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Increasing transparency in graduate student funding

November 18, 2022

Submitted by Patrick Duke. 

Earlier this year, Patrick Duke asked his fellow School of Earth and Ocean Sciences students to anonymously disclose details about their graduate funding. He received 38 survey responses.

Patrick then put together a report on the conditions in which graduate students were living in. Based on the survey responses, he found that most graduate students were living in poverty which he attributes to the large discrepancies in access to funding.

Project background

Graduate funding is an equity issue, as Patrick explains “Funding below a livable wage discriminates against students without a financially stable background. In the context of making science, technology, engineering, and mathematics more accessible to Indigenous people, people of color, and people from the global south, fair funding is ultimately necessary. The ability to get a degree should not be tied to the financial stability of a person's parents, family, or spouse and their willingness to support the student.”

Patrick hopes that this initiative can provide valuable equity insights, highlight pay disparities across various groups, support incoming and continuing students and be a tool to leverage in collective bargaining.

Learn more

If you are interested in reading the report or reproducing the survey in your own department, you can contact Patrick Duke at pjduke@ucalgary.ca