Funding and Finances

Graduate student funding is provided in accordance with the Department of Archaeology PhD Minimum Funding Policy, The Department of Archaeology Award Adjudication Policy (Handbook Appendix E, undergoing revisions for Fall 2024), and GGR 1.17 (active Fall 2024).

If you are not a major/multi-year scholarship holder (e.g., SSHRC, CIHR, etc), financial support is generally provided through a combination of the following sources:

Teaching Assistantship/Tutor Marker Postions (TA/TM)
Support from Research Grants (Research Assistant, Research Support, Graduate Scholarship)
Graduate Fellowships (GF) and other departmental awards

Finances

Additional financial resources and comprehensive graduate tuition and fee information can be found on the SFU Faculty of Graduate Studies website.

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Typical Costs (scroll to graduate or international graduate student links)
Tuition and Fees

Proof of financial support requirements for international students. Scroll down to see the amount required per year.

Teaching Assistant and Sessional Instructor Postings

You can find more information about our TSSU positions here. Graduate students are able to apply for any TA or Sessional position at SFU, not just the ones available in Archaeology. Most new graduate students are guaranteed a TAship in their first year. Please be sure to apply for the positions to ensure you receive your full funding amount.

Scholarships and Awards

A range of internal scholarships and awards are available to new and continuing graduate students. Full information is available on the Faculty of Graduate Studies (GS) awards page. Applications are done through the Graduate Awards Application Adjufication System, or GA3. The Archaeology Awards Policy is available in the Graduate Handbook, found on the Resources page.

Award payment policies, including payment dates for the upcoming semester, are posted on the Graduate Studies Awards + Funding page.

EXTERNAL AWARDS

We recommend that students apply for Tri-Agency, SSHRC or NSERC, Vanier, and Trudeau scholarships every year that they are eligible. Graduate Studies (GS) has detailed and up-to-date information about the application deadlines and requirements on their website.

GS has also compiled a non-exhaustive list of other outside sources of funding.

WORK-STUDY AND BURSARIES

All graduate students can apply for Workstudy and Bursaries at SFU. Please see the dates and application instructions on the Financial Aid and Awards website.

ARCHAEOLOGY AWARDS

All eligible students are considered for entrance funding. Note that as per the PhD Minimum Funding Policy, multi-year awards may replace part of the $28,000 minimum (Appendix F #5), but awards up to 1 year (1- to 3- terms) are in addition to the $28,000 minimum (Appendix F #6.A).

The Department holds one or two Travel and Research Award (TARA) competitions per year.

Over the years, generous donors have instituted awards specific to students in Archaeology. Donor awards are adjudicated by the Department of Archaeology, the Dean of Environment, and the Faculty of Graduate Studies. The donor awards terms of reference, as well as other internal awards, are listed on the Archaeology page at FGS. Applications generally open in June. All students, including incoming students, may apply for these Donor awards.

Although we base our awards priority on the policy in the Graduate Handbook, we do recommend that you apply for as many awards as you can, whether you are sure you are eligible or not. Our priority list is just that - a priority list - and we have awarded students that are in between our requirements and the award Terms of Reference if we have additional funds or awards available to us.

Department of Archaeology