Extra Info

In October 2022, CGPS Faculty Council approved revitalized funding formulas and streams that allocated at least 50% of centralized funding directly to units. Key programs introduced included: 

1. The Student Support Fund (SSF) is designed to be highly flexible, providing stable and easy-to-use base funds to support graduate students with stipends, and allows units to award funding as a non-competitive stipend without applying scholarship criteria. e.g. funding can be used to offset graduate teaching, assistantship, top-ups, etc.
   
   
2. CGPS 75th Recruitment Scholarship is designed as a prestigious CGPS-branded entrance scholarship that enables units/programs to recruit top masters and doctoral talent to USask. Annual allocations are calculated by leveraging Tri-Agency success from both the supervisor and graduate student perspectives. Why is this important? Tri-Agency success is a key metric for USask and the U15.
   
   
3. Dean's Doctoral Scholars funding is restructured to incent outstanding doctoral research in three key areas 1) recruitment: attract top quality USask master's students into our doctoral programs, 2) attrition: allow high achieving doctoral students to focus on their thesis research 3) institutional impact: incentivize high calibre applications to the Tri-Agencies.
   
   
4. Specialty Funding Programs administered by the CGPS, specialty programs include the Indigenous Graduate Leadership Award, Teacher-Scholar Doctoral Fellowship, Saskatchewan Innovation and Opportunity Scholarships, Bring the World to Saskatchewan, Training Grant Matching, Graduate Internship, New Graduate Faculty Support, and general college initiative (e.g. Pandemic Bursary) funding.
   
   

As of May 1, 2023, most USask's PhD programs provide all newly admitted PhD students with a funding package of at least $20,000 annually for 4 years.

The following is a list of programs that have opted-in to CGPS' 75th Anniversary Scholarship Program and thus provide a 4-year minimum funding guarantee to PhD students effective May 1, 2023.

What is the difference between an international and a domestic Dean's Doctoral Scholarship?

1. Student Funding includes Scholarships (performance-based), Bursaries (need-based) and Employment. 
2. Competitive funding packages are pivotal to recruiting doctoral and thesis-based master’s students. 
3. Competitive funding packages require multi-year commitments that align with minimum times to completion. 
4. Scholarships are essential to recruiting students to course-based master's programs. 
5. Student funding provides access to programs. 
6. Student funding is meant to allow students to focus on their program 
7. Scholarships should reward excellence; there are various ways to define excellence.
8. Scholarships and awards need to keep pace with rising costs, especially tuition. 
9. Competitive funding requires top-ups to external scholarships that track with tuition increases. 
10. Nimble funds are required for recruitment that is offered at the time of admission.
11. Centrally adjudicated scholarships should be more prestigious and therefore competitive, than those allocated to units. 
12. Eligibility for scholarships or funding packages must be transparent. For example, if scholarships and/or Assistantships exclude those working full-time outside the university or in alignment with TriAgency awards categories of university employees (e.g. faculty members) it must be clear for all applicants. 
13. A minimum funding guarantee provides predictability for students and helps to support mental well-being.
14. There is a responsibility for supervisors to financially support students where students provide an intellectual contribution to the research program of their supervisor.
15. Incenting college/department/faculty behaviour through matching schemes must be counterbalanced by both the unit and CGPS administration; while not expecting one funding stream to incentivize too many different things.

Adopted by CGPS stakeholders in the winter of 2021.