Aboriginal Graduate Fellowship Bridge Funding, University of British Columbia

Quick Facts

The Faculty of Graduate Studies will match funds provided by graduate programs (to a maximum of $8,000 per student and to a maximum of $50,000 in total) to support Master’s and doctoral Aboriginal students registered at the UBC-Vancouver campus for the September 2013 to August 2014 year. This funding is intended to support students until they can apply for the next regular Aboriginal Graduate Fellowship competition.  Award winners are selected on the basis of academic merit through a competition administered by the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

Award Status: 
Active
Deadline: 

May 2013 - check with graduate program

Eligibility

• All Aboriginal students are eligible to apply, but priority is given to Aboriginal graduate students whose traditional territory falls, at least in part, within Canada. This includes Canadian First Nations, Métis or Inuit students and may include Aboriginal students from Alaska and the northern states of the USA.
• Applicants must be registered in a UBC graduate program as full-time students as of September 2013. 
• Students in the following programs are not eligible:  MEng, MM, MBA, and PharmD.
• Students must be registered in a graduate program at the UBC-Vancouver campus.
• Recipients are required to limit their number of hours of employment to an average of 12 hours per week.

Citizenship: 
Canadian
Citizenship: 
Permanent Resident
Citizenship: 
International
Degree Level: 
Masters
Degree Level: 
Doctoral
Applicant Status: 
Incoming Students
Applicant Status: 
Continuing Students
Evaluation Criteria

Academic excellence (applicants for Master`s funding - 50%; applicants for doctoral funding - 30%)

• Academic record
• Scholarships and awards held
• Duration of previous studies

Research ability or potential (applicants for Master`s funding - 30%; applicants for doctoral funding - 50%)

• Quality of contributions to research and development
• Relevance of work experience and academic training to field of proposed research
• Significance, feasibility, and merit of proposed research, and justification for location of tenure
• Ability to think critically
• Ability to apply skills and knowledge
• Judgment
• Originality
• Initiative and autonomy
• Enthusiasm for research
• Determination and ability to complete projects within an appropriate period of time

Communication, interpersonal and leadership abilities (all applicants - 20%)

• The ability or potential to communicate concepts clearly and logically in written and oral formats. For example, this could include:
  • quality of the application's presentation
  • participation in preparing publications
  • awards for oral presentations or papers
• Professional and relevant extracurricular interactions and collaborations. For example, this could include:
• mentoring
• teaching
• supervisory experience
• project management
• chairing committees
• organizing conferences and meetings
• elected positions held

Procedures
Application Procedures: 

Applicants must check with their graduate program regarding their program’s internal nomination procedures and deadline. Internal application deadlines are normally several weeks before the Faculty of Graduate Studies deadline, as graduate programs must review students' applications well in advance of the Faculty of Graduate Studies deadline of Friday, May 24, 2013.

Applicants who were previously nominated for the regular Aboriginal Graduate Fellowship competition in February 2013 do not need to re-submit application materials, but do need to confirm with their graduate program that they would like to be considered for the Aboriginal Graduate Fellowship Bridge Funding.

New applicants must submit the following materials to their graduate program at UBC:

• Completed Aboriginal Graduate Fellowships Bridge Funding application form.
• Academic records for all university-level studies (including studies undertaken but not completed) up to December 31, 2012. For institutions other than UBC, only official transcripts will be accepted.  These may be original or certified true copies provided by the applicant's graduate program.  For UBC, the applicant's "Academic History" printed from the SISC by the applicant's graduate program will be accepted. Please note that students must request certified true copies of transcripts from their graduate program, not from the Faculty of Graduate Studies.
• One letter of recommendation. Only recommendation letters signed by the person providing the reference are acceptable; original, faxed, and scanned copies sent by e-mail directly to the student’s graduate program are acceptable.

Nomination Procedures: 

Graduate programs are to:

• verify eligibility of applicants
• review and rank applicants
• prepare a department cover letter for each nominee (maximum two pages per nominee) providing:
  • confirmation of funding provided by graduate program.  This funding may be in the form of (i) GSI funding, (ii) funding from another department-recommended award, or (iii) departmental funding that will be transferred to the Faculty of Graduate Studies by Journal Voucher.  The Faculty of Graduate Studies will match the graduate program funding up to a maximum of $8,000 per student.
  • the applicant's rank and the reasons for that ranking.
• Forward complete nomination file(s) (including materials listed under "Application Procedures" above) to the Faculty of Graduate Studies by 4:00 pm on Friday, May 24, 2013.

Adjudication Procedures: 

The Faculty of Graduate Studies will convene an adjudication committee made up of UBC faculty members, which will review review the applications and select the successful applicants.

The Faculty of Graduate Studies will notify graduate programs of the competition results for their applicants.

Further Information

Questions about this fundin opportunity should be directed to Graduate Awards Clerk Angela Rizzo.