OISE Bursary Program

Applicants must be registered as a full-time student in an OISE graduate program. Successful applicants are expected to remain registered in the session the bursary is awarded. Students who cancel their registration in the same session that they receive a bursary may be required to return the bursary funds.

Note: Fee-exempt Summer students who are automatically registered by the OISE Registrar's Office must be enrolled in Summer courses to apply for the Summer Bursary.

Students are expected to rely on OSAP or other government assistance, including other provincial/territorial government financial aid or First Nations band funding, up to the maximum amount of financial assistance provided (loans and grants). If you are eligible for OSAP or other government assistance, you must apply first before seeking assistance from the OISE Bursary Program. If you have been deemed ineligible to receive government student financial aid, you must explain the reason for the ineligibility and provide documentation showing proof of ineligibility in your application.

Applicants must demonstrate financial need over and above what is identified through OSAP: Ontario Student Assistance Program (or other provincial/territorial government assistance or First Nations band funding) standard assessment. The OISE Bursary is not intended to replace OSAP loans.

Any assessed need which remains unmet above the maximum government financial assistance, is expected to be covered by a combination of non-repayable grants from the University of Toronto [depending on your program, either UTAPS or OISE's Professional Masters Financial Aid (PMFA)] and other forms of loans or lines of credit.

In order to be considered for UTAPS or the Professional Masters Financial Aid grant, students must apply through the Need Navigator Platform on the University Registrar's Office website at https://registrar.utoronto.ca/finances-and-funding/utaps/. 

The OISE Bursary Program expects that you have planned for your full-time graduate education. The purpose of the Bursary Program is to supplement, not replace your resources. In general, you're expected to contribute towards your educational costs. There is a minimum expected student contribution of $3,600 for each academic year. 

If a student's resources, excluding OSAP, is less than the minimum expected contribution, the difference is calculated and added to the student's resources (known as the adjusted financial contribution). 

International students are not eligible for support since they must demonstrate sufficient financial resources in order to be approved to study in Canada.

In rare circumstances, they may be considered for emergency assistance if their financial needs are the result of unanticipated circumstances recognized by the Bursary Program. If you are an international student experiencing an unforeseen financial emergency, please contact oise.financialaid@utoronto.ca.

Students who are ineligible for government student aid for reasons such as defaults on previous government loans, the under-reporting of previous income, disqualifying credit histories, or reaching maximum lifetime OSAP limits:

Students in this category should have a solid financial plan in place as the bursary program will not replace funds that OSAP and other University of Toronto grants otherwise might have provided.

Each application will be assessed on a case-by-case basis to determine the level of support that is appropriate and feasible.

Please note: You must upload proof of OSAP ineligibility with your application. This can be a document, screenshot, or email from OSAP or your home province's student aid program stating that you are ineligible for assistance and the reason for the ineligibility.

If your ineligibility cannot be verified, you will be required to apply or complete the OSAP Aid Estimator and provide a screenshot of the result.

NEW: Effective starting September 2024, students applying to the OISE Bursary Program are required to submit a Need Navigator application in addition to applying through the OISE Bursary Portal.

Note: The deadlines for the Need Navigator and the OISE Bursary Program are different. Please plan accordingly and submit your application through Need Navigator early. You will need to submit a Need Navigator application if you intend on applying for any kind of OISE need-based financial assistance. To check Need Navigator deadlines, visit https://registrar.utoronto.ca/finances-and-funding/utaps/deadlines/. 

To submit a Need Navigator application, visit https://registrar.utoronto.ca/finances-and-funding/utaps/.

Note: You only need to submit one Need Navigator application per academic year. If you have already submitted a Need Navigator application for another need-based opportunity, you do not to need to re-apply again. The data from your application will be used to assess you for all need-based opportunities at OISE.

What is Need Navigator?

The Need Navigator is a centralized financial need application platform. The data collected from Need Navigator is used by the University Registrar's Office, individual faculties, and academic divisions to assess student financial need for various programs, such as UTAPS, the Professional Master's Financial Aid, and OISE need-based awards.

For Professional Master's Students (MT, MEd, MA-CSE):

Please note that while the website for Need Navigator is linked to the UTAPS Program, which professional master's students are not eligible for, the data collected from the platform is also used for other purposes, such as assessments for other OISE need-based awards and grants. Therefore, the Need Navigator application serves a multi-purpose beyond assessing for UTAPS.

For example, a full-time domestic OISE professional master's student who is a recipient of provincial government financial aid (e.g., OSAP) is not eligible for UTAPS. However, they should still submit an application through Need Navigator to be considered for the Professional Master's Financial Aid Grant, which is the equivalent of UTAPS for professional master's students. As well, if a student is interested in applying for a need-based OISE faculty-wide award, they would be required to submit an application through Need Navigator for the financial need assessment portion of their application.

The OISE Bursary Program serves as a last resort emergency support program for students. It is expected that eligible students exhaust their other options for financial support before applying to the OISE Bursary. This means that a student would need to first apply for provincial government financial aid, and then seek support from the UTAPS/PMFA Programs through Need Navigator if eligible, before applying for a Bursary.

Carefully review the eligibility requirements, then complete and submit your application. Keep in mind the following before you submit:

• Have you submitted an application through Need Navigator?
• Do you meet the legal status, registration status, and program eligibility requirements?
• Have you exhausted all other forms of financial support, including an application for government financial aid through your home province?
• Do you have all supporting documentation ready for upload?
  • Documents are required for additional allowable expenses.
  • If you have received government financial aid, please upload a screenshot, email, or document from your home province showing the total amount of loans and/or grants you were offered for the academic study period.
  • If you are OSAP ineligible, please upload a screenshot, email, or document from your home province showing that you are ineligible and the reason for the ineligibility.

Students are required to upload any supporting documentation before submitting the online application. All additional allowable expenses supporting documentation for consideration by the OISE Bursary Committee can be uploaded in the respective online application fields.  

Additional allowable expenses
If you are claiming additional allowable expenses, you must submit supporting documentation to clarify your eligibility.  Review what counts as an Additional Allowable Expense and what supporting documents are required.

Out-of-province students
Out-of-province students will need to upload a student loan assessment from their home province in the online application.

Note: If you receive an error message (413 File Size Too Large) when trying to submit your application, it means the size of your documents uploaded cumulatively exceed the upload limit. To work around this, you may upload your files one at time, click on the save button after each upload, and then click on the edit button again to upload the next file. If this does not resolve the issue, please submit your application without supporting documents and then email your documents separately to oise.financialaid@utoronto.ca.  

An assessment can take 6-8 weeks, depending on application volume. Please plan accordingly and apply early for an earlier assessment. Applications are reviewed in the order submitted and requests to expedite applications will not be accepted.

Information Request: Required Student Response

During the assessment process, should the application information submitted by the student require clarification so the OISE Bursary Committee can review it, an information request may be sent to the student through the online bursary portal.

It is the student’s responsibility to respond to the information request in a timely manner clarifying the bursary application details so the assessment process may proceed. 

A communication response will be sent to each applicant once the application has been assessed.

Bursaries are typically applied to outstanding fees first. However, if the student faces extenuating personal circumstances and identifies this in the online application, the OISE Bursary Committee will consider alternate arrangements.