Awards and Funding

The Department of Sociology provides competitive funding packages to all full-time graduate students in the department. Our funding approach-which includes employment, scholarships, and research and travel awards-is designed to support both the scholarly and the professional development of each graduate student.

The Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research administers and adjudicates a great variety of scholarships and fellowships.

For newly admitted students, the department can nominate those with outstanding academic records for Recruitment Scholarships.

Each year, all eligible Master's and PhD students in Sociology are expected to apply for Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council fellowships; students receive support for their applications through proposal workshops offered each fall. The department also nominates outstanding incoming or current students for the SSHRC Vanier Canada Graduate scholarships.

Doctoral students who are successful at winning a major doctoral scholarship from SSHRC or the Trudeau Foundation are eligible for the President's Doctoral Prize of Distinction.

Students who hold a SSHRC MA scholarship are eligible for the Walter H. Johns Graduate Fellowship from the University of Alberta, valued at the equivalent of tuition and fees.

The department also encourages and supports eligible doctoral students to apply for other major awards such as the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarships ($35,000 plus tuition and fees) and the Trudeau Foundation Scholarships (up to $60,000 per year); international students are eligible for these two awards.

Students in the department are also regularly nominated for the Andrew Stewart Memorial Graduate Prize ($5,000), and/or one of the more than fifty scholarships and fellowships administered each year through FGSR's General Awards competition. International students are eligible for a number of these awards. The Government of Alberta also offers graduate awards, including the Alberta Award for the Study of Canadian Human Rights and Multiculturalism ($10,000) at the MA or PhD level).

Loans and bursaries can be accessed through the Student Service Centre.