Academic Life

Travel Support

Amongst the most memorable experiences of our graduate degrees are the conferences that we get to attend. To ease the financial burden, which these conferences may inflict on you or your supervisor, the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research as well as the Graduate Students' Association provide travel support to major academic events.

  • The FGSR Graduate Travel Award offers an allowance of up to $2,000 for attending a single academic event during the degree of any graduate student. Some restrictions on GPA and completed years of your program apply.
  • The GSA Academic Travel Award offers travel allowance of up to $500 for Master students and up to $1,000 for Doctoral students. Funds may be split across several events, but are limited to $500 per fiscal year (April 1 – March 31).

Professional Development

There are a variety of organizations and services at the University of Alberta with the goal to further your professional development skills. At the most general level, the University of Alberta Career Centre organizes career fairs and industry mixers and offers workshops on interview and resume writing skills. In a similar spirit, but focusing entirely on graduate students, ABCampus aims to further career development and to connect graduate students with representatives form industry. eHUB supports student entrepreneurs and offers them space and opportunity to pursue their innovative ideas. Finally, with a more academic focus, the FGSR Graduate Teaching and Learning Program aims to improve your teaching skills through pedagogy sessions as well as in-class teaching experience under the guidance of a teaching mentor. After completing the second level of the Graduate Teaching and Learning Program, you will receive an entry on your official transcript.

Equity Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI)

For more references related to EDI, please consult one of the Department's EDI webpage, the Faculty of Science EDI webpage, or the University EDI webpage. You can also contact one of the SIGMAS executives for further information.

Centre for Writers

Especially helpful for students with English as a second language, but available to anybody who needs help with academic writing, the Centre for Writers offers free tutors to help you with writing research papers, grant proposals or your thesis. They also offer one-hour workshops on a variety of writing-based topics.

Library

An irreplaceable resource for your studies and research are the on-campus libraries with their countless books and online access to many peer reviewed journals. Most notable for our studies is the Math Library in Cameron. Note that they do buy books on recommendation if you need a book that would enhance their collection. The libraries also offer quiet study spaces in case the air conditioning in CAB fails.

Thesis Template

At the end of your degree you will reach the point where you need to write your thesis. While we cannot help you with its content, we can help you with the FGSR formatting requirements. Here you can download a LaTeX template that was created by Hongtao Yang and modified by Benjamin Bernard to meet the requirements as of Spring 2016.

Student Life

Bike Rental and Workshop

Sustain SU offers bike rental at a very low rate of $20 a month. Alternatively, bikes can also be rented on a weekly or daily basis for $10 and $5, respectively. Additionally, Sustain SU has a bike workshop in SAB 1-13, where they provide the tools to mend your own bike. Sustain SU has a few other useful programs as well, such as safe electronics recycling and the Reusable Dish Program, where student groups can order reusable dishes for their events.

Health Care

If you have a health issue, visit the free Health Clinic in SUB 2-200 for a first examination. They may prescribe you medicine to pick up from the pharmacy or refer you to a specialist. In any case, Alberta Health Care and the GSA Health & Dental Plan have you mostly covered. Check here to find out which specialists offer discounted rates to students and how much coverage is included in your graduate plan. Finally, to get your health expenses reimbursed up to the plan limit, fill in the appropriate forms available here or in the Student Health & Dental Plan Office in SUB 6-14.

Mental Health

Graduate life can be stressful with research, coursework and TA, especially if you have just moved away from family and friends. Trained professionals at Counselling & Clinical Services are available in SUB 2-600 for individual consultations or group sessions, such as the Graduate Student Support and Strategy Group. Moreover, they offer workshops on a variety of topics that may be of interest to you. Additionally, the Students' Union has the Peer Support Centre, where student volunteers provide support in difficult situations. The Graduate Student Assistance Program (GSAP) is another resource available to current graduate students for mental health support. Through this program you also have access to Homewood Health e-Services.

Housing Registry

Looking for a place to live while you complete your studies? Renting Spaces is an online off-campus housing registry tailored specifically for students studying in a few select Canadian cities (including Edmonton).

Insurance

The University of Alberta Graduate Student Association has partnerships with TD Home and Auto Insurance meaning that you, as a graduate student, may have access to preferred insurance rates on home and car insurance. Interested? Be sure to check out the full details at this link.

Sports and Recreation

Recreation Services at the University of Alberta offers classes in a wide variety of activities, organizes intramural sports, provides a brand new gym and climbing wall in the PAW Centre and offers drop-in classes that do not require registration.

UofA Dance Club

The University of Alberta Dance Club offers beginner's and intermediate classes in ballroom. They organize ballroom socials about once a month. For other types of dances, consider RecServices.

Outdoors Club

If you are the outdoorsy type, the University of Alberta Outdoors Club is the club to join for you. They offer reasonably cheap weekend trips to the Rocky mountains and other outdoors locations in the area, as well as a yearly Christmas trip to California.

International Students

International Student Services

The transition to a new country and a new culture may be difficult. The International Student Services at the University of Alberta offer a variety of services to ease this transition. Very popular among their services is the peer program, in which incoming graduate students are matched with senior graduate students to provide guidance and social support.

Tax Clinic

Filing taxes is always a tedious task, but it can be particularly frustrating after you have just moved to a new country. In their Tax Clinic, volunteers from the University of Alberta Accounting Club fill in the tax report for you, provided that you provide them with the proper tax slips from Bear Tracks. The Tax Clinic is held during the month of March when the tax reports are due; check their website for precise dates. If you prefer to file taxes yourself, there are a couple of free and intuitive online programs available, for example SimpleTax.

Renewal of Study Permit

Since the precise duration of a graduate degree is rarely known at the beginning, many of us international students will have to renew their study permit at one point or another. This can be done online, but there is no possibility to save your application until you have uploaded all the necessary documents. It is thus most efficient to start by collecting all the necessary documents. Which documents you need is outlined in this nice guide from the University of New Brunswick.

Our Friends

Mathematical Sciences Society

The Mathematical Sciences Society (MSS) is the undergraduate counterpart to SIGMAS. It is a group for all undergraduate students enthusiastic about mathematics and statistics, hoping to connect with like-minded individuals. Their lounge is located at CAB 453.

CSGSA

As the name suggests, the Computing Science Graduate Students' Association (CSGSA) is our equivalent in the Department of Computing Science. We collaborate with the CSGSA to organize social events that reach beyond the borders of our own department.

Graduate Students' Association

The Graduate Students' Association (GSA) is an important student body, representing graduate students' interests across all departments. Amongst other things, they negotiate a Collective Agreement for academically-employed graduate students and a Dental & Health plan for graduate students.

Science Graduate Student Association Council

The Science Graduate Student Association Council (SGSAC) is an organization that brings together the Faculty of Science graduate student associations at the University of Alberta in order to facilitate dialogue and collaboration between their constituencies.