University of Waterloo International Doctoral Student Award (IDSA) 2026

Amount

Paid per term; higher in the core program terms, lower in early and final terms

Deadline

Not published

Host countries

Not specified

Fields

Any field

The IDSA is targeted at international doctoral students who are paying international tuition. The main conditions are: You're enrolled full-time in a PhD program at the University of Waterloo. You hold a valid Canadian study permit and are assessed international tuition. You're making satisfactory academic progress in your program.

• The IDSA's value is the tuition relief itself. The main benefits:
• It offsets most of the international-domestic tuition gap, which is the largest single cost international PhD students face.
• It's applied automatically, so there's no separate competition or essay to write.
• It runs term by term across the program, so the relief continues as long as you stay eligible.
• It stacks with the rest of your funding package, including the supervisor stipend and assistantship income.
• The per-term amount is higher during the core years of the PhD and lower in the earliest and final terms, and there are caps on the total number of funded terms. The exact figures are set by Graduate Studies and adjust over time, so confirm current amounts on the official IDSA page.