Tuition and Funding

Financial Assistance

Financial assistance is available in the form of graduate assistantships and fellowships. Most fellowships can be held in conjunction with an assistantship.

Assistantships:

The Department of French makes a number of appointments of Teaching Assistants to full-time students, with priority being given to doctoral students, to do undergraduate teaching or laboratory monitoring. Students must apply for a Teaching Assistantship. Applications (two documents) are available to download (PDF iconTA Application_2024-25.pdf and PDF iconTA Questionnaire_2024-25.pdf). Print the forms and send them to the address listed on the forms.

    Information on the base funding package offered by the University:

    Doctoral program students, subject to certain requirements, are eligible for four-and-a-half-year funding package made up of the following components: tuition fees; teaching assistantship and research assistantship; University of Toronto Fellowship (including any scholarships awarded by the University of Toronto as well as any scholarships offered by external sources such as SSHRC, OGS, FCAR). In 2024-2025, the Faculty of Arts & Science base funding will be $20,500 plus tuition and fees. After receiving 4.5 years of funding, students may receive financial support in the form of a teaching assistantship. Applicants for admission to the School of Graduate Studies will automatically be considered for University of Toronto Fellowships provided the applications are received complete by JANUARY 15th, 2024.

      A student who holds a major external award (e.g., SSHRC, OGS), or a major internal award (e.g., Connaught) may not eligible to receive funding from a University of Toronto Fellowship during the same year.  The Department undertakes, however, to offer a Teaching Assistantship to each student in the funded cohort who holds such an award.

      The Department normally provides top-up awards to recipients of SSHRC or OGS awards within the funded cohort; the value may vary from year to year according to available resources.

      The Department will endeavour to offer a Teaching Assistantship to doctoral students who are beyond their 4.5 years of funding, but such support is not guaranteed as a matter of policy.

      For more details about graduate funding, please check the Graduate Funding Facts tab on the Faculty of Arts & Science website.

      FAST (Faculty of Arts & Science Top Doctoral Fellowship):

      The Faculty of Arts & Science Top (FAST) Doctoral Fellowship is designed to support the recruitment of the very best domestic students to PhD programs in the Faculty of Arts & Science at the University of Toronto. The fellowship for students entering in the 2024-25 academic year supports domestic PhD students with a $25,500 fellowship per year (plus tuition & fees) for the first four years of their PhD program. Please note that students must be nominated by the unit for this award.

      JACKMAN JUNIOR FELLOWSHIP (JFF):

      Thanks to a generous gift from Chancellor Emeritus Hal Jackman, the Jackman Junior Fellowships (JJF) were established to assist in the recruitment of top doctoral students (domestic or international). Jackman Junior Fellows are affiliated with their graduate unit, but participate in Jackman Humanities Institute (JHI) sponsored events.  The award consists of a $15,000 recruitment award, plus top-ups of $5,000 per year in years two through four. These funds are provided on top of the base funding package. Please note that students must be nominated by the unit for this award.

      The Program-Level Fellowship Pools:

      Since 2018-2019, and based on the recommendation by the graduate student association SESDEF in consultation with the Department’s graduate administrators and professors, all dedicated pools of fellowship resources created in 2016 in the Faculty of Arts & Science are divided equally among all registered graduate students in good academic standing in the funded cohort regardless of programs (i.e., MA and PhD), with payment in January of each year.