Financial Support
All full-time MA in Popular Music and Culture students in good academic standing 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, creative project or preparation for the viva voce examination. In the fall and winter terms of the second year, a Teaching Assistantship will again be provided. Funding is not provided in the summer of the second year, because students are expected to complete the program in five terms.
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.