Funding for MSc & PhD students

(Full details at links above) 

a) Graduate stipends for eligible students will be partially offset by funding through Graduate Student Supplement (GSS).

b) Tuition & Fees include program fees, mandatory incidental, system access & ancillary fees.

2.  Merit-based Entrance Scholarships (MES)

One year Merit-based Entrance Scholarships, valued at no more than $5,000 each, can be offered to up to 20% of the most highly rated applicants (based on previous year’s enrollment) as determined by the participating graduate units. A student who receives such an Entrance Scholarship, approved by the Graduate Unit offering admissions, will be eligible to retain the full amount over and above their base funding. No other “admissions” or “recruitment” incentive scholarships may be offered by individual graduate units. Doing so would be considered a violation of the Harmonized Base Funding Agreement. Graduate Units will continue to determine and enforce the eligibility of their MES.

3.  Top-Up Practices

All awards that require student applications are eligible for a top-up from their supervisor.  The top-up amounts are as follows:

*Note:

• Within an academic year (or 12 months period), the total cumulative top-up maximum is $5,000. That is, if a student holds an award of $25,000 and another award of $17,500, their total top-up is $5,000.
• The top-up is only provided in amounts of $2,000, $3,000, $4,000, or $5,000 per year (does not exceed 12 months) and is added above the base funding amount.
• A student who receives award(s) higher than $50,000 is not eligible for any top-up and can only retain the award(s) up to a maximum total of $50,000.
• Payment of top-ups will occur annually for the duration of the award and the student will revert back to the appropriate base graduate student funding package amount thereafter.
• Top-up eligibility excludes University of Toronto Fellowship (e.g., UTF Open), Doctoral Completion Awards, Temerty Faculty of Medicine Entrance Scholarship, GSS funds, travel awards, and bursaries.
• Only a single top-up can be administered for awards that span over two academic years. For example, CIHR, QEII, and OGS that commence in May – April annually. We highly recommend commencing such awards in September where possible. Administering top-ups for such awards with a May start should commence as of September in the new academic year.

4.  Ontario Student Opportunity Trust Funds (OSOTF) Awards

Students who receive funding from needs-based and merit awards, such as OSOTFs, are required to consider such funds as part of their base funding. See above for top up policy for such awards.

5.  Bursaries

Non-repayable grants, such as the UTAPS and SGS Emergency Grant, which assists students with sudden and/or unexpected financial need, are not part of the base funding outlined above. A student under these circumstances is therefore eligible to retain the entire amount of such an award.

6.  Funding Terms

In general, provided that the student remains “in good standing”, a doctoral stream student will be funded for their thesis-based program, as per the approved graduate unit funded years. There are four basic principles that guide these funding terms, as follows:

• Full-time MSc students are guaranteed base funding for their first 2 years.
• PhD students admitted with completed master's degree are guaranteed base funding for a minimum of 4 years.
• Transfer students (i.e., transfer from MSc to PhD students), are guaranteed minimum base funding for their first 5 years, which includes 1 year as an MSc student.
• Direct-entry PhD students admitted with a bachelor's degree are guaranteed base funding for a minimum of 5 years.

Updated: 24-June-2026

To be awarded to graduate students in the Department of Physiology in recognition of the student's achievements to date and future potential. This scholarship is tenable only while the student is present as a full-time graduate student under the supervision of a primary or cross-appointed member of the Department of Physiology. The student must continue to seek external peer review funding from other university, provincial and national sources. HOW DO WE APPLY??? 

Dr. Jack Kraicer has been dedicated to the academic excellence of our students for many years. Through his directorship of the CIHR grant writing course he has touched the academic lives of all of our PhD students in the Department. To acknowledge this dedication and contribution, this award has been named in his honour. The Kraicer award is given to recognize excellence in scholarship during doctoral studies in the Department of Physiology. Each year the award winner will receive an inscribed plaque and $1,000.

1. Queen Elizabeth II/R. Howard Webster Foundation/Genesis Research Foundation/Physiology Graduate Scholarships in Science and Technology
2. Queen Elizabeth II/Physiology/Medicine Graduate Scholarships in Science and Technology

2025-26 Graduate Stimulus Package

ONLY PI'S CAN APPLY FOR THIS, CORRECT? ARE STUDENTS ALLOWED TO FLAG IT FOR THEM? IF SO, THEN THERE NEEDS TO BE INSTRUCTION TO THAT EFFECT?

The Canada Postdoctoral Research Award (CPRA) program recognizes and supports the next generation of outstanding innovators, knowledge workers, creative thinkers and researchers at a pivotal time in their careers. The program provides funding and flexibility, empowering Canadian and international leaders in innovation and scholarship of tomorrow to develop the skills to build world-class research and drive Canadian prosperity and competitiveness.

Please visit the official Tri-Agency CPRA webpage for eligibility and application information.

The CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards recognize Canadian doctoral dissertations that represent original work, making an unusually significant contribution to their disciplines. Two awards are given annually in rotating fields of study. Both methodological and substantive quality of the dissertation will be judged.

The China Scholarship Council (CSC) is a non-profit institution affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education. In partnership with the University of Toronto, the CSC offers scholarships to outstanding Chinese students who will pursue postdoctoral studies at U of T.

Please note that the CSC postdoctoral award (approx. CDN $15,000 per year) does not meet the U of T policy regarding stipend levels for postdoctoral fellows. Postdocs who obtain a CSC scholarship will be required to obtain another award or to investigate top-up funding with their U of T supervisor.

The Office of the Governor General annually offers gold medals to honour academic excellence at the graduate level. Three gold medals are available at the University of Toronto.

One medal will be awarded to a candidate from Division I or II; one medal will be awarded to a candidate from Division III or IV; the third medal will be awarded to an outstanding candidate from any division. All nominees will be invited to attend the awards ceremony in May, hosted by the Dean, Graduate Studies and Vice-Provost, Graduate Research and Education. The winners will be announced and presented with the medals at this ceremony.

To honour the achievement of John Charles Polanyi, recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the Ontario Government established a fund to provide John Charles Polanyi Prizes annually to up to five outstanding researchers or scholars who are in the early stages of their career and at Ontario universities. The prizes is currently valued at $20,000 each. They are available in the areas of Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Economic Science, broadly defined.