Tuition & Funding

UBC’s Master of Public Policy and Global Affairs (MPPGA) is a premier professional public policy program at a top-tier university that attracts expert faculty and leading students from around the world.

As such, tuition is comparable to that of other high-caliber universities in Canada, in the United States and internationally. The MPPGA Program Office is committed to working with top candidates for whom financial considerations are a concern.


Tuition and Fees

For students starting in September 2023, tuition is $50,381.20 CAD total for domestic students and $89,930.82 CAD total for international students.

Payment Schedule

Tuition is paid in five installments over 20 months: Three are paid in the first year of study (September, January, and May) and two are paid in the second year (September and January). This means that 60% of your tuition amount is due in the first year. Installment amounts are $10,076.24 CAD for domestic students and $17,986.16  CAD for international students.

Fees*

Full-time graduate students can expect to pay approximately $1081.64 per year in student fees (including the U-Pass) and $277.50 for the AMS/GSS Extended Health Plan. Most of these fees are mandatory, but some have opt-out provisions. All student fees are charged and payable annually, with the exception of the U-Pass, which is charged in three installments payable in September, January, and May. International Students may also pay an additional fee for temporary medical coverage:

Please see a listing of Student Fees in the UBC Calendar.

*Fees, including tuition, program, course, special, and student society fees, are approved by the UBC Board of Governors following consultation with students and are subject to change. Tuition fees are annually reviewed by the Board of Governors. In recent years, tuition increases have been 2% for continuing domestic students and between 2% and 5% for continuing international students.

Other costs

The Global Policy Project (GP2) in your second year will provide opportunities for you and your team to engage with policy makers and civil society on real world problems. Some of these projects will be locally based while others may involve national or international travel. Students will have the opportunity to rank their projects of choice prior to being placed on teams and should be prepared to cover part of the travel costs for their field work.


Funding

Sponsorship Billing

Some UBC students have a portion of their UBC fees paid by a sponsor such as an Indigenous community, employer, or government agency. This is called sponsorship billing. To have an organization sponsor your studies at UBC, they will have to meet the required criteria and apply before the deadline. For any changes to the sponsoring agency or amount sponsored, you will need to submit a new form.

Canadian Loans

If you are a Canadian student, please visit Government of Canada’s website for information about student loans and funding opportunities. For BC residents, please visit Student Aid BC for province-specific information.

U.S. Loans

If you are an American student, the MPPGA program has been approved for U.S. Direct loans to assist students to pay for their post-secondary education. Please visit UBC’s Student Services – Finances for more information.

Scholarships and awards

A wide range of scholarships, awards and financial support is available for qualified candidates through the MPPGA program, UBC and external partners.

The MPPGA program offers entrance scholarships and generous merit-based scholarships for both domestic and international students. Applicants may indicate their desire to be considered for a scholarship on the application form itself. Scholarship decisions are made in conjunction with admission decisions.

MPPGA applicants and students, please find various funding opportunities at UBC and externally by clicking on the link below. Please check the funding websites carefully as information is subject to change. Please also note that the links below are provided as a service to students. UBC does not verify the information in these listings, nor are the organizations and placements subject to any form of University inspection. UBC does not take responsibility for any issues relating to the use of the information below.

Internal Awards and Scholarships

Each year, MPPGA Domestic Student Entrance Scholarship and MPPGA International Student Entrance Scholarship are offered to exceptional Canadian and international students entering the MPPGA programs at UBC. The entrance scholarship will be assigned to qualified students in 5 installments with satisfactory progress in the first year of the program, the same as the tuition payment schedule: 3 in the first year (September, January and May) and 2 in the second year (September and January). The number and level of the scholarships awarded each year vary, depending on available funding. In recent years, awards for high ranking applicants have ranged from $5,000-$30,000.

No separate application is required – admission records and Personal Profiles are reviewed after admission to the MPPGA program to determine scholarship eligibility and competitiveness. Apply for admission by the application deadline to be considered for the entrance scholarships.

Awards are made available annually by the Master of Public Policy and Global Affairs program to outstanding students in the first year of the program, on the basis of exceptional academic performance in first-year core courses. This award is made on the recommendation of the MPPGA program, in consultation with the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. Both international and domestic students are eligible.

A $4,050 scholarship has been made available through an endowment established by Farid Rohani in honor of Jamaloddin Khanjani, a successful businessman who, because he was Baha’i, lost his business after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran. The scholarship is in honor of Mr. Khanjani’s commitment to and support of education and human rights. The scholarship will support a graduate student whose studies focus on human rights and related aspects of public policy and global affairs, with preference given to students in the Masters of Public Policy and Global Affairs (MPPGA) program. The Jamaloddin Khanjani Family Scholarship is administered by MPPGA annually in Winter Sessions. A successful candidate will be selected by the UBC School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and nominated to the Faculty of Arts Associate Dean, Research in consultation with the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.

UBC Awards

A prize of $3,850 has been made available through an endowment established by Dr. Rashid Sumaila upon being named the 2017 Volvo Environment Prize laureate for a Master’s or Ph.D. student whose peer-reviewed publications to date are expected to have the most significant impact on the field of environmental sustainability.

Preference is given to students supervised by faculty members who are affiliated with the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries; the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability; or the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs.

External Scholarships

Fully funded by the Government of Canada, these scholarships will be awarded to students from all academic disciplines, for post-secondary programs of up to two years leading to a diploma, post-secondary or post-graduate certificate, or Master’s degree at a college, technical or vocational institute, or university in Canada.

Canadian post-secondary institutions will apply for scholarships on behalf of eligible students, who will need to meet the admissions criteria of their chosen institution.

  • Target audience: Students at the college and master’s level from the following countries / territories: Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Comoros, Djibouti, Fiji, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Liberia, Mauritania, Micronesia, Palau, Tonga, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Vanuatu, Palestinians from the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem
  • Value of the award: Up to CAD 60,000 per year
  • Duration of the award: 1 to 2 years
  • Includes: Airfare, tuition, monthly living allowance, study permit, accommodation, medical insurance and more.
  • Application period: Visit the website

The Open Scholarship is available to graduates of Canadian universities who pursue graduate study in any discipline, in Canada or elsewhere. One Open Scholarship is awarded each year. The Traveling Scholarship is available to graduates of Canadian universities who pursue graduate study in the United States or the United Kingdom in the areas of international relations or industrial relations (including the international or industrial relations aspects of law, history, politics and economics). Recently four scholarships have been awarded annually.

Deadline: Please check the website for details.
Award Value: $8,500 - $10,500 (subject to change)

The contact at the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for this competition is Natalie Thorson (natalie.thorson@ubc.ca).

The University of British Columbia offers multi-year fellowships to master's and doctoral Indigenous students. Award winners are selected on the basis of academic merit through an annual competition administered by the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.

Each fellowship provides a stipend of $18,200 per year for doctoral students or a stipend of $16,175 per year for master’s students. Additionally, IGF recipients are eligible to receive tuition funding. Tuition funding will not exceed the current value of standard doctoral or master's degree tuition fees. Applicants for Master's funding will receive fellowship funding until the end of their second year of master’s studies; applicants for doctoral funding will receive fellowship funding for four years or until the end of their fifth year of doctoral studies, whichever comes first.  In all cases, continued fellowship support is conditional on satisfactory academic progress. Recipients of master’s fellowship funding must re-apply to be considered for doctoral funding.

Please note that as of the 2023-2024 academic year, eligibility for the IGF is extended to students in professional and coursework-only master’s programs (previously, only research-based programs were eligible).

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