All full-time MA students in good academic standing at FIMS will receive a funding package for five terms (out of which students are expected to pay their fees), including a minimum of $14,500 for the first year and $10,000 for the fall/winter terms of the second year in the program. Funding is guaranteed pending continuous full-time enrolment, maintenance of a minimum average of 78%, and meeting the required progression benchmarks. The funding package is designed to cover a substantial portion of a student's expenses for the eligible period of funding in his/her program. Students also have access to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) for any financial need not met by their funding packages.
A typical funding package would consist of a Graduate Teaching Assistantship (involving up to 10 hours of work a week) for the fall and winter terms of the first year, followed by a Western Graduate Research Scholarship (WGRS) for the summer of the first year. The summer WGRS frees the student from teaching responsibilities and allows him/her to work full-time on the Thesis Proposal or Major Research Paper. In the fall and winter terms of the second year, a Teaching Assistantship would again be provided. Funding is not provided in the summer of the second year because it is expected that the thesis will have been completed and defended or that the Major Research Paper will have been submitted by that point.
Students who have been awarded an external scholarship, such as the Ontario Graduate Scholarship or the Canada Graduate Scholarship, in a particular academic year will have their funding adjusted for that year. Typically such a student will receive a TA position for only one term (either fall or winter but not both) in addition to his/her scholarship, and s/he is not provided with any WGRS funding.