Funding and awards

The Carla Cassidy Award recognizes a Faculty of Arts student with the highest CGPA in their program over six semesters. Given in honour of the late Dr. Carla Cassidy, the award rotates annually through various Faculty of Arts programs to give students across the Faculty an opportunity for recognition.

Eligibility: Students with the highest CGPA at the end of the sixth semester are preregistered to take at least four billing units in the upcoming fall semester. Applicants must demonstrate a financial need.

• Award Amount: $1,000
• Opens: September 8, 2025
• Deadline: September 26, 2025

The Global Exchange Award provides two annual awards to help pay for a learning exchange opportunity.

Eligibility: Students taking credit courses as part of a learning exchange program at a post-secondary institution with a formal partnership with Toronto Metropolitan University.

• Award amount: $2,000 (x2)
• Opens: May 18, 2026
• Deadline: June 5, 2026

The SASSH Graduate Fee Grant provides upper year students with a monetary award to help pay for graduate and post-graduate program applications.

Eligibility: Upper year students applying to graduate and post-graduate programs. Applicants must demonstrate a financial need.

• Award amount: $500
• Opens: December 1, 2025
• Deadline: January 16, 2026

The Sonia Marryshow Black Scholar Award celebrates Black women in higher education. It provides a monetary award along with mentorship from Bianca Marryshow who created the award in memory of her mother.

Eligibility: Students that identify as a Black woman (Afro-Caribbean or African-Canadian, cisgender or transgender). Applicants must be in their 2nd, 3rd or 4th year of an undergraduate program with clear academic standing, a CGPA of at least 2.0 and demonstrated financial need. 

Along with their application, candidates must also provide a written statement elaborating on at least one of the following: current experiences or upcoming initiatives as it pertains to elevating Black culture, on and/or off campus; contributions to the Black community, on and/or off campus; career or life path goal(s).

• Award amount: $1,000
• Opens: October 1, 2025
• Deadline: October 24, 2025

The Alterna Prize recognizes and supports women students at TMU who demonstrate leadership in social change initiatives within their community or at the university.

Eligibility: Full-time Faculty of Arts undergraduate students who identify as female, demonstrate leadership in social change initiatives and have a minimum CGPA of 2.33.

Applicants must also provide a written statement (max 500 words) about their involvement in social change leadership. This might include: civic, community and/or TMU involvement in a campaign, club, association or social enterprise. 

They must also submit a letter of recommendation (500 words) from a member of the TMU community, or wider community that they’ve worked with. (Recommendation letters cannot be written by a family member.)

• Award amount: $2,500
• Opens: October 1, 2025
• Deadline: October 24, 2025

This award celebrates the legacy of retired Professors Doreen Fumia (Sociology) and Myer Siemiatycki (Politics). It recognizes a Faculty of Arts student who has overcome adversity to pursue their education and demonstrates a commitment to social justice.

Eligibility: Students in their 2nd, 3rd or 4th year of an undergraduate program in the Faculty of Arts or Faculty of Community Services with clear academic standing and a CGPA of at least 2.67.  

Applicants must provide a written statement (max. 250 words) showing how they have overcome adversity to pursue public education and demonstrate a commitment to social justice. They must also include a reference letter outlining their experience written by a community member, instructor or supervisor. (Reference letters cannot be written by a family member.)

• Award amount: $1,000
• Opens: October 1, 2025
• Deadline: October 24, 2025

The Jehangir Saleh Kindness Fund honours the life of Jehangir Saleh by inviting faculty, staff, and students to recognize Arts students who, like Jehangir, make our community a better place through selfless acts of kindness.

Jehangir was an extraordinary student of Philosophy and a 2008 graduate of the Arts & Contemporary Studies program at Toronto Metropolitan University. He was fearless in confronting and making meaning from life’s challenges and his positive and contagious spirit inspired those around him to do the same.

Eligibility: Faculty of Arts' staff, faculty members or students are encouraged to nominate Faculty of Arts undergraduate students who engage in random acts of kindness that contribute positively to our community.

• Award Amount: $100 (up to 5 awards in each Fall and Winter terms)
• Applications accepted during the final week of the Fall and Winter terms

For more information, please email jgerardo@torontomu.ca

This award recognizes a first-year female student of Caribbean heritage. It recognizes their strength, academic achievement and community contributions in a Caribbean context.

Eligibility: Domestic and international students identifying as female, enrolled full-time with a minimum admissions average of 85% (or international equivalent).

Applicants must submit a written statement (500-word max) detailing how their Caribbean heritage has shaped their self-confidence and journey to post-secondary education.

