Funding Commitment
The Institute’s financial commitment to PhD students consists of a stipend as well as salary earned through employment as a Teaching Assistant, Research Assistant, Course Lecturer or as a grader in the IIS, depending on our needs at the time.
Students can also apply for Teaching Assistantships or Research Assistantships in other departments at McGill through WorkDay.
myFuture, administered by the Career Planning Service (CaPS) is a comprehensive database of jobs and internships and the local, national and interbational level.
GPS recommends that students not work more than 12 hours / week maximum, including during the summer.
It is mandatory that students apply for external funding for which they are eligible, such as the SSHRC, Vanier, FRQ-SC etc. The GPS’ website provides detailed information on funding opportunities .
There are a number of other Faculty-level awards students should apply to for research travel, participation in academic conferences and other support, that will be announced as they arise.
Information on internal awards can be found in the Graduate Fellowships and Awards Calendar.
The Dissertation Completion Award
Following the completion of their 5-year funding packages, PhD students are eligible to apply for a one-time dissertation completion award. This award will be granted only in the student’s final semester (Fall, Winter, or Summer) before submitting their PhD dissertation. In order to be eligible for consideration for this award, students must have their supervisor’s full support and written confirmation that they will be able to submit by the end of the semester in which it is granted.
To apply for this award, each student needs to submit to the GPD, in writing, a statement--in the semester preceding the one in which they hope to receive the award-- outlining their progress on the dissertation and concrete plans for finishing in the subsequent semester. In addition, the student’s supervisor will submit a letter addressed to the GPD and all IIS full-time teaching staff confirming the same, including how much written work on the dissertation the student has actually submitted to the supervisor up to that point. These accounts should be detailed and specific.