Undergraduate Student Eligibility for Award Disbursement

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 (undergraduate merit and undergraduate research trainees) are applied in addition to the global rules and are dependent upon the student criteria in order to process awards within 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• Student must be registered & not withdrawn.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:

• Registered in a degree program in the Summer term OR
• Registered as a research trainee during the Summer term OR
• Registered in the preceding Winter term as well as the upcoming Fall term in the same program OR
• Graduated in the preceding Winter term

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 either for a student participating as an Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA) or an Undergraduate Research