Thanks to the generosity of donors and faculties, UBC is able to offer many awards to undergraduate students. Departments in Vancouver will help adjudicate/recommend over 1000 awards annually.
"Awards" refers to awards, scholarships and bursaries. All awards are funded by annual gift, endowment or department funds. The availability of award varies year to year and Enrolment Services will communicate with departments on award funding availability four times a year.
For definition of the three award categories and a range of award related terminology, visit the Senate Regulations page. We highly recommend reading the Senate Regulations page.
Recommended Awards FAQ
Recommended Award Cycles
Student Eligibility Check
Evaluating Student Need
CO-OP Students
Students in Exchange Abroad
Award Credit Requirement Exception
Graduating Awards
Awards for Graduate Level Students
Grants for Visiting International Research Students (VIRS)
How to Submit Recommendation
One-Time Awards from Department Funds
Award Funding Disbursement to Student
There are two “cycles” per winter session for recommended awards: pre-academic session and post-academic session.
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Pre-academic session cycle (PREC) refers to awards that are typically given out prior to or in the first few months of the winter session. Adjudication is based on grades from the previous session (ie. 2025W PREC awards are based on grades from 2024W). Ideally, the awards are adjudicated prior to the tuition fee deadline of term 1.
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Post-academic session cycle (POST) awards are adjudicated upon completion of the current academic session. Adjudication is based on grades from the current academic session (25W POST awards are based on grades from 25W).
Enrolment Services will notify departments per schedule below on the availability of awards and its budget. Upon notification, the faculty’s scholarship committee is responsible for submitting recommendations to Enrolment Services for processing.
Notification Schedule for 25W:
- Initial notification of pre-academic cycle awards: August 2025
- Monthly budget updates are sent out to all awards contact on mailing list
- Initial notification of post-academic cycle awards: April 2026
- Reminder of remaining budgets for all awards: June 2026
- Final reminder of remaining budgets for all awards before award cycle is closed. This includes awards for student graduating in November: December 2026
Link to Senate regulations on awards
Example of non-academic merits are leadership, community involvement, participation in varsity athletics, financial need etc.
If a recommended student does not follow Senate regulations, please indicate on the award recommendation form why this student should still receive the award as the best available candidate.
Students who do not meet the award eligibility criteria due to dropping courses or withdrawing completely may have their award reduced or cancelled, unless an academic appeal is granted. Please have student contact their Enrolment Service Advisor (ESA) for further details on the academic appeal process.
Departments may choose to refer to Student Aid BC's moderate standard of living cost (MSOL) table when evaluating student's submitted financial need. Note the MSOL table is different based on study period and dependent status. Departments can also choose to use your own questions and metrics for evaluating financial need.
Awards specifically for supporting student participating in CO-OP in current session (25W):
- 100% of the award can be paid out during the CO-OP term.
- No credit or sessional average requirements
Awards not related to participation in CO-OP, but the recommended student will be on CO-OP in current session (25W):
- Full time CO-OP students in 25W will have 100% of their award deferred to the following academic year (26W)
- Single term CO-OP students can receive 100% of their award if they are registered in 12 or more non CO-OP credits in the current academic session (25W). (for example: CO-OP in T1, 12 credits in T2)
- Indicate on award recommendation form of student's CO-OP status
Scholarship eligibility in the current academic session (25W) will be conditional on their credit load in the previous session (24W):
- Full time CO-OP in previous session (24W):
- Academic Merit Based Awards: ineligible for awards in current session (25W). Student will not have any GPA or registration in non CO-OP credits to be evaluated on against peers in same academic session.
- Non-academic awards: eligible for awards not evaluated on academic merit in the current session (25W). As GPA or academic achievement is not a criteria, student can still be evaluated against other students on non-academic merits such as leadership, community service or financial need.
- Part time CO-OP in previous session (24W) - is eligible for scholarship or other academic merit based award in current session (25W), but will be at an advantage due to less than 24 credit courseload taken in previous year and potentially higher GPA. Please take this into consideration when selecting such student. We recommend giving students on one-term co-op and 12 credits in second term in prior year 50% of the award value. Another student is then chosen for the remaining 50% of the award. For example:
- Student A participated in 2024W Term 1 CO-OP and registered for 12 credits in Term 2. Student is chosen for an academic scholarship in 25W with a value of $1000. She could be assigned $500 and remaining $500 can go to another student.
