Registering in Courses Outside of a Student’s Graduate Program

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Graduate students may take graduate or undergraduate courses that are outside of your graduate program, however, you need your supervisor’s approval.  Please review G&PS’s policy here.

Courses Outside a Student’s Graduate Program

You may take graduate or undergraduate courses that are outside your own graduate program. Approval should be granted in advance from the student’s supervisor, home program’s graduate advisor, and the course instructor. These courses will be held to the policy on academic progress.

LFS Graduate Student Travel Awards for 2023-2024

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Good afternoon:

Since 2015, the LFS Graduate Student Travel Award has provided over $300,000 in funding to LFS students to attend and present a research paper or poster describing their thesis research at a scientific meeting/conference, held by a professional society, outside the Lower Mainland.  100% of this funding comes from a generous $1.4 million endowment from the estate of Ursula Knight Abbott.  In 2022-2023, 51 LFS GSTAs were awarded totalling over $77,000.

A number of changes have been made to the LFS Graduate Student Travel Award for 2023-2024.  The new application will be in effect between September 1, 2023 and August 31, 2024.

Here’s a summary of the changes –

  • The application is now a Qualtrics survey.
  • An expense summary and/or receipts are no longer needed.  Proof of presentation is still required.
  • Supervisor’s signature is no longer required (both the student and supervisor will be informed via email once an award nomination has been sent to G&PS for processing).
  • The award value has been changed from up to $1500 to a lump award offer of $1750.

MSc students may claim up to one award per degree program.

PhD students may claim up to two awards per degree program;  PhD students can only claim one award per funding period September 1 to August 31.

  • Students who have already claimed their maximum number of LFS GSTAs may email the Manager, Graduate Programs – LFS to request consideration for additional awards.  These will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Additional information will be posted on the LFS website on Friday (Sept 1).

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Shelley

DEADLINE=Wednesday, August 30 LFS Graduate Student Travel Award

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Good afternoon:

This is the last week of the current funding period for the 2022-2023 LFS Graduate Student Travel Award.  Please make sure you submit your travel award application by Wednesday, August 30th to ensure it will be processed under this current funding period.

There will be changes to the 2023-2024 LFS Graduate Student Travel Award.  I’m hoping to finalize a new application by Friday, September 1, 2023.  Details will be posted online and distributed via the gradstud listserve.

Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any questions.

Shelley

 

Help to Support UBC Undergraduate Research

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My name is Matthew and I’m reaching out again on behalf of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities (URO) team. URO is a student-led, AMS-constituted UBC club. We run the Research EXperience (REX) program where undergraduate student mentees are paired with post-doctoral and graduate student mentors to design a theoretical research project. At the end of the program, the undergraduate students present their finished projects at the Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research Conference (MURC), one of the largest undergraduate research conferences in BC. This initiative provides undergraduates early exposure to the valuable world of research without the monetary and logistical constraints associated with the traditional laboratory experience. The 2022-2023 REX program saw the participation of over 110 mentors and 350 undergraduate applicants.

We are currently looking for graduate and postdoctoral students who are interested in being part of our mentorship program and working with undergraduate students to develop a mock research project. We are asking that you assist us by forwarding this reminder message to graduate and postdoctoral students in your department. It would be a great opportunity for graduate students to gain mentorship experience while supporting the undergraduate student body.

Thank you for taking the time to read this email. If you are not part of the graduate student program, please kindly forward this email to the person in charge. We appreciate your help in supporting undergraduate research at the University of British Columbia.

Below is a draft message that could be used (feel free to edit as you wish): 

We are emailing on behalf of the AMS club, Undergraduate Research Opportunities (URO), to inquire as to whether you would be interested in participating as a mentor in the Research EXperience Program (REX).

What is REX?

REX is a six month long program designed to help undergraduate students build essential research skills through a proposed research project (no results required). The skills acquired by the prospective students include:

  •         Formulating research questions or topic
  •         Understanding how to perform literature reviews
  •         Synthesizing and performing a research project
  •         Creating & printing a research poster
  •         Learning how to present a research poster

As a REX mentor you will guide 2-4 undergraduates through a mini proposed research project (no results required) within your field of expertise. Your mentee will present at a local undergraduate conference or publish their project in a local undergraduate journal. URO provides workshops on the basics of research methodology to ease the students’ transition into the program. As a mentor, you will take a supervisory role in the students’ projects, and it is recommended you commit a minimum of 4 hours each month for 6 months (October to March).

For an undergraduate, finding a chance to work/volunteer in a given field of research can be very difficult. REX seeks to help undergraduates experiment with research earlier in their careers and make a more informed decision about graduate school. If this opportunity interests you and you would like to become a mentor, please complete the initial registration form here by 11:59PM on Monday, July 17th. (This is NOT the final registration. The final registration and bio submission opens in early August and will confirm your registration in the program for this year.)

Further information:

Last year’s REX Mentor Brochure

REX website

If you have any questions, comments or other inquiries please do not hesitate to contact us at rex.uro.ubc@gmail.com. Thank you for your time and consideration. We look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Matthew Chung

REX Committee Co-Chair

UBC VPRI Climate Solutions Research Collective – Graduate students invited to apply

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UBC Vice-President, Research and Innovation (VPRI), is pleased to announce the launch of UBC’s Climate Solutions Research Collective — a new pan-university initiative designed to build connections across UBC’s climate researchers, groups and initiatives, and encourage new collaborative research on climate change solutions. The work of the collective will support students and faculty to apply their research and expertise to climate change mitigation, adaptation, and/or education.

As part of this new initiative, applications are now being accepted for the first cohort of graduate Solutions Scholars. The Solutions Scholars program will sponsor up to eight existing UBC Master’s and PhD students to apply their scholarly research in two focal areas for 2023/24:

  1. wildfires and extreme heat, and
  2. urban transformations.

Please see: https://climatesolutions.ubc.ca/solutions-scholars for more details and to register for an information session on July 13. Applications are due on July 28.

The Climate Solutions Research Collective has launched with funding support from multiple Faculties across our Vancouver and Okanagan campuses and the Vice-President, Research and Innovation portfolio. It is led by a steering committee currently consisting of eleven faculty members.

Questions about the collective can be directed to simon.donner@ubc.ca.