Basic Funding: Students without major awards (< $10,000)

*There may be departmental support for doctoral students in year five but this is not guaranteed. Support will only be provided based on funding availability, which may vary from year to year.

Award Funding: Students holding major awards (≥ $10,000)

Research program fees

The table below shows tuition and fees associated with the MASc and PhD programs. For more information, please visit the Student Accounts Office website for details or contact info.studentaccount@utoronto.ca.

All values report Canadian Dollars (CAD)

Check your invoice on ACORN

https://help.acorn.utoronto.ca/blog/ufaqs/check-invoice/

Setup direct deposit

Students are strongly encouraged to setup direct deposit to receive both departmental and supervisor funds. Ensure that direct deposit is fully activated on your account by following both instructions below.

To receive departmental funds

Set up direct deposit on ACORN by following instructions on https://help.acorn.utoronto.ca/how-to/ under the “Finances” section.

To receive supervisor funds

Some investigator accounts are established through our affiliate hospitals and not directly managed by university payment systems. Thus, to setup direct deposit on HRIS (for supervisor contribution), return the U of T Payroll Bank Authorization Form for Direct Deposit to our HR Office in RS407 (or email the completed form to hr.bme@utoronto.ca).

Activate payment

At the beginning of every academic year (normally around late July/early August), students must complete and return a BME Supervisor–Student Agreement Form to the Graduate Office to activate pay instalments. Email the completed form to grad.bme@utoronto.ca.

Understanding your fees

Registration by payment

Registration is the process by which a person establishes an active association with a program of study for an academic period. A student is registered once any conditions of admission have been satisfied and academic, incidental, and ancillary fees are paid, or a fees arrangement has been made. In addition to tuition, compulsory ancillary fees are also paid by all students for incidentals and ancillary services. Fees are determined by the program of study, and fee payment is required for registration whether you attend class or not. You are responsible for paying your fees in full before the registration deadline.

TIP: Know your program deadlines by reviewing sessional dates in the SGS Calendar.

Minimum payment to register

Before the start of each academic year (normally Fall – Winter), students are “Invited to Register (Invited/INVIT)”. During this time, students may enroll in courses (if course enrollment is activated), but your registration status must be changed to “Registered/REG” by paying at least the minimum payment amount to register before the SGS deadline or your registration and course enrollment will be cancelled. Students must either pay the outstanding balance (or defer fees) to register. Students who fail to register on time may be subject to late fee penalties or have their registration financially cancelled (FINCA). The minimum payment amount is normally equal to unpaid Fees from the previous session(s) plus current Fall term tuition.

Fee payment options

Direct payment

Your financial account information is available on ACORN. Learn how to navigate your student dashboard, including how to pay your fees, by visiting https://help.acorn.utoronto.ca/how-to and reviewing the “Finances” section. For more payment options, please view instructions for “Making Payments” at https://studentaccount.utoronto.ca.

It can take up to two weeks for payments made at the bank to be processed to your fees, so please allow yourself sufficient time before the deadline when making a payment. Payment is considered made on the date it is applied to your fees, not the date payment is made at the bank.

Defer payment

Fee deferral means that you may register now and pay your outstanding balance later (by April 30 of the following year at the latest). Fee deferral is only available to students in the funded cohort or students who are holding major awards. By deferring payment, you will not have to make a minimum payment toward your fees and you will not be charged monthly interest on any outstanding balance. Fee deferral is only in effect from September to April of any academic year and interest is charged on balances owing as of May 1 of the following year.

Before SGS registration deadline

If you are in the funded cohort (receiving a guaranteed minimum stipend), you must request to register without payment (defer payment) on ACORN. Please indicate "Research Stipend" as source of funding when requesting a fee deferral (students who indicate "OSAP" as their funding source will still accrue interest on their balance).

After SGS registration deadline

If you are beyond the funded cohort but are receiving a major award, or within the funded cohort but missed the registration deadline, you must fill out the “Register Without Payment (Fee Deferral)” form (see https://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/academic-progress/student-forms-letter-requests/).

TIP: Once your fees have been deferred or you have paid the minimum amount (as stipulated on the invoice), you will be officially registered.

Questions?

Email info.studentaccount@utoronto.ca; or

Visit https://studentaccount.utoronto.ca/contact-us

Funding policies

1. The Institute of Biomedical Engineering defines a “major award” as an award (or the sum of multiple awards) with monetary value that is equal to or greater than $10,000 CAD. A Tri-Agency award represents the most common type of major award. However, if a student were to receive multiple awards whereby the sum of all awards was equal to (or greater than) $10,000 CAD, then that student would also be considered the holder of a major award. Funding awarded to investigators from Tri-Agency or industry sources (e.g. NSERC CREATE), which are meant to fund internships or trainees are not counted as student awards.
2. Departmental contribution to basic funding (also known as “U of T Fellowship – BME”) is provided only to students without any major award(s). Major award holders will have the departmental contribution replaced by award funds.
3. All PhD students, regardless of standard or direct entry, will receive guaranteed funding for four years. Master’s students who reclassified to the PhD program by successful completion of a bypass exam after their first year will receive guaranteed funding for three additional years to total four years of support. However, the departmental contribution received at the Master’s level will not be retroactively prorated to the PhD level. In other words, reclassified students will receive one year of Master’s level funding and three years of PhD level funding.
4. Departmental support for doctoral students in year five is not guaranteed, and will only be provided based on funding availability, which may vary from year to year.
5. Master’s students in the research stream who intend to reclassify (bypass) to the PhD program must complete the transition before entering the fourteenth month of the graduate program. For example, a Master’s student who entered the program in the Fall term must complete the bypass exam and qualify for the PhD program before November 1^st of the following year. This is a strict deadline, which means that students who spend more than fourteen months in the program must complete the Master’s program before applying to doctoral studies – no exceptions. Non-compliance to this timeline may result in the reduction or termination of departmental funding support.
6. Funding for research-stream programs is mandated by the School of Graduate Studies, and the guaranteed minimum (basic) amount is standardized by the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering. Whereas students may be paid above the basic funding amount, supervisors may not pay students below the guaranteed minimum stipend.
7. All students must submit a student–supervisor agreement form to activate pay instalments. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that the agreement form is submitted to the Graduate Office (email submission is accepted) in a timely manner.