Your starting point
Compare the written funding offer after tuition and fees. Separate guaranteed support from competitive awards and check whether assistantships are already included.
Research-based graduate programs may offer funding, but admission does not automatically mean your costs are covered. A written offer is the place to start. Course-based and professional programs may have different funding options.
Read your funding offer
Compare what you will have available after tuition and fees, rather than comparing headline amounts alone.
Turn each offer into a twelve-month cash-flow plan. Record when tuition is due and when funding actually arrives, because an annual total can conceal a difficult first month. Include deposits, moving costs, rent, utilities, food, transport, and any dependents. Use the same assumptions for each city so that a comparison reflects your circumstances rather than whichever university presents the largest number.
Questions to ask before accepting
Ask your program to confirm the amount guaranteed each year and the number of years covered. Find out whether tuition, mandatory fees, and insurance are paid separately or deducted from that amount. If the package includes teaching or research assistantships, clarify the hours and duties involved.
Discuss what happens when your circumstances change. An external scholarship may add to your support or replace part of it, and renewal, summer funding, leaves, or an extended degree may have separate conditions. Get those details before building your budget.
Distinguish an award already included in your offer from an opportunity you are encouraged to apply for. A sentence saying that students “may be eligible” for a scholarship should not be entered as confirmed income. If the package is unclear, ask for a short breakdown of guaranteed support, competitive awards, paid duties, and the conditions you must meet each year.
University funding
University packages can combine departmental awards, fellowships, teaching assistantships (TA), and research assistantships (RA). Ask your program to explain the full package in writing.
Start locally with University of Lethbridge graduate funding and fees. Every institution and program sets its own conditions.
Check whether the fee schedule matches your citizenship or residency category, campus, degree, and starting term. For example, Lethbridge publishes separate program fee schedules; a neighbouring program can have a different structure. Ask whether you will continue paying tuition during a research-only term and what charges apply if completion takes longer than expected.
Examples of why the details matter
The University of Toronto’s PhD/SJD base funding commitment is $40,000 annually for students in the funded cohort, inclusive of tuition, effective fall 2025.
UBC Vancouver’s minimum PhD funding policy provides $40,000 per year for full-time PhD students in their first four years, effective September 2026. Packages can include awards and assistantships.
These are doctoral policy examples, not estimates of what every applicant will receive.
Teaching and research appointments also involve a working relationship. Ask who sets the duties, how time is recorded, and whether the work connects to your thesis. Consider the time commitment alongside courses and research milestones. A package that supports your living costs still needs to leave enough time for the degree it is intended to support.
Canadian government awards
The Canada Graduate Research Scholarship (CGRS) programs are administered across NSERC, SSHRC, and CIHR. Choose the agency that fits your proposed research and check the current competition rules.
Master’s: CGRS M
$27,000 for 12 months. Eligible applicants include Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and protected persons who meet the program’s other requirements. The 2026 deadline is December 1 at 8 p.m. Eastern.
Doctoral: CGRS D
$40,000 per year for three years. International applicants may qualify if enrolled in an eligible doctoral program at a Canadian institution by the application deadline and if they meet the other eligibility criteria.
Institutional deadlines can be much earlier than the direct agency deadline. For the 2026 competition, the direct agency deadline is October 19 at 8 p.m. Eastern. Confirm whether you apply through your institution or directly to an agency.
Admission and award applications are separate decisions. The CGRS M rules require a substantial research component, so a coursework-only master’s is typically ineligible. Ask the graduate awards office which competitions fit your exact degree and stage of study before investing time in a proposal.
Older award names: You may encounter CGS-M and CGS-D in older guides. Look for the current CGRS programs. Vanier no longer accepts applications; doctoral applicants should consult CGRS D.
Mitacs & partner opportunities
Mitacs Accelerate connects eligible postsecondary students and postdoctoral researchers with academic supervisors and partner organizations through research internships. A standard four- or six-month unit provides a $15,000 research award, including at least $10,000 for the intern.
The Mitacs Business Strategy Internship supports innovation projects through $10,000 or $15,000 awards over four or six months, with a minimum intern stipend of $10,000.
Mitacs AI Advantage
The Mitacs AI Advantage initiative includes ADOPT for AI readiness and implementation and AI+X for research and innovation. Placements usually last four or six months. Mitacs applies its Accelerate and BSI policies.
Awards of $10,000, $15,000, and $20,000 are available across eligible intern levels; the $25,000 option is for postdoctoral fellows only. Partners contribute half. Minimum intern stipends are $10,000 for the first two options, $15,000 for the $20,000 award, and $20,000 for the postdoctoral option. Confirm eligibility and application steps with a Mitacs advisor before preparing a proposal.
Planning a Mitacs project
Research-award totals are not always the same as take-home pay. Confirm project eligibility, partner contributions, and the intern allocation with a Mitacs advisor before budgeting.
Discuss the project before treating an internship as a funding solution. Establish the question, expected outputs, access to data, and how the partner will participate. Ask how the work fits your registration and thesis timetable, and who will approve any confidentiality or intellectual-property agreement. The research collaboration guide explains the conversations that should happen before a project begins.
Build your funding plan
Build a shortlist of program, university, provincial, and external awards that match your circumstances. Keep their published deadlines, required documents, and application routes in one calendar so you can see which applications need attention first.
Give yourself time to develop a feasible research proposal and get feedback. Share it with your referees alongside your CV when requesting their support. Before counting several awards in your budget, check whether they can be held together.
Look for discipline-specific, Indigenous student, community, and professional-association awards as well as national competitions. Ask the graduate funding office about awards that match your circumstances.
Keep a realistic fallback plan for the case in which competitive awards do not arrive. Depending on your eligibility, government student assistance may be another part of the picture: the federal student grants and loans page directs applicants to their province or territory. Confirm the rules for your residence, program, and study load with the responsible office; do not assume a graduate student qualifies for every grant listed.
Review the plan again when you receive an offer, change your registration, or add an internship. A useful funding conversation ends with a written answer about the amount, payment schedule, duties, and duration. Use the Canadian university directory to locate institutions, then follow each university’s own awards and tuition pages for the decision you are making.
Source check
Program details and linked official guidance reviewed on . Amounts are in Canadian dollars. Check the linked competition pages before submitting; eligibility, deadlines, and funding conditions can change.