polyparl

Of course an increase in funding for ALL graduate students is still needed. However, to complain about this increase in funding as an award holder feels very tone deaf. Those who do not hold Tri-Council funding and are paid solely from supervisor grants (in general) make way less than those who do. There are many more problems in my mind that are unfair with the way they implemented this increase. Those who activated in May 2024 will not get $120000, and instead get $113667. A small difference sure, but unfair as it's the same competition. Those who were awarded scholarships prior to 2024 do not get retroactive payments. While this was also to be expected due to how funding works, I'm sure you can agree that it feels very unfair to be in their position. Asking for 4+ years of funding would only mean they would not increase the amount of awards for future competitions. That is just how funding works, and unfortunately funding for graduate students is way too limited. As an award holder, obviously I would prefer to get more years of funding for myself. But with how it stands, the equitable answer is to increase the amount of awards so more people may benefit later on.

This was to be expected. The federal government is consolidating NSERC, CIHR, and SSHRC doctoral awards into one program. The NSERC PGS D, NSERC CGS D, CIHR CGS D, SSHRC CGS D, and Vanier CGS D were all 3 year awards. The only award that was 4 years is the SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship. In the end, those with the SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship are getting a 50% increase from 80k to 120k, and it is important to note that rather than waiting 4 years to get 80k, you will get 80k in 2 years which really makes a huge difference. Of course it would have been amazing if they were all increased to 4 years, but that would probably be asking for too much with the increase in award values and the eventual increase in award numbers in future competitions.