Standing Committee on Science and Research
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
July 21, 2023
Re: Government of Canada’s Graduate Scholarship and Post-Doctoral Fellowship Programs
Dear Members of the Committee,
Founded in 1922, the Canadian Historical Association is a national, bilingual professional association representing the interests of historians, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students. To this end, it is pleased to submit this short brief.
The CHA has heard from its members: graduate scholarships and post-doctoral fellowships are inadequate, to say the least.
In fact, the 2023 Report of the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System used stronger language. “To put it starkly, current support for graduate students – the researchers of tomorrow – is at a breaking point. The values of the government’s awards for university research trainees have remained virtually stagnant for the past 20 years.”[1]
The CHA therefore endorses the May 2023 recommendation of the Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences: “Invest in Canada’s future researchers by increasing the amount of funding support for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows to adjust for inflation, and index the value of these funds to the consumer price index.”[2]
To ensure that student voices are heard, the CHA also endorses the June 2023 recommendation of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations: “The addition of student seats on the Tri-Council via legislation.”[3]
Thank you very much for your time,
Donald Wright
President
[1] Report of the Advisory Panel on the Federal Research Support System (Ottawa: Department of Industry, 2023), 46
[2] FHSS, Brief to the Standing Committee on Science and Research, 17 May 2023
[3] CASA, Brief to the Standing Committee on Science and Research, 8 June 2023