Global Rules

The global rules apply to all students. The system will validate the following information to ensure the criteria are met prior to disbursement of an award. The additional rules (graduate merit and graduate research trainees) are applied in addition to the global rules and are dependent upon the student criteria in order to process awards within Banner Student Aid (BSA).

Global Rule Criteria

• Student must be registered & not withdrawn.
• Student must be in a degree program.
• Student cannot be registered in a certificate/diploma (pre-determined exceptions must be clearly identified using the comment field).
• Student cannot be registered in Continuing Studies.
• Student cannot be registered in a private program (i.e. MBA, MMM).
• Student must have an active status.
• Student must have banking information i.e. direct deposit details setup in Minerva if the payment method is to accounts payable.
• Student must have an active address setup in Minerva regardless of the payment method.

Note:

Award records that do not pass eligibility rules will require follow-up which could result in processing delays.

Learn more about awarding exceptions for students with disabilities.

Summer Award Payment Rules

In order to avoid processing delays of summer awards and stipends, take note of the following eligibility criteria:

Students are deemed eligible if they are:

• Thesis students must be registered as continuing, additional, half-time, evaluation or full-time students.
• Non-Thesis students must be registered in the Summer term or in the preceding Winter term as well as the upcoming Fall term.聽
• Graduated in the preceding Winter term.
• Graduate Research Trainees must be registered in non-transcript term.聽

Students are ineligible for summer award payments if they do not meet the criteria listed above OR if they are registered as a PostDoc during the Summer session OR if they are on a leave of absence.

Awards processors should indicate in the payment comments that the award/stipend is for a student participating as a graduate research trainee.

Note: For Tri-Council Research (Aid Fund Code starts with R) awards, students must be registered as full-time including the Summer term.

Graduate Merit Awards

This set of rules applies to graduate students that are potential recipients of merit based awards.

There are four sets of rules that are applied which are dependent upon student criteria in order to process awards within BSA:

1. Basic Rules

• Thesis students must be registered as continuing, additional, half-time, evaluation or full-time students.
• Non-Thesis students must be registered with credit billing hours greater than or equal to 12.
• For students with disabilities, read more.

2. GPS Hold Rule

• Students with admissions document deficiency on agency awards will have a disbursement hold place on the record until the issue is rectified.

3. Stipend Rule

• Stipend payment method聽must be Accounts Payable.
• Cheques will not be issued.
• Accounts Receivable is not an acceptable method of payments for awards from granting agencies.

4. Agency Rule

• Agency awards require that students must be registered as full-time.
• Payment method should be Accounts Payable.
• Note: The Award Processing Form (APF) does not prevent Accounts Receivable as a payment method.
• These awards will fail eligibility checking if accounts receivable is selected. Processing delays could result as Student Funding must validate the payment method with the Fund Administrator.

Graduate Research Trainees

This set of rules applies to graduate research trainees:

• If recipient is not a 91社区 student, must be registered in non-transcript term.
• The non-transcript start date is equal to or less than the pay date and the completion date is equal to or greater than the pay date.
• Learn more about the eligibility criteria for research trainees.

Eligibility Criteria to Pay a Student Stipend

Definition: A student stipend is money paid to students (typically at the graduate level but not limited to) from a professor鈥檚 grant for the purpose of allowing the student to further their own research/thesis or other program or academic requirement.

It may be paid to international students as well as Canadian nationals.

The funding source is depicted in the Finance system as a grant. Such payments are subject to approval by the Research Financial Management Services/Financial Services to ensure compliance with granting agency restrictions and thresholds.

The nature of the payment is a student stipend for the express purpose to further the education and training of the recipient. All remuneration received by the recipient for the performance of employment duties (such as: TA-ships, demonstrator, and other regular employment income), is outside of the scope of student stipends and will be treated separately from this payment.

IMPORTANT! For more in-depth details, consult the Graduate Student Stipend Fact Sheet.

Stipend Checklist:

• The primary purpose of the student stipend is to further the education and training of the recipient in their individual capacity.
• The recipient of this student stipend is duly registered as a student at 91社区.
• All responsibilities of the recipient as per the terms of the student stipend must relate to training and studies as a student.
• The recipient does not hold academic/professorial rank as an additional appointment at 91社区.
• The amount and nature of payment adheres to the applicable granting agency guidelines

The payment of this student stipend is not considered to be employment income. As such the amount:

• Is not eligible for the university benefits plans including, but not limited to Group Life, Health, Dental, LTD and Pension.
• Is not eligible for federal and provincial government deductions and benefits such as: Employment Insurance, Quebec Pension Plan, Quebec Parental Insurance Plan and Medicare.
• Is not subject to the 4% vacation pay or any form of vacation accrual or payment.
• Will not entitle the recipient to collect Employment Insurance upon completion of the payment.
• Will be recorded on a T4A / Relev茅 1 for tax treatment by the Federal and Quebec governments.