Student Stipends
It is important to decide whether you wish to fund students via a salary or a stipend. If you
wish to fund a student to work part-time on your project, then it is appropriate to pay the
student a salary. A graduate student can receive a stipend from a grant if the work they are
doing is part of the student's training and comprises a thesis or a cognate academic
requirement.
Rates:
Student Stipends -SSHRC
Master’s Stipend - $12,000 maximum + benefits
PhD Stipend - $15,000 maximum + benefits
Postdoctoral Fellow Stipend - $31,500 + benefits
The current benefit rate for the University of Saskatchewan is about 14%. It is advisable to
include benefits in your budget because, if you don’t, the University will take the money to pay
for benefits out of your grant anyway. Please note that the benefit rate changes every January.
This page will be updated with new information as it comes available. With the benefits
included, your budget should include the following stipends for any graduate students you wish
to fund:
Master's Stipend - $13,680
PhD Stipend - $17,100
Postdoctoral Fellow Stipend - $35,910
Please note that SSHRC does not allow students who already hold a master's scholarship, a
doctoral award, or a postdoctoral fellowship from any of the tri-councils to be awarded a
stipend from a grant as well. These students can, however, be paid a salary from your grant.
Student Stipends - CIHR
Master's Stipend - $17,850 minimum*
PhD Stipend - $17,850 minimum
Postdoctoral Fellow Stipend - $36,750
*These minimums from CIHR are the maximum amount you can request from CIHR for student
stipends. They are described as minimums because CIHR does permit additional funding from
other sources to supplement student stipends.
…cont’d
Student Salaries
If you wish to hire a student as a research assistant as opposed to funding their scholarships,
what follows are the rates at which you must hire students. Please note that graduate students
can work at most 12 hours a week to still be listed as a full time graduate student. These rates
of pay are adjusted every May 1 and will be updated here on that date.
Undergrad (year 1) - $10.54/hour + benefits
Undergrad (year 2) - $10.98/hour + benefits
Undergrad (year 3) - $12.23/hour + benefits
Undergrad (year 4) - $13.35/hour + benefits
Undergrad (year 5) - $14.21/hour + benefits
Graduate student - $17.36/hour + benefits
CIHR specifies that undergraduate summer students should be paid a minimum monthly
stipend of $1313 paid in whole or in part from a CIHR grant.
To calculate the benefits, use the following numbers and equations:
Mandatory Benefits Rate
Canada Pension Plan (CPP) 4.95%
Workers' Compensation (WC) 0.68%
Employment Insurance (EI) 2.42%
Vacation Pay - 3/52 (VP) 5.769%
TOTAL 13.82% (it is appropriate to round up to 14%)
To calculate the total benefits you need to how many hours of work you wish your student to
work.
Something to note for your budget justification:
Make sure you justify why employing a student at a particular level is necessary. If the work
can be done by an undergraduate, do not indicate that a graduate student will do the work.