Scholarships and Funding

Internal Fellowships and Awards:

You do not need to submit a separate application for internal funding. Available awards and fellowships are allocated during the admissions process as well as during the program, and are based on academic performance. As a condition of these awards, you must email the Graduate Program Coordinator to declare any external funding you have been awarded in order to satisfy the internal awards policy listed below.

Support (from UVic Fellowships/Graduate Awards) is available to Law graduate students:

• LLM students — up to $15,000 for the first year. Subsequent funding of up to an additional $5,000 will be determined on a case by case basis for a fourth term.
• PhD students — up to $20,000 for the first year. Subsequent funding of up to $20,000 per year will be determined on a year to year basis for a total maximum of three years.

You must make arrangements to pay your tuition and mandatory other fees, as it is not possible for us to waive your fees nor deduct them from your awards.

Please note that new and renewed fellowships and awards are not automatic or guaranteed.

University of Victoria funding:

There are several other fellowships and scholarships at the University of Victoria which may be applied for after admission to the program.  You may find these on the UVic awards and fellowships page under Donor Award List - Application Required, advertised elsewhere in the University, or emailed via the Graduate Program Coordinator.

External funding:

You should apply for grants and fellowships from other departments, institutions, and agencies including the SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) for both Masters and Doctoral, Trudeau Foundation, the Law Society of British Columbia, the Law Foundation of British Columbia, etc.

Students who are admitted with a SSHRC in place, or who are thinking about applying, please note that if you are successful, the Faculty of Graduate Studies will top up your SSHRC award with a $5,000 President's Research Scholarship for each year you receive the SSHRC award. 

The Graduate Program Coordinator will notify registered graduate students of available funding opportunities, whenever possible.  Additional information on these and other awards are available from:

• Graduate Studies External Scholarships
• Scholarship List
• International funding opportunities

Bursaries:

Bursaries are non-repayable awards based on financial need and good academic standing.

Applications and eligibility information are available from Students Awards and Financial Aid.

Travel funding:

The Graduate Program in Law and Society offers some travel funding to support currently enrolled LLM and PhD students with attending and presenting at conferences and participating in field work.  Complete details can be found on the travel funding page.

Working on Campus:

When faculty members have a need, they do advertise for Research Assistant positions.  The Graduate Program Coordinator will advertise these when possible, and your supervisor and supervisory committee are often key people in terms of obtaining this sort of work.

We do not usually have teaching assistantships available to graduate students. Sometimes other departments have teaching assistantships that match with our graduate students' backgrounds.

There are occasionally other opportunities available for teaching and teaching assistant experience.  A small number of PhD students, after completing their coursework and/or candidacy exam, do obtain sessional teaching contracts in our Faculty or in other departments.

More information about how to find jobs on campus is available on the Co-operative Education Program & Career Services website.

Faculty of Law Internal Awards Policy:

It is a condition of any funding offered to students through the Faculty of Law or the Faculty of Graduate Studies that if you obtain other scholarship funding you must inform us.  Barring exceptional circumstances, some or all of the excess will then be reallocated to another needy student.  Students may not hold another major award (e.g. SSHRC) in conjunction with program funding.  Please refer to our Internal Funding Structure (currently being updated - refer to Graduate Program Coordinator) for the thresholds set for clawbacks of internal funding in this situation.