Financial Assistance/ Scholarships & Awards

Financial Assistance

A limited number of FGSR Master's Teaching Assistantships, Scholarships, and Research Awards are available to students who are Fully-Qualified (see Admission into Program) and enrolled in Full-Time studies. Funding is awarded on a competitive basis, generally to students who maintain an average above 80%.  Teaching Assistantships, also available through the Faculty of Arts, entail certain duties to a maximum of nine hours per week, such as guiding undergraduate students in composition at the Department of English Writing Centre, or assisting English Department members with their instructional activities. The TA is governed by a collective agreement with CUPE Local 2419. M.A.students may hold (but not simultaneously) a maximum of five TAs and/or Scholarships in the course of their Master's program. For further details and current Rates of Pay, see FGSR Funding; or consult the Graduate Calendar.

Scholarships and Awards

For details of other University-wide graduate scholarships and awards, please consult the English Department listing under Scholarships and Awards. (Note: to be eligible for the awards listed below, students are normally expected to have Full-Time status. Undergraduates in the Department of English, or graduate students in other units, may also be eligible for some ofthese awards.)

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada awards a limited number of one-year scholarships ($17,500) to students who have demonstrated a high standard of achievement in undergraduate and early graduate studies in the social sciences and humanities.  To be eligible, students must have achieved a minimum average of 80%, and must be pursuing their first graduate degree at a Canadian university.  Applications must be completed using SSHRC's online application, and in consultation with the Graduate Chair in the Department of English, since students must apply through a process of university-wide adjudication.  Deadline for completed applications, to be submitted to the Graduate Chair for departmental evaluation, is normally November 15 (deadline is set annually).  Interested applicants should visit Scholarships & Awards, and contact the Graduate Chair as early as possible in the fall semester, for further information and support.  The Graduate Chair offers SSHRC information sessions and proposal-writing workshops for applicants in the fall semester.   In the past two years, seven M.A. students in the Department of English have received SSHRC CGS-Master's Scholarships.

Graduating M.A. students with outstanding academic records are eligible to apply for CGS-Doctoral Scholarships ($35,000/year for 3 years), and SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships ($20,000/year for up to 3 years), through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. For further information and support, please see Scholarships & Awards.  Interested applicants should contact the Graduate Chair in English, and attend the scheduled SSHRC information sessions and workshops.  In 2006, a graduating Master's student in the Department of English was the recipient of a CGS-Doctoral Scholarship ($35,000/year for 3years).

Funding is available from the following sources, to support students travelling to present papers at refereed scholarly conferences:

       1.       The Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research Student Conference Travel Awards

On a competitive basis, the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research provides funds (up to $500) to assist Master's and Ph.D. students with costs associated with travel for presentations of paper, posters, or other creative work pertinent to their studies. Applications for travel funds[are assessed and awarded three times a year by means of a Travel Awards competition: deadlines are March 1 (for events scheduled from April 1 to July 31); July 1 (for events scheduled from August 1 to November 30); and November 1(for events scheduled from December 1 to March 31). Students may not receive aStudent Conference Travel Award more than once at the Master's level, or more than twice at the Ph.D. level.  The Graduate Chair, in consultation with the Honours/Graduate Committee in the Department of English, must approve and sign the application form.  Awards are paid to recipients after original receipts for travel and proof of attendance at the event have been submitted to the Scholarship and Awards Office, Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research. For further information, see the link on the Graduate Studies website.

2.       HumanitiesResearch Institute Student Travel Awards

The Humanities Research Institute makes available annually a limited number of travel awards (each worth $500 maximum per student per annum), primarily to assist students registered in humanities programs at the University of Regina to travel to give papers at refereed academic conferences. The funds are intended to help reimburse transportation, accommodation, and registration expenses.
The deadline for submission of completed application forms is normallySeptember 15, for travel in the same calendar year.  For full details on how to apply, see Student TravelAwards on the HRI website.  Interested applicants should also contact the Graduate Chair in the Department of English.

All HRI Student Travel Award winners are automatically eligible for the $500 HRI Student EssayPrize, awarded annually to the student who writes the conference paper deemed by the HRIAdjudication Committee to be the best in that calendar year.  In 2006, theStudent Essay Prize winner was M.A. English student Andrea Ulrich, for heres say "Approaching Reality in The Lord of the Rings," which she had presented at the Tolkien 2005 conference entitled "The Ring Goes Ever On," atAston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom.

3.       Department of English Graduate Travel Awards

The Department of English has a limited amount of funding available, and adjudicated on a competitive basis,for M.A. students travelling to give scholarly papers at refereed conferences.  Interested applicants should write a letter to theDepartment Head, with a copy to the Graduate Chair, requesting travel funds (up to $500).  The letter should specify the details of the conference, and relevance to their program of the proposed conference paper; it should also include the paper proposal or abstract, along with a travel budget and expenses.