UCGSA Federal Budget Submission

CALGARY——Last month, the University of Calgary Graduate Students’ Association (UCGSA) and our colleagues at the University of Calgary Students’ Association (UCSU) submitted our budgetary recommendations to the House Standing Committee on Finance. This submission is part of the pre-budget consultations undertaken by the federal government. 

Our recommendations focused on increasing the amount of federal funding graduate students receive while further connecting you, our members, to national work and research-related opportunities. Given the tight fiscal environment Canada is facing, and the fact that the federal government has many competing priorities to fund, we aimed to find innovative ways of increasing graduate stipends. Thanks to your feedback from our Comprehensive Advocacy survey, we also knew that work-integrated learning and post-graduation work opportunities were major priorities. 

As such, our recommendations are: 

Recommendation 1: That the government provide funding in the amount of $30 million for an Accessible Campus Fund, modelled on the existing Enabling Accessibility Fund,1 to support retrofitting or introducing accessibility features at publicly funded post-secondary institutions.

Recommendation 2: That the government creates a second stream of Canada Graduate Scholarship awards focusing on the commercialization potential of graduate research projects. 

Recommendation 3: That the government indexes the value of Canada Graduate Scholarship master’s and doctoral awards to the Consumer Price Index. 

Recommendation 4: That the government includes graduate student research assistantships as an administrative cost for the Research Support Fund. 

Recommendation 5: That the government earmarks a portion of federal funding dollars to a “Graduate Trainee Allocation Fund” to support graduate student research beyond the Canadian Graduate Scholarship competition. 

Recommendation 6: That the government increases financial support for Mitacs by supporting a greater number of fellowships and expanding placements in Mitacs’ training courses. 

Recommendation 7: That the government implements a comprehensive program, in partnership with U15 and Universities Canada, to provide paid employment opportunities for graduate students in each institution’s Technology Transfers Office, including course-based students. 

These recommendations, and our continued advocacy around international student issues, will make up the bulk of our federal advocacy for the next year. We’ll make sure we keep membership updated as we move closer to the release of the federal budget. 

If you have any questions, please reach out to advocacy.gsa@ucalgary.ca.