Graduate Students in sciences at the University of Toronto are guaranteed a minimum annual stipend. For 2011-12 this minimum is $15,500 above tuition and fees.  The EEB Department adds an additional $1000 guarantee for all students. For domestic students (= Canadian citizens and permanent residents) the resulting base income guarantee is $24,542, and for international students (on visas) it is $34,423. These base stipends are guaranteed for 16 months  (1.33X guaranteed income in total) for the M.Sc. program, and for four years for the PhD program (five years for students entering directly from a bachelor's program or transferring from an MSc to a PhD program).  [Students who started in the Zoology or Plant and Microbial Biology PhD programs before fall, 2008 are being funded under the practices of those programs, which means that EEB guarantees partial funding ($16,000 domestic, $20,000 international) for one year beyond the current 4- or 5-year guarantees for the PhD program.]  

The annual income totals for individual students are packages assembled from different categories of support.  Each category of support is described in some detail below the following table, but the table itself should be sufficient for you to obtain a good estimate of the total of your support for the coming year.  The table makes clear the advantages of being a part of the EEB Department (in comparison with the typical Arts & Science grad student).  It documents how winning various external scholarships can change the teaching vs research balance in your program and raise your disposable income.  The table also highlights the economic impact of failing to finish within the funding time-limits of the Faculty of Arts & Science.  Because tuition and fees are higher for international than domestic students, not finishing on time is more serious for international students.  If you are an international student, generating an extra year of adequate support for you may represent a major challenge for you and your supervisor.  It is therefore especially important for international students and their supervisors to evaluate research progress frequently in the latter half of the degree program and be prepared to modify objectives if necessary to ensure that the thesis is completed and defended on time. 

Individual Stipend Funding Packages

In August of each year you and your supervisor will receive a statement of your guaranteed income for the following year (specified by the rules described in the table above), and a breakdown of the value of each kind of support in the total package.  This description will take into account your visa status (domestic/international), term of first registration, any major scholarships you hold, and your stage in your degree program.  The package represents a framework you and your supervisor can customize to some extent.  Together you may choose to alter TA hours and amounts paid as Research Assistantships according to some constraints (see “Details…” below), and the scheduling of RA payments can be adjusted to best meet your individual needs.  When you and your supervisor have agreed on the details, a jointly signed description of the customized support plan should be submitted to the local financial administrator for implementation.

September Cash Payments from the Support Package:

All new students and many continuing ones will receive in early September, an early payment from their support package to help pay for relocation and/or getting ready for the new academic year.  Beginning in August 2011, the amount of this payment will be specified in each student’s detailed description of the stipend package sent out in August. 

Categories of Support in Graduate Stipend Packages:

Teaching Assistantships (TA):

Funding packages for students without external fellowships include income from 140 hours each student works as a teaching assistant in undergraduate courses.  Each student is paid  ~$5,964 for this teaching activity.  [Funding packages mandated by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences specify 210 hours of TA activity; the reduction to 140 hours by the EEB Department allows students to focus more time on their research activities without sacrificing income.]  Funding packages for students supported by external scholarships (NSERC, CIHR, OGS, FQRNT) require only 70 TA hours, accounting for ~$2,982 in income.  The TA component of support packages may be increased or decreased based on discussions between students and their supervisors, and may be contingent on the availability of TA positions.  A student is permitted to teach fewer hours than specified in their funding package, but they thereby reduce their  total income.  Alternatively, a supervisor may decide to replace part or all of the package’s TA income so that a student can devote more time to research.  The replacement is accomplished by the supervisor increasing the value of the Research Assistantship  (RA) component of the package.  Alternatively, with the permission of the supervisor, a student may take on more teaching than is specified in the support package, increasing his/her total income.

