Departmental Support

All CSB graduate students, whether domestic or international, in the first twenty months of an M.Sc. program or the first four years of a PhD program (first five years if entering directly from a bachelor’s) are in the University’s “funded cohort”. This means they are provided a base stipend, which for the 2024-2025 academic year is $25,000 (M.Sc.) or $28,500 (Ph.D.) plus tuition and fees.  Domestic students receive a total of approximately $34,000 (M.Sc.) or $36,850 (Ph.D.) and international students receive the same base stipend plus an additional $756 to cover UHIP health insurance.

This stipend covers tuition fees, incidental fees and living costs. The stipend consists of a University of Toronto Fellowship (UTF), a contribution from the thesis supervisor’s grants, and a required 140 hours as an undergraduate teaching assistant.  Students will receive a document outlining details of their annual stipend in August, prior to their arrival.

External Scholarships

Students in the funded cohort holding major external scholarships from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) or the Ontario Graduate Scholarship program (OGS) receive the annual stipend plus a “top-up” of $1,500 for an OGS, $2,500 for those holding a CGSM, and $3,000 for students with a Doctoral NSERC.

* Note that the online application for NSERC/CIHR CGSM scholarships must be completed by December 2nd.  The link to the NSERC CGSM website can be found here.

Admission Awards

CSB endeavours to attract the most outstanding graduate students possible in a very competitive market. To achieve this the Department awards a limited number of admission scholarships to graduate applicants judged to be exceptional by the Graduate Admissions Committee. Criteria include academic performance, research accomplishments and potential, and receipt of major scholarships (NSERC and CIHR). These awards are worth $3,000, and are in addition to the stipend that students would otherwise receive. No application is necessary as every applicant offered admission is automatically considered.