Update, April 25, 2017: As of April 2017, the University Doctoral Fellowships (UDF) have been renamed International Doctoral Fellowships (IDF).
International students applying to a doctoral program at UBC Vancouver now have a new funding option. The University Doctoral Fellowships will support approximately 35 new international students each year with a five-year funding package: $30,000 plus tuition for four years, and a minimum $18,000 funding package for the fifth year. By the fifth year of the program, it will offer funding to up to 175 students per year. Students starting their doctoral program in January, May or September 2017 will be considered for the inaugural competition.
“International students bring a diversity of experience and perspective that enriches the university community for everyone, and the University Doctoral Fellowships will increase UBC’s ability to attract and retain exceptional scholars from around the world,” says Susan Porter, dean and vice-provost of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.
Currently, forty percent of doctoral students at UBC are international. The University Doctoral Fellowships will substantially increase the funding options available to these students.
Most top domestic students at UBC receive funding from the Tri-Council Agencies, made up of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). While international students are eligible for most UBC awards, they are not eligible for Tri-Council fellowships. The University Doctoral Fellowships were established to help balance the range of funding available to international students, and bolster UBC’s efforts to recruit top-calibre students from around the world.
Based on the admission applications they receive (deadlines range from late November to early January), graduate programs will forward their nominees to the university-wide University Doctoral Fellowships competition in early January. Those selected will be asked to submit some additional materials. Funding offers will be made starting in late February. Nominees must hold a valid student visa, and must be starting a doctoral program in January, May, or September 2017.
For more information about the University Doctoral Fellowships, visit www.grad.ubc.ca/awards/university-doctoral-fellowship. To explore other scholarship, fellowship and funding options, visit www.grad.ubc.ca/scholarships-awards-funding.