Student Award Payment Process
Many graduate programs commit an annual amount of funding to incoming students. Depending on the program, these funding packages may include competitive awards, training awards from the student's supervisor, tuition scholarships offered by the program, and training awards for departmental Teaching Assistantships or Lab Instructorships.
Information regarding a student's annually committed funding may come at the time the student is made an offer of admission, or after the student has accepted their offer.
With the exception of funding for students in the Joint Master's Programs, all funding processed by the Faculty of Graduate Studies is first applied to the recipient's student financial account to cover any outstanding amounts owing in the term the award is paid. The remaining funds are issued to the student as a lump sum, in the form of a cheque. Typically, students receive this cheque in the second month of each term.
Most students have their annually committed funding applied to their student dispersed using the default award distribution.
The Default Award Distribution
On the default award distribution, all funding sources processed by the Faculty of Graduate studies are first added together, and the total funding is distributed according to the following schemas:
- Awards totaling less than $5,000 are applied to the student’s accounts in the first term of enrollment in the academic year
- Awards totaling between $5,000 and $9,999.99 are applied to the student’s account in two instalments: 60% in the first term of enrolment in the academic year, and 40% in the second term
- Awards totaling $10,000 and greater are applied to student accounts in three instalments: 40% in the first term of enrolment in the academic year, and 30% in the second and third term
Exceptions to the Default Award Distribution
Depending on the source, some awards cannot be paid according to the default award distribution. Those awards will typically be applied to the recipient’s student financial account in a one-time lump sum.
In cases where one or more award source must be paid as a one-time sum, the Faculty of Graduate Studies will allot the remaining funding to approximate the default distribution as closely as possible. However, depending on the circumstances, one-time awards may cause significant variations to the default distribution.
One-Time Award Distributions
Supervisors and other sources of funding may opt for a one-time lump sum award applied to the recipient's student financial account in a given month. These one-time awards are typically used for top-up awards throughout the academic year and department funded Teaching Assistantships and Lab Instructorships.
Questions about student funding processes and procedures may be sent to graduateawards@uwinnipeg.ca. Questions regarding the funding procedures and packages offered by specific graduate programs should be directed to the Graduate Program Chair or Contact Person.