Reinvesting the 1.5 International Graduate Student Tuition Differential in Student Support

The UofS Board of Governors approved the implementation of a 1.5 tuition differential for international graduate students effective May 1, 2011. In implementing this change, the Board accepted the recommendations of the Provost’s Committee on Integrated Planning that 85% of the increased revenue garnered from the differential be directed to the College of Graduate Studies and Research to be used for the support and recruitment of international graduate students. The proposed plan of reinvestment includes a new international graduate student scholarship, increased allocations to Colleges for scholarships targeted to international graduate students, ongoing funding for the English as a Second Language Bursary program, and, funding for international graduate recruitment initiatives.

Although a 2.6 differential for undergraduate students has been in place for quite some time, the UofS was the only university, among our comparable group of medical-doctoral institutions in Canada, which did not have a differential for international graduate students. Since 2004, there has been an annual international fee of $200 collected from all international graduate students. This is being raised to $400 as of September 1, 2010, but will be discontinued, with the implementation of the international tuition differential the following May.

International students represent more than 25% of the graduate student population at the UofS. “While the introduction of an international differential is a change that may not be welcomed by all”, remarks Lawrence Martz, Dean of the College of Graduate Studies and Research, “it does place the UofS in line with other major universities in Canada, and, provides important new revenues to support international graduate students.”