Grace Melchers
Master of Science in Oceans and Fisheries (MSc)
Employing environmental DNA to understand the impacts of urbanization on nearshore fish communities and migrations
The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies offers approximately 50 Affiliated Fellowships each year to meritorious students for full-time study and/or research leading to a graduate degree. Awards are made on the basis of academic excellence, with applications open to current and prospective full-time UBC graduate students. Fellowship values range from $175 to $16,000.
Applicants must meet all eligibility requirements.
Students with a minimum first class standing in each of the last two years of full-time study are eligible to apply. GPA is calculated using all courses taken in a given year. For UBC courses, first class standing is 80% and higher. At other universities, first class standing is determined from marking keys that accompany transcripts. For transcripts that are not accompanied by marking keys, applicants should consult with their UBC graduate program staff.
All students regardless of citizenship are eligible to apply. However, Canadian citizens and permanent residents are required to apply for Canada Graduate Scholarships-Master's (CGS M) (or doctoral funding from CIHR, NSERC, or SSHRC), if they are eligible to do so, to additionally be considered for Affiliated funding.
Students must be enrolled in, have applied for, or will apply for full-time admission to an eligible graduate program. Eligible graduate program must have a significant research component. A significant research component is considered to be original, autonomous research that leads to the completion of a thesis, major research project, dissertation, scholarly publication, performance, recital and/or exhibit that is merit/expert-reviewed at the institutional level as a requirement for completion of the program.
With the exception of those program listed below, students in all fields of graduate study are eligible to apply. Exceptions:
Applicants who will be registered full-time graduate students at UBC's Vancouver campus as of September 2025 are eligible to apply (current and prospective UBC students are both eligible to apply).
To be eligible, applicants must have completed, as of December 31, 2024, between 0 and 12 months of full-time (or full-time equivalent) graduate-level studies.
Please note that:
*All previous months of master's will be counted in assessing eligibility, except in cases where the previous master’s study was required by the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies as a basis of admission to the applicant's UBC graduate program. This exception may affect a small number of students from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and the Philippines. This exception does not apply in cases where the previous master’s study was required by the applicant’s graduate program, but not by the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.
The evaluation of Affiliated Fellowship applications for Master’s funding - for all disciplines - is based on the following criteria:
Academic excellence - 50%
As demonstrated by past academic results, transcripts, awards and distinctions. Indicators of academic excellence:
Research potential - 30%
As demonstrated by the applicant’s research history, their interest in discovery, the proposed research, its potential contribution to the advancement of knowledge in the field, and any anticipated outcomes. Indicators of research potential:
Personal characteristics and interpersonal skills - 20%
As demonstrated by the applicant’s past professional and relevant extracurricular interactions and collaborations. Indicators of personal characteristics and interpersonal skills:
Affiliated Fellowship applicants (such as international students) must submit their application materials to their UBC graduate program. The deadline by which applications for Master's-level funding must be submitted to the applicant's UBC graduate program is 1 December 2024 before 5:00 pm PT.
Many of the Affiliated Fellowships have no specific criteria (open/unrestricted), while many others have some affiliation or special research focus as part of their criteria (restricted/criteria-based). All graduate students in the Affiliated Fellowships competition are automatically considered for unrestricted awards. In order to additionally be considered for any criteria-based awards, students are asked to:
Note: Students who are eligible for the Canada Graduate Scholarships-Master’s (CGS M) (such as Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada) are required to apply for CGS M in order to additionally be considered for the Affiliated Fellowships-Master’s awards. Students who submit a CGS M application to UBC are also automatically considered for ‘unrestricted/open’ Affiliated Fellowship funding, and do not need to submit a separate Affiliated Fellowship application. However, to be considered for 'restricted/criteria-based' Affiliated funding, CGSM applicants must submit the list of criteria-based affiliated fellowships to their graduate program by the application deadline.
Graduate programs review and rank the applications they receive, and forward their top applicants to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies by 23 January 2025 at 4:00 pm PT. Graduate program resources will be posted on the Awards Administration webpage.
Affiliated Fellowships are adjudicated at both departmental and university levels. Rankings reached at each of these levels are independent, thus applicants' rankings at the departmental level may be different from their rankings at the university level.
Graduate programs conduct their own internal Affiliated Fellowships review process, after which they recommend only their highest ranked candidates to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.
The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies co-ordinates the university-wide ranking which is carried out by six sub-committees comprising faculty members representing various disciplines.