Board approves $1 million in new support

Posted May 10, 2002


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 10, 2002 2002-05-09-OTHER

Board approves $1 million in new support
for graduate students

Today the Board of Governors at the University of Saskatchewan approved a
plan to add $1 million to the Graduate Scholarship Fund used to provide
scholarship and teaching assistantships to graduate students.

"Graduate students play an integral role in the university's research and
teaching programs," said Tom Wishart, Dean of the College of Graduate
Studies and Research. "Without the valuable contributions of graduate
students the University simply could not teach as many undergraduate
students, nor would faculty be as successful in applications to national and
international granting agencies."

The new program was developed by Tom Wishart, with input from the Graduate
Students Association. It will increase the Ph.D scholarship to $18,000 and
the Master's scholarship to $15,000. Approximately $650,000 of the new funds
will be used to raise the scholarships provided to current students, while
the remaining $350,000 will enable the university to increase its cohort of
graduate students.

Canada's Innovation Agenda and the federal government's initiatives to
strengthen the country's research capacity have made for an extremely
competitive environment with respect to attracting high quality students.
Universities across the country have begun to take steps to increase
graduate student scholarships and stipends.

"Our agenda to be nationally and internationally competitive requires the
University of Saskatchewan to be a major presence in graduate education,"
said university president, Peter MacKinnon. "A substantial investment at
this time indicates we are serious about these issues."

The University of Saskatchewan offers Ph.D and Master's degrees in over 70
programs. Currently almost 1900 graduate students are studying at the U of S
and more than 400 of them convocate annually. These alumni can be found
living and working in all parts of the world.

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For more information, please contact:

Dr. Tom Wishart
Dean
College of Graduate Studies and Research
University of Saskatchewan
(306) 966-5759