• Award amount: $1,000
• Opens: TBA Winter 2026
• Deadline: TBA Winter 2026

Student Projects Grants provide financial support for student-initiated extra-curricular projects and activities that promote experiential learning and student engagement. Applications may be submitted twice per year in the Fall and Winter terms.

Funding levels: Each application (whether from a group or an individual) may request no more than $1,500 per academic year. Projects may be awarded the full or partial amount. Applicants may apply for only one Student Project Grant per deadline date.

Funded projects: In previous years, the Arts Student Projects Grant has funded projects as diverse as:

• Criminal Justice Prison Trip
• Politics and Governance Ottawa Trip
• Arteries Undergraduate Research Conference
• Continuist Zine
• TMU’s Iranian New Year event 
• On-campus student groups such as Students for Fair Voting
• Engineers Without Borders National Conference
• Global Volunteer Network’s Rwandan Literacy Program

Eligibility: Any Faculty of Arts student leading an extra-curricular project or activity that promotes experiential learning and student engagement.

• Award amount: $1,500 (max)
• Grants awarded throughout the year

Email spg@torontomu.ca to learn more or apply

Undergraduate Research Opportunity (URO) grants offer recipients the chance to participate in a faculty members’ Scholarly, Research and Creative (SRC) activities. They provide opportunities to enhance research, analytical, presentation and writing skills that can be used to further their careers or future research projects. 6 grants are awarded each year.

Note: The Faculty of Arts in collaboration with OVPRI will fund up to 5 additional URO positions (subject to finances).

Award amounts: The total amount for each URO Grant is $11,725.70 (inclusive of benefits and vacation pay). Students cannot work more than 35 hours in any week (up to a total of 490 hours) with a base rate (not including benefits and vacation pay) of $21.11/hour. Faculty supervisors are responsible for ensuring students complete their assigned work within that time.

Eligibility:

Student applicants:

• Must be currently enrolled as a full-time undergraduate Faculty of Arts student with a cumulative GPA greater than 3.0.
• Part-time students may be considered with a rationale/justification.
• An applicant’s Faculty supervisor must be a tenure-stream faculty member.  
• Students can apply for only one URO opportunity per year.

Faculty Supervisor eligibility:

• Must be a tenured or pre-tenure faculty member.
• Limited Term faculty members are eligible if they hold a position during the award period.
• Projects that do not enhance a student’s research or academic potential are ineligible. This includes: for-profit contract research, consulting contract work, and administrative, organizational, or non-academic research projects

• Award amount: Approx. $11,725.70
• Opens: March 1, 2025
• Deadline: March 31, 2025

The USRA program is administered jointly by Canada’s three research granting agencies: the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). It supports more than 3,000 students each year. The award covers 14-16 weeks of full-time work for recipients.

Award amounts:

The total USRA amount comprises $6,000 from the Agency plus the supervisor's contribution ($3,692 for 14 weeks, $5,077 for 16 weeks). The minimum hourly base rate (not including benefits and vacation pay) is $17.20. (Supervisors are encouraged to offer a higher wage than minimum wage.)

Eligibility:

Student applicants: Must be currently enrolled as a full-time undergraduate student at an eligible university, with a cumulative GPA greater than 3.0. Preference will be given to students entering their 3rd and 4th year of study. Applicants must also:

• Be a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident of Canada, or a Protected Person under subsection 95(2) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Canada) as of the application deadline.
• Have completed all the course requirements of at least the first year of a bachelor's degree.
• Be engaged on a full-time basis in research and development activities in their proposed field of research 
• Not already hold more than 3 USRAs 

CIHR and SSHRC USRA applicants:

Applications for these opportunities are exclusively for Black student researchers. To be considered you must self-identify as Black when applying.

• Award amount: Approx. $10,000 - $12,000 (including mandatory supervisor contribution)
• Opens: March 1, 2025
• Deadline: March 31, 2025

The Dennis Mock Award recognizes graduating students who have made outstanding voluntary contributions to the Faculty of Arts, their academic program department or the TMU community as a whole.

Eligibility: Applicants must be nominated by a TMU faculty member or university staff member.

• Deadline: March 2, 2026
• Details on how to apply will be shared 4-6 weeks before the application deadline. Please check back at that time for more.

TMU’s most prestigious award, the TMU Gold Medal recognizes the recipient’s outstanding academic achievements and contributions to TMU, professional and local communities. Recipients are also considered for the Board of Governors Leadership Award and Medal.

Eligibility: Full and part-time graduating TMU students with a clear academic record, minimum CGPA of 3.67 and evidence of strong community engagement beyond their academic work. Applicants must be nominated by a TMU faculty member.

• Deadline: May 6, 2025
• Details on how to apply will be shared 4-6 weeks before the application deadline. Please check back at that time for more.