International student funding

An IDSA will be provided automatically to eligible international students registered full time in a doctoral program at the University of Waterloo. Students must meet the academic progress requirements of their program, not have outstanding probationary admission requirements, and not be concurrently receiving tuition awards (e.g., PSI or Lazaridis Tuition Awards) or funding which exceeds the minimum PhD funding value from any government/industry sponsorship (except in the cases where an explicit MOU (or MOA) exists that specifies IDSA inclusion (e.g., Conacyt), or self-funding.

Interested students can refer to the IDSA in the awards database description for detailed eligibility criteria and values. 

Effective May 1, 2019 (spring 2019 admissions cycle), the International Master’s Award of Excellence (IMAE) will be awarded to eligible international master’s students normally entering a research-based graduate program at the University of Waterloo. The award will be valued at $2,500 per term for a maximum of five terms. Faculties will nominate eligible students based on their award allocation and select recipients based on academic excellence as demonstrated through their application for admission to the graduate program and other criteria as identified by the Faculties.

Interested students can refer to our IMAE database description for detailed eligibility criteria. 

The OGS program is funded by the provincial government to encourage excellence in graduate studies at the master’s and doctoral levels. It is a merit-based scholarship and awards are available to students in all disciplines of academic study. A small number of these awards are available to international students. Interested students can refer to our OGS web page for eligibility criteria and Waterloo’s internal application process.

The Trudeau Scholars Program grants up to fifteen new scholarships every year to outstanding doctoral candidates in the social sciences and humanities. The Foundation supports doctoral candidates pursuing research of compelling present-day concern, touching upon one or more of the four themes of the Foundation: human rights and dignity, responsible citizenship, Canada in the world, and people and their natural environment. Trudeau Scholars are actively engaged in their fields, in which they are expected to become leading national and international figures.

Trudeau Scholars are selected through a process that involves nomination by a university, an application supported by references and transcripts, internal and external review and selection panels, an interview, and the formal approval of the Board of Directors.

Interested students can refer to our Pierre Elliott Trudeau Scholarship database description for eligibility criteria.

The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (CGS) program was created to attract and retain world-class doctoral students and to establish Canada as a global center of excellence in research and higher learning. Vanier Scholars demonstrate leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in the social sciences and humanities, natural sciences and engineering, and health-related fields. Canadian and international students are eligible to be nominated for a Vanier Scholarship, which is valued at $50,000 per year for up to three years. 

The scholarships are administered by Canada's three federal granting agencies: the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

Students wishing to apply for a Vanier CGS must do so through the Canadian university to which they are applying for doctoral studies. In an effort to support students in broadening their research horizons and seeking new challenges, the Vanier CGS program strongly encourages candidates to pursue their studies beyond the university that granted their undergraduate and graduate degrees. Based on university-assigned allocations, universities forward a limited number of nominations to the appropriate federal research granting agency (CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC) annually.

If a student is successful in the Vanier CGS competition, they must hold their award at the university that nominated them. The Vanier CGS cannot be taken to another university as it is not transferrable. To determine eligibility as well as how nominees are evaluated, please review the official eligibility criteria and evaluation criteria on the Vanier website.

Please visit our Vanier web page for further details.

For additional scholarship resources, please visit our financial need funding web page.