Funding

The Faculty of Arts offers PhD students a minimum level of funding. Starting in Fall 2025, the School of Accounting and Finance will offer students additional funding that will bring the minimum funding to $36,000 per year for four years. 

Funding is contingent upon working as a research assistant or a teaching assistant for up to 10 hours per week during each of the four years. Students are encouraged to apply for funding from external sources.  

Learn more about student financial services, funding graduate school and internal Waterloo awards

External funding sources

Government Sources

Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) Program

The deadline for application is in fall of the preceding year. This award is for $15,000 per year and can be held for up to four years. Applicants need not be residents of Ontario; even holders of student visas can apply, but only a restricted number of awards are available for this category. No previous graduate-level training is required to apply, so it is possible to receive an award for the first year of a PhD program. 

If you are not already registered in a graduate program at Waterloo, your proposed department is the graduate program to which you are applying for admission. Your OGS/QEII-GSST application and supporting documents should be emailed to this department. 

A student can not hold both a SSHRC award and an OGS award.

The University of Waterloo supplements Ontario Graduate Scholarships by providing the recipient with up to $10,000 of additional funds in the form of a President's Graduate Scholarship.

Learn more about the Ontario Graduate Scholarship.

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Doctoral Awards

The application deadline is fall of the year before the award is to start. Only Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada can apply; holders of student visas are not eligible.

There are two types of SSHRC awards, both of which use the same application form: CGS Doctoral Scholarships, which are for $40,000 per year for up to three years; and SSHRC Doctoral Fellowships, which are for $40,000 per year for up to three years.

The University of Waterloo supplements both types of SSHRC awards by providing the recipient with up to $10,000 of additional funds in the form of a President's Graduate Scholarship.

Learn more about SSHRC awards.

Private sources

Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario member fee reduction

PhD students in our program who are Ontario CPAs qualify for a 100% reduction of their fees for Institute membership. Students at both the course work stage and the thesis stage of the program are eligible to apply.

The Institutes of other provinces generally have some type of fee reduction for full-time university attendance, so students who are CPAs from other provinces may wish to check with their Institute.

Learn More about the CPA member fee reduction.