Queen’s to End QGA Funding for Master’s Students

On Thursday, September 19, the Society of Graduate and Professional Students released a statement announcing that the Queen’s Senior Leadership Team plans to eliminate the Queen’s Graduate Award (QGA) for new master’s students in September 2025.

The news sent shockwaves through the community as people grappled with the implications of this measure for a university already struggling to provide a living wage for graduate students, compete with the support offered by rival institutions, provide adequate teaching assistance for growing class sizes, and maintain its status in the U15 association of research-intensive universities.

The QGA is a crucial component of graduate funding packages, providing an average of $4100 per student. As Queen’s University Students vs Cuts makes clear in their post on the news, eliminating QGA for master’s students will cause most harm to students without the means to self-fund their studies.

It will also be disastrous for graduate programs across the university. Several unit heads have said that this move will destroy their master’s programs entirely and all are worried about the viability of their PhD programs given that a) many units use the QGA allocated per student to attract and retain top doctoral students; and b) Queen’s master’s programs are a major route (and in some cases the only route) into a Queen’s PhD.

It is hard to discern the administration’s end game with this overwhelmingly unpopular move. Is the Senior Leadership Team following the Laurentian playbook by using funding from the government that is meant to support students to pay down a deficit? Is it doing so without addressing its own bloat?

As one colleague noted, “At this pace, Queen’s is going to be a university without faculty or students, with only a bunch of upper administrators using AI-generated online courses to generate income 10 years from now.”

QCAA encourages readers to let Provost Evans (provost@queensu.ca) and other leaders know what they think of this vision for Queen’s. The SGPS is also inviting current and former students, staff and faculty to share their experiences here.