Awards and funding

Class of 1959 Student Professional Development Fund

The UBC Materials Engineering Class of 1959 Student Professional Development Fund was established by the class in recognition of their 60th reunion year.  The fund is intended to support professional development for graduate students in materials engineering and enhance their understanding of industry. Types of activities eligible for funding include: short courses and field work. Student will be reimbursed up to $500 (once per degree) for department approved short courses or field work. You must apply before the course/field work and will be reimbursed after you have completed the course or field work. Please fill out the application form and send it to mtierney@apsc.ubc.ca

PD Fund application

Awards, financial aid & research funding

For a compendium of awards available for UBC graduate students, see the Awards and Financial Aid page of the Faculty of Graduate Studies website

For a compendium of opportunities for research funding, check the Research Funding page of the UBC Office of Research Services

Be sure to check out the Community of Science searchable database on the ORS website

This allows you to search the world’s most comprehensive funding resource, with more than 22,000 records representing nearly 400,000 opportunities for research funding in your area, and create a weekly funding alert tailored to your needs.

Graduate Student Initiative:

The GSI funds will be used to provide tuition fee awards to all qualifying graduate students both in the PhD and Maters Program. A graduate student qualifies provided he/she does not hold a Fellowship (or industrial sponsorship) that either includes tuition fee coverage or is in excess of $15,000/year (in which case the supervisor will provide top ups to  bring the stipend to the departmental minimum including the departmental tuition fee award). For PhD students the tuition award is initially for the first two years of studies and will be extended to years 3 and 4 provided the student has advanced to candidacy within 25 months of entering the program. For Masters students the tuition award is initially for the first year of study and will be renewed for year 2 provided the student has completed 12 credits of course work at an average of at least 76%. The tuition award is the same for all qualifying students but may vary from year to year based on available GSI funding and number of qualifying students. Typically the award will be in the order of $2,000.

Graduate Research Assistantships:

We support all of our students, unless they are fully supported by a company, government or scholarship totaling more than the amount indicated, with a Graduate Research Assistantship. Students receiving offers as of June 1, 2024 will receive, as a minimum:

  1. MASc/MSc $26,000 per year
  2. PhD $30,000 per year

Four-Year-Fellowship (4YF)

The Four-Year-Fellowship (4YF) is an award that UBC provides to high quality PhD students for either their first four years or years 2 to 5 of their studies. Each graduate program is allocated a number of 4YFs on an annual basis and selects then their 4YF holders who, however, must fulfill all UBC 4YF criteria.

For Materials Engineering the 4YF selection process is as follows

Three categories of students will be considered as 4YF candidates:

  1. All PhD applicants that fulfill the 4YF criteria and have a prospective supervisor. To fulfill the FYF criteria the student must have been accepted as a First Class Applicant.
  2. PhD students in their first year (and in exceptional cases in their second year) who are nominated by their supervisors.
  3. Masters students who qualify to transfer to the PhD program and are nominated by their supervisors. Transfer guidelines are posted on our website: MTRL Program Guidelines
    UBC Four Year Doctoral Fellowship

*** Students in the MEL program do not receive GSI or GRA funding. Canadian and Permanent Residences may apply for a Canada Student Loan through the government web site.