Prospective Graduate Students

The Department endeavours, so far with complete success, to provide financial support to all students in good standing through their entire program. In any given term, most students support themselves by working as Teaching Assistants. Current salaries are approximately $5,500 per semester for MA students. There is no need to apply for a TAship when you apply for admission. We contact all our incoming students in the semester before they start with all the necessary information.

The department has at its disposal a limited number of University Graduate Fellowships (worth about $6250 per semester) some of which we occasionally use for recruiting purposes. Most of these are awarded to students near the completion of their degree to free them from TAship work for a term.

In addition, the Department offers two Summer Research Assistantships each year (at $6000 each) and there are, normally, some RAships available from individual faculty members’ grants.

SFU offers Graduate Entrance Fellowships to a limited number of applicants recommended by departments across the university. These awards are based strictly on merit. Every year we recommend some of our applicants for these fellowships, and have been successful in getting them for our incoming students quite frequently in the past. Please download an application form, complete it, and include it without your supporting documents if you feel you are a plausible candidate.

We encourage all applicants to apply for external fellowships such as SSHRC and Commonwealth and others. For information on these and other awards, please see the Scholarships and Awards page on the DGS website.