University-Related Employment for Full-Time Graduate Students
In order to qualify as full time under ministry rules, graduate students must:
- Be pursuing studies as a full-time occupation.
- Identify themselves as full-time graduate students.
- Be designated by the university as full-time graduate students.
- Be geographically available and visit the campus regularly, graduate students, while still under supervision, may be absent from their university (e.g. visiting libraries, doing field work, attending a graduate course at another institution, etc.) provided that, if any such period of absence exceeds four weeks in any one term, written evidence shall be available in the Graduate Studies Office to the effect that the absence has the approval of the chairperson of the department and the dean of Graduate Studies.
Funding Opportunities
In order to be eligible for graduate student employment opportunities, domestic and international students must have a valid Social Insurance Number (SIN) and they must have a domestic bank account. Students who do not have a domestic bank account must verify that their bank can accept a Canadian cheque.
A Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) assists academic units in delivering on their teaching mission. A GTA provides assistance to faculty while gaining valuable teaching experience.
Assistantship functions do not include clerical, technical or administrative work not related to teaching.
Note: For more information on Graduate Teaching Assistants, visit the FGPS Teaching Assistants webpage.
A graduate student may be employed as a Research Assistant by a faculty member. This position is typically funded by a faculty member’s research grant, and the tasks are formally prescribed, assigned and completed on a fixed schedule.
The primary purpose of the Research Assistant is to perform required tasks for the faculty member's own research project. The work is determined by the researcher and may be unrelated, or loosely related, to the student's own academic pursuits.
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Masters-level |
Doctoral-level |
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Min |
Max |
Min |
Max |
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Current recommended range *Payment may not be less than the minimum of the range |
$27* |
$35 |
$35* |
$43 |
Faculty are required to complete a Graduate Student Support Form – Research Assistantship to help determine the nature of the relationship between the student, the faculty researcher and/or the project through this funding opportunity. This completed form must be submitted to the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies to make payment arrangements.
Depending on the qualifications and selection processes as outlined in the Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty Association Collective Agreement, some graduate students may receive a Contract Teaching Faculty (CTF) appointment to teach a course. Consult your academic unit for more information about CTF appointments.
Additonal Notes
CTF: 1 course: Where a full-time student within the normal funding period undertakes a (0.5 credit) posting-exempt CTF position, such a position replaces 1 GTAship in the academic year.
CTF: 2 courses: Students engaged in full-time graduate studies who accept 2 courses (1.0 credit equivalent) as CTF in one semester are required to petition to the GSAC for part-time registration in the teaching term.
- Where a student holds a major external award, they may apply for an interruption of their award for the term in which they are anticipating taking on this responsibility. If approved by the TriAgency, they are required to petition for part-time registration for the teaching semester on the basis of the award interruption for the purposes of full-time teaching; they are expected to return to full-time registration thereafter and their external award can recommence.
- Where a student is registered full-time (with no major external award), and they are within their funding period, they are required to petition for part-time registration for the teaching semester for the purposes of full-time teaching; they are expected to return to full-time registration thereafter and their MGF funding would recommence (that is, the term of part-time registration would be considered “stopping the clock” on MGF, rather than foregoing a term of MGF for the term of part-time registration).
- Where a student is registered full-time (and no longer MGF-eligible), they are required to petition for part-time registration for the teaching semester for the purposes of full-time teaching; they are expected to return to full-time registration thereafter.
In all cases, consultation with the advisor before accepting 2 teaching positions in one semester is expected, to identify any potential negative outcomes, including jeopardizing the timely completion of the degree.