Research Assistantships (RA):

MSc program:  The RA for both domestic and international students in the 16-month MSc program is $8,500 for the first 12 months and $8,181 (1/3 of the annual guaranteed income) for the remaining four months. This scheme keeps the student's income about level over the whole program, and effectively buys out the necessity to TA during the final four months of the program.  RA values may be less for students holding external awards, if the scholarship provides enough support to replace some or all of the usual $8500 RA.  Such RA reductions are permitted only when the reduced value of the RA is compensated for by a larger value of the scholarship. 

PhD program:  The RA for PhD students is currently $8,500 per year for both domestic and international students over the 4- or 5-year period of guaranteed income.  Those students who started their PhD work before fall, 2008 in the ZOO or PMB programs qualify for one year’s extra RA support at substantially reduced levels, beyond the current time limits of the PhD program (see the next-to-last row of the table above).

If a student is unable to finish his/her degree program within the EEB program time limits, the RA, external scholarship, TA, and special Doctoral Completion Awards are the only categories of support available.  Students who anticipate they will not finish on time should consult their supervisors as soon as the possibility arises, so that adjustments in the research program and/or plans for extended support can be implemented.

University of Toronto Fellowships (UTF):

UTF funds are provided by the Faculty of Arts & Science to help ensure that each graduate student has adequate financial support during their graduate program.  For students without large external scholarships, the value of the typical UTF award each year is about $7,000 for domestic and about $20,000 for international students.  The difference in amounts is purely to offset the differential tuition and fees paid by the two groups, so that their after-fees incomes are equal.  Students supported by external fellowships usually exceed base guaranteed income levels without any UTF support. UTF "top-ups" are awarded by the Faculty of Arts & Sciences and added on top of the base guarantee for winners of NSERC ($2,500), CIHR ($2,500) and OGS ($1,500) fellowships.  The EEB department provides $1,500 top-ups for Quebec FQRNT and OGSST fellowships. UTF funds cannot be allocated to students who have proceeded beyond the Arts & Science funded time limits without finishing their degree.  Students within those time limits are referred to as being in the Arts & Science “funded cohort”.

EEB Internal Awards (Restricted Awards):

EEB Restricted Awards are funded by the interest on donations to the Department, supplemented by matching gifts from the University and sometimes the Province.  This endowment plays a critical role a) in allowing the department to provide graduate student income above the minimum level set by Arts & Science, b) in reducing the TA hours required in our standard funding packages, and c) in allowing us to recognize outstanding achievements by individual students.  No applications are necessary for the awards.  Every graduate student in EEB is automatically considered for them.  To receive some endowed awards, recipients must be studying particular groups of organisms or kinds of processes, and many awards are available only to Canadian citizens or permanent residents. Some awards require recipients to demonstrate financial need, but most graduate students satisfy the need criteria. The department is currently seeking donations for new awards that will be open to international students.  Typical values of the Restricted Awards vary widely depending on other components of the financial package.

Major scholarships/fellowships:

Scholarships valued at $10K -$50K that are awarded based on national or provincial competitions represent a major source of support for EEB students.  This support frees up grant money from RA allocations to fund further research, and Arts & Science provides top-up awards to the department in recognition that these awards reduce the need for UTF allocations to the recipients.  It is currently EEB departmental policy to add these top-up awards to the scholarship winners’ guaranteed incomes and to reduce the number of TA hours in support packages for winners of the larger scholarships (see table above).

Doctoral Completion Awards (DCA, not available to P1-P4 students):

This Arts & Science funding program is aimed at domestic or international PhD students who are leaving the funded cohort before finishing their degree, and are no longer funded by the department or the Faculty of Arts & Science.  Each Doctoral Completion Award provides domestic or international tuition plus $10,000.  These awards will be distributed in a competition, with preference to students whose progress was delayed by unusually difficult research challenges or logistical difficulties.  For the 2012-2013 program students becoming eligible for the award in either September 2012 or January 2013 should complete an application by mid-April, 2012. Contact the Graduate Office or click here for details.

Last Update: Nov. 11, 2011