Financial support for eligible full-time students is determined before an applicant is recommended for admission. A letter of offer from the School of Graduate Studies will include all details of financial support, if any. There is no financial support for part-time students.

Sources of support may be:

1. From a supervisor's research grant;
2. Awards made to students who have applied to external agencies (e.g. Ontario Graduate Scholarship [OGS], Canadian Institutes of Health Research [CIHR], Heart and Stroke Foundation);
3. Internal or endowed scholarships and bursaries;
4. A limited number of teaching assistantships which may be used to supplement the funding described above.
5. Visa bursaries, one or two of which are available to assist Visa students in payment of tuition fees.

Stipends are available to help support full-time MSc students. The availability of stipends depends on the research grant support available to faculty members for students. Students who request financial support from a faculty member's research grant must complete a thesis-based master's degree. It is expected that these students will work in their supervisor's research program; their thesis stems from this work and will be supervised by the faculty member who supplies the stipend. An interview may be requested of students who are being considered for stipends by potential supervisors. Please ensure that we know how to reach you in February and March if you wish to be considered for stipend support. Full-time support should not be expected for more than two years.

The minimum level of support for eligible PhD students in the Health Research Methodology Graduate Program during 2018-2019 will be $21,500 per annum and efforts are made to secure support for MSc Stream II students at a minimum level of $19,400 per annum.

Teaching Assistantships

A limited number of Teaching Assistantships (TA's) are available to regular full-time students. In 2018/2019 a half TA consisting of 130 hours of work + 3 training hours will be valued at $5,802.79. Employment conditions for Teaching Assistants are outlined in the collective agreement between McMaster University and the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

Ph.D. students are encouraged to obtain external peer-reviewed personnel awards to support themselves during their study. Agencies such as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and the Ontario Ministry of Health (OMH) provide fellowship opportunities for students proposing a career in health care/health service research. Certain specialty funding agencies, such as the National Cancer Institute of Canada and the Ontario Heart and Stroke Foundation, also have competitions for such awards. Information and addresses of agencies and foundations should be available from your nearest university library or graduate studies office. Applicants should bear in mind that the deadline for applications to some of these agencies is in the fall of each year.

Full-time HRM students are strongly encouraged to apply for 
internal and external scholarships.