course.
Any other awards or scholarships are one-time lump sum payments posted to your financial account at the beginning of the relevant term.
Tuition and ancillary fees are posted to the student’s financial account at the beginning of each term (September, January, May) and deducted from the total graduate funding amount for the term. If your funding exceeds your tuition fee assessment, you will be eligible for payment to your personal bank account via INTERAC electronic funds transfer through your Brock e-mail account.
No transfers will be made if changes are pending.
Graduate students may view their tuition fee assessments through their Brock Portal under “Finance History.”
Please note that students on an approved leave of absence or inactive term are not eligible to receive University financial support. Eligible funding terms may commence again following an approved Leave of Absence or Inactive term.
Additional Funding Opportunities
Students will be automatically considered for these opportunities unless specified.
- DGS (Dean of Graduate Studies) Excellence Scholarship – awarded to recipients of external scholarships of OGS, QEII, NSERC, CIHR or SSHRC (Vanier award recipients are ineligible to receive this scholarship). Awards greater than $35,000/year are ineligible.
- NEW! MRP Merit Entrance Award – one-time $3,000 award for students entering a Major Research Paper (MRP) stream holding an 82%+ entrance average.
- Horizon Scholarship – awarded to underrepresented student leaders from various fields to enhance building a diverse and inclusive university community. Students must fill out a separate application here.
- Brock Indigenous Graduate Award – Open to all self-identified Indigenous grad students in any program.
- Professional Program Merit Entrance Award –Awarded to support academic excellence, with students holding an 87% entrance average. This excludes ISP and diploma programs.
- Research Fellowship – These are program and supervisor-dependent and are considered ‘top-ups’.
- Donor (funded) Scholarships – Students must fill out the scholarship application during their application process to be eligible for over 150 donor scholarship opportunities. A link will be provided in the student’s Brock Portal.
Specific funding amounts are reviewed each year and subject to budgetary approval.
Opportunities for current students
Current Graduate students may also apply for Internal Donor Awards, and Bursaries throughout their studies.
Government-funded/external scholarships and awards – External scholarships and awards are also available to those who qualify.