Participation in exchange experiences abroad in current session (25W) will affect award payout as follows:
- Registered in EXCH in 1 term or both terms: 100% of award will payout during current winter session (25W)
Eligibility of awards in following session after participation in exchange:
- Grades earned while on exchange should only be used to evaluate against other students if official transcript was submitted and UBC equivalent credits & grades are awarded to student. If 24 credits or more from school abroad are recognized as UBC credits, then student is eligible for scholarship or academic based award.
- One term of non credit exchange and minimum 12 UBC credits in term 2 will allow student to be eligible, but might result in a higher GPA. Consider this when recommending award to these students. We recommend giving 50% of a scholarship's total value to recognize achievement in the UBC term and 50% can go to another student.
- Eligibility for non-academic or need based award not affected.
Award Credit Requirement Exceptions
Graduating Students
Students in their graduating year registered in less than 24 credits are still eligible to obtain/retain merit based scholarships and prizes. Please indicate this on the award recommendation form to avoid delay in award assignment.
Varsity Athletes
UBC varsity athletes can earn scholarships by taking a minimum of 18 credits, with letter of confirmation from Athletics of commitment to varsity team.
Award Appeal Due to Extenuating Circumstances
Students must submit supporting documentation to their ES Advisor for confirmation of inability to meet the minimum requirements under Senate Regulations. Successful award appeal will allow student to retain their recommended award.
Definition: awards that are recommended to graduating students, to recognize their career at UBC
As there is a very small timeframe between end of winter session and the graduation ceremonies in May, take note of the following when submitting recommendation for post-academic session awards
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Submit your grades to WD as soon as possible
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We cannot assign graduating award to student with pending grades
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May 11, 2025 (2026 update to come): Deadline for submission of graduating awards to be printed in the 2025 Spring Convocation Guide. Late submissions may not be printed in the Convocation Guide
Departments responsible for medal adjudication will be contacted before deadline. Students will not receive their medals during the convocation ceremony due to time needed to order and engrave the medals. Enrolment Services will contact winners to arrange for delivery.
Student do not have to be returning to studies the following year to receive a post-academic session prize. They must have been enrolled in 24 credits in the current session to receive a graduating prize, unless student needs less than 24 credits to graduate.
Awards for Graduate Level Students
Refer to: Awards and Scholarships for Graduate and Postdoc Studies for further information. Enrolment Services' awards team is unable to process award recommendations for awards administered by G+PS.
Visiting International Research Student Grant (VIRS)
Inquire with Go Global VIRS advisors at go.global@ubc.ca first before sending award recommendations to the awards team for processing. More info on the VIRS program can be found on the Go Global website here: https://goglobal.ubc.ca/go-global/coming-ubc/visiting-international-research-students.
Award recommendations can be emailed to award.recommend@ubc.ca for processing using the form below. You will receive a ServiceNow ticket ID beginning with UR(#) for tracking purpose. Please allow 10-15 business days for processing, especially during peak periods. Do not notify award receipient prior to the award recommendation being processed, in case the student recommended is ineligible.
Instructions on how to use the assignment form.
When emailing award.recommend@ubc.ca, please include the following:
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Subject line: academic session and department name
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Award assignment excel file. A signature is necessary if the recommendation is not submitted by someone on the awards committee.
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Specific instructions not found on the award assignment excel file that will help with processing, espcially if funding transfers are needed to fund the award.
One-Time Awards from Department Funds
If you have one-time department funding to disperse to undergraduate students as awards, please download the instructions here and attach it to your award request email to award.recommend@ubc.ca for processing. After receiving instructions from ES on where to transfer funds, respond to the ServiceNow ticket created with the journal ID to avoid delays in processing. It'll take 10-15 business days to process the one-time award assignment and offer award to student. Should the financial aid to students from department funds be recurring in nature, we can assist in setting up a permanent award to make the process easier.
Once an award recommendation passes restrictions checks, an award email offer will be sent to the student's email registered in Workday. Award offers not actioned on by student after three months will be cancelled and ES will ask department to pick another recipient. Instructions on how to accept an award offer in Workday can be found on the UBC Workday Tutorial (Accept Award Offer) page.
Award funding is first paid against any tuition owing, then surplus is refunded via direct deposit only. Funds are dispersed within 3-5 business days of student accepting the award, not when the award recommendation is submitted to Enrolment Services. Students without direct deposit (student refund category) set up in their Workday account will have the award funding deposited back to their student tuition account as a credit towards future study. Enrolment Services encourages all students to sign up for direct deposit. Instructions can be found on UBC WD Tutorial (Direct Deposit) Page..