Internal Differential Fee Waivers DFWs
Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies awards Differential Fee Waivers (DFWs) to international Doctoral students, and exceptionally to international Research Master’s students for each academic year. International students who are given a DFW are exempt from the international tuition supplement. The approximate value per year is $14,000.
Eligibility
Differential fee waivers are restricted to international graduate students at McGill whose visa status requires them to pay full international tuition fees. Recipients must be:
- Registered with a full-time status (see explanation of residency in the Program Requirements section of the Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Calendar)
- Within Curriculum Year 1-3 (for Ph.D.) or Curriculum Year 1 (for Research Master’s) (see Student Advising Transcript on Minerva).
Students in a qualifying year or additional session are not eligible. Eligible international students are automatically considered by the Department and those chosen are contacted prior to the start of the applicable academic year.
Registration requirements for students who have been awarded a DFW by the Department: DFW recipients are required to register “full-time” for both the Fall and Winter term and “continuing” for the Summer term (during the academic year for which they have been awarded a DFW).
For more information, please visit the website of McGill Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.
External DFWs – Bilateral Agreements Between Québec and Other Governments
Differential fee waivers are also available from a number of external sources, including the Ministère de l'Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport du Québec. Please note that the Québec government grants differential fee waivers to staff and dependants of consulates, foreign government offices, international governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, refugees, immigrants with a work permit containing the case type 07, 08, 20, 22, 23 or 26 with the name of an employer and location that is necessarily situated in Québec, and to students in MELS-approved inter-university exchanges.
Eligibility
A certain number of citizens from countries whose governments have entered into agreements on tuition fees with Québec may be exempted from the supplemental tuition fees normally required of international students. All French citizens and a limited number of citizens from other countries who have established such agreements are eligible for such exemptions.
For more information on how to qualify for differential fee waivers under these provisions, please refer to the website of the Quebec's Ministère d'Éducation et Enseignement Supérieur.
Please note that only 20% of the exemptions for a given country or agency can be used in English universities in Québec, including McGill.