Tuition and Financial Support
Tuition
All graduate students pay tuition fees (Research Programs, full time fee) upon registration each semester. International students pay the same fees as domestic students. After six semesters in the M.Sc. program or eight semesters in the Ph.D. program, the fee per semester is reduced by half. Students must also pay some (relatively inexpensive) ancillary fees. This budget calculator may help you with financial planning -- both in terms of these fees and cost of living.
Financial Support
Graduate students, wth the exception of those supported by NSERC scholarships, are funded through a combination of teaching assistant (TA) positions, research funding, scholarships, etc. Generally, we accept only students for whom full funding is available.The duration of departmental support for M.Sc. students is 5 semesters and for Ph.D. students is 12 semesters. Students are eligible for departmental support only during semesters in which they are fully engaged in courses or research; support is not available during semesters in which a student is on a paid internship such as an SFU co-op work term.
The minimum level of funding (stated in each student's letters of admission) is guaranteed subject to available resources and to satisfactory performance by the student. Should a student's performance as a TA be deemed unsatisfactory (including for reasons of communication difficulties in English), this student will no longer be guaranteed any source of funding. Should a student's performance as an RA or in coursework be deemed unsatisfactory, this student will be eligible only for TA appointments. In this case, the guaranteed financial support specified in the letter of admission will be reduced by 70%.
Awards and fellowships may be available through the department, university, or external organizations. The department also provides some support for travel to conferences (e.g., for students to present their research) and membership in professional organizations.
Finally, SFU offers financial aid to some students.
TA Positions
Most TAs work in the Statistics Workshop for undergraduates, which services multiple introductory courses in statistics. However, some TAs may run tutorials or be given marking assignments.
TAs assigned to the Statistics Workshop are supervised by the Workshop Coordinator. The Workshop operates primarily in Burnaby, with a limited presence in Surrey. Most Workshop TAs are assigned regularly scheduled tutoring hours in the Burnaby Workshop (though some may be assigned work in the Surrey Workshop), where they help students from the Workshop courses on a drop-in basis. Workshop TAs also mark homework assignments and invigilate and mark exams.
TAs with tutorial section duties work under the supervision of the faculty member teaching the associated course. These TAs are responsible for leading the tutorial sections, holding office hours during which students may seek help with the course material, grading homework assignments, and invigilating and grading examinations.
TAs with marking duties work under the supervision of the faculty member teaching the associated course or under the supervision of the Workshop Coordinator. These TAs mark assignments and invigilate and mark exams; they do not otherwise have direct contact with students.
RA Positions
Supervisors may offer their graduate students RA positions. Such positions may involve work on the student's graduate project/thesis or on a different research problem altogether.
Students sometimes have the option of an RA position under the supervision of a different faculty member. Such positions could involve research, statistical consulting, lab management, or other work.
Scholarships and Awards
Students may be eligible for a number of awards, both prior to entering and during their graduate program.
Canadian citizens and Permanent Residents of Canada may apply for Postgraduate Scholarships awarded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). Students from outside Canada may be able to apply for awards for graduate study in Canada. For example, students from Commonwealth countries may apply for Commonwealth Scholarships. At the Ph.D. level, holders of NSERC scholarships and other major, externally-funded awards may be nominated for an SFU Graduate Dean's Entrance Scholarship (GDES), subject to availability.
Current, full-time students with a minimum grade point average of 3.50 during the last year of full-time study are eligible for an SFU Graduate Fellowship (GF), a one-term award normally valued at $7,000. Students may also be eligible for several departmental-level awards.
Students interested in the M.Sc. program in Actuarial Science are encouraged to apply for the Canadian Institute of Actuaries' Graduate Scholarship Program.
Some other awards available to graduate students through SFU. However, many have restrictive clauses in their terms of reference that make them inaccessible to most students seeking graduate degrees in our department.
Additional financial aid information is available through SFU Student Services.