SGPS External Funding Project

The long term direction at Western is to have all scholarship (T4A) income paid directly through the student system (Student Center).

All employment-related (T4) income will continue to be paid through the Human Resources system.

Effective September 2010, SGPS, in collaboration with the Society of Graduate Students, will be introducing improvements to the process for transferring NSERC, SSHRC, OGS and QEIIgsst scholarship funds to students. (We will be incorporating the payment of CIHR external scholarships in a future phase of this project.)   

Key Improvements for Students:

  • Students can access one system (Student Center) for an overall view of their scholarship income. (Employment income, e.g. GTA, RA, will still be viewed through myHumanResources).
  • Payment of external scholarships follows processes already in use to pay internal scholarships (e.g. WGRS) through the Student Center including the issuing of T4A tax receipts
  • No additional arrangements will be needed between the student and the Registrar's office to pay tuition in installments or to follow up on late payments.  The scholarship money is first applied against outstanding tuition, with no need for special arrangements or transfers.  Any residual funds are passed on to the students in the first two weeks of the term (in the past, students received their funds only on the second-last banking day of each month).
  • Access to an online external scholarship application tracking tool within the Student Center which allows students to activate or decline their external scholarship. 
  • Automated e-mail communications are sent to students as their applications progress through the various phases of the competition cycle
  • External scholarships will be displayed on transcripts for those who have activated their award at Western

Key Improvements for Graduate Programs and SGPS:

  • Improved processes for tracking and measuring the progression of the scholarships
  • Improved processes for communicating with students through the life-cycle of the scholarship application process with automated e-mail communications
  • Access to all information in one location
  • New documentation and training for end-users
  • Improved business process implemented for administration of Vanier, NSERC, SSHRC, OGS, and QEIIgsst
  • An automated way to ‘award’ the external scholarships in the Student Center by uploading the agency results.

External Scholarship Payments

This project is being undertaken to resolve issues associated with paying scholarship monies through the Human Resource system, rather than administering them in the Student Center. Moving the administration of these scholarships to the Student Center will mean that they will now be part of the students' overall scholarship support package and will be processed as a credit on their student accounts.

In the past, scholarship money could not be applied to the tuition charges within the Student Center - students received money from one account, only to have to turn around and pay it into another account. Furthermore, students received scholarship money in monthly installments, but are obliged to pay tuition fees in one large payment at the beginning of every term or be charged an additional fee to pay in installments. This led to a variety of financial issues. 

With the new process, SGPS-administered external scholarship funds will be paid to students at the beginning of each term, along with any other scholarship items (e.g. WGRS). The scholarship money will first be applied against outstanding tuition, with no need for special arrangements or transfers. Any residual funds will be passed on to the students immediately (past practice saw students receiving funds only on the second-last banking day of each month).

Moving external scholarships within the Student Center framework will also make possible certain improvements in handling and tracking scholarship applications. In particular, it will be possible to have real-time tracking of a student's applications through its various stages from Program, to SGPS, to the National or Provincial agency - finally through to the activation of payment of the award for successful applicants.

External Scholarships on Transcripts

As of March 30th, 2011, external scholarships that have been held by a graduate student since September 2008 will appear on official Western transcripts. This service has been made possible now that the application and payment administration of most major external scholarships has been moved to the Student Center. The launch of this new service is the result of a collaborative effort including SGPS, the Office of the Registrar, Western Information Systems Group, and the Society of Graduate Students.

Approved by the Graduate Education Council on October 4th, 2010 and by Senate onNovember 12th, 2010, the following graduate external scholarships will be noted specifically as follows on the official Western transcript retroactive to September 1st, 2008:

  • Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship – NSERC
  • Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship – SSHRC
  • NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship - Doctoral
  • NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship - Master's
  • NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship - Doctoral
  • NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship - Master's
  • SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship - Doctoral
  • SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship - Master's
  • SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship
  • Ontario Graduate Scholarship
  • Ontario Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology

A scholarship is recorded on the transcript once per calendar year for every year it is held. For example, if a student held an OGS from September 1st, 2008 to August 31st, 2009 followed by a 24-month SSHRC CGS Doctoral Award from September 1st, 2009 to August 31st, 2011, there would be five (5) entries recorded as follows:

2008    Ontario Graduate Scholarship
2009    Ontario Graduate Scholarship
2009    SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral
2010    SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral
2011    SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral

The scholarships will appear on the student’s official Western transcript as well as on the “Academic Record” in Student Center (PeopleSoft) which is available to graduate program personnel. CIHR awards will be included once application and payment administration of these awards can be moved to the Student Center. For all inquiries please contact Erin Daley.

Funding, Pre and Post Project Implementation

The charts below summarize the graduate student funding breakdown by information system at Western for the period of May 1, 2009 to April 30, 2010.

Pre-external funding project implementation

External funding before

Post-external funding project implementation using the same data

External funding after

Communications Archive:

  • Audience: Graduate Program Personnel, Topic covered in the "Summer Refresher Series", July 20-21, Aug 10-11
  • Audience: Graduate Program Personnel, Included in the Bi-Weekly Memo - July 30th
  • Audience: External Scholarship Award Holders, Email sent to all continuing and new award holders on Friday August 27th explaining the new process
  • Audience: Graduate Program Personnel, External Scholarship Meetings, OGS Monday August 30 and Wednesday September 1, NSERC Tues.,
    Aug. 31, SSHRC Thursday September 2

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