Category: Advocacy

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The University has approved an increase in  the annual minimum guaranteed funding package for PhD students, which will be $22000 from September 2021. The current package is $18000.

This welcome increase in a consistent source of income will particularly help the most financially vulnerable students.

This change will bring this core funding above the poverty line benchmark set by the Government of British Columbia at $20,000 per person.

Increasing the minimum stipend was once of the main recommendations from the GSS’s 2019 presentation to the Board of Governors, which was informed by the GSS Student Satisfaction Survey and the GSS 2019 Funding Survey. The responses to the latter survey reinforced the financial challenges graduate students face, with 60% of respondents reporting difficulties managing basic expenses, and signaling the cost of housing as a particularly heavy burden.

This change was driven by a collaborative effort between the Graduate Student Society and the Faculty of Graduate Studies, who have worked with campus partners, to develop this proposal and to ensure that making this change would not adversely affect access to graduate programs, or any student’s existing funding supports.

The increase in minimum funding, coupled with the recent implementation of the President’s Academic Excellence Initiative Award (PAEI), which was also a direct outcome of the advocacy efforts of the GSS, ensures an improvement in affordability for all PhD students, and most significantly for those in the most need. The PAEI was rolled out in Summer of 2020, covering 17% of the tuition cost after awards, and will increase to 25% effective September 2021.

GSS VP Academic and University Affairs Nicolas Romualdi comments: “We’re delighted to see the University endorsing a policy that will support graduate students in such a significant way. It was heartening to see the broad cross campus support for making this change quickly from faculty and administration alike.

Increasing this core funding is the best and most equitable way to ensure that students across all programs, and from all backgrounds can afford graduate studies at UBC.  

We believe that funding graduate students benefits the entire University Community, as it allows students to focus their efforts on research rather than finding ways to make ends meet.

I would like to personally thank the Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and her team for all the effort that went into the analysis of this proposal. I would also like to thank my predecessor, Tarique Benbow, for the work done to create and carry out the 2019 GSS Funding Survey, whose results continue to inform and support our advocacy efforts in this area.” [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]On November 26, 2020, the provincial government swore in its new Executive Council under the leadership of Premier John Horgan.

The UBC AMS and GSS would like to congratulate all new cabinet members on their appointments and specifically, their commitment towards providing British Columbia with leadership throughout these unprecedented times. Additionally, we would like to congratulate Minister Anne Kang, a former AMS and GSS member, on their appointment to the role of Minister of Advanced Education, Skills, and Training.

We look forward to working with them and their ministry towards making certain that post-secondary students are supported during these unsure times. We would also like to thank Minister Melanie Mark for their leadership in the past three and a half years as Minister of Advanced Education, Skills, and Training. We look forward to seeing their accomplishments as the Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, and Sports.

More locally, we would like to extend our congratulations to MLA David Eby on their reappointment to Attorney General of British Columbia and their new appointment to Minister responsible for Housing. We look forward to continuing to work with MLA David Eby on multiple affordability and accessibility priorities.

UBC GSS and AMS are excited to continue to work with the provincial government in our collective effort towards creating a more accessible and affordable post-secondary education system for all British Columbians.

For Media Inquiries:

Eric Lowe
Communications & Marketing Manager
media@ams.ubc.ca

Ben Hill
Communications Director
communications@gss.ubc.ca[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Graduate Student Societies of British Columbia, representing over 18,000 graduate students from across the province, welcome the announcement of a $26 million investment in SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships by the federal government of Canada.

This funding will support 540 doctoral student researchers in areas of critical social importance, such as the effects of climate change; the development of sustainable food systems; Indigenous languages; law and environmental revitalization; the impacts of chronic and recreational cannabis use; and psychological resilience from past traumas.

PDF copy of the story

“Graduate research funding in Canada has been stagnant for far too long. Graduate students are the backbone of Canada’s research and innovation sector and its future. We are very pleased to see this much-needed investment in SSRH Doctoral Fellowships” said Alireza Kamyabi, Vice-President External Relations at UBC Graduate Student Society. “Now more than ever, we are seeing the importance of understanding how our society and social institutions function. Our graduate student researchers in social sciences and humanities are driving those projects, and we’re glad to see them be supported.”

GSSBC acknowledge that more action is needed to revamp Canada’s research sector and will continue to work with allies across the Canada to advocate for necessary investments in social sciences and humanities research funding.

“We are so appreciative that the government is recognizing the important work that needs to be done in order to further understand and rectify these large-scale issues. Funding is a necessity for graduate students to continue such important work and allows them to increase their focus on research instead of worrying about how to make ends meet. We know that graduate students will rise to the challenge that large-scale issues pose and we are grateful for the governments support”

Abby Dooks, Director of External Relations, University of Northern British Columbia GSS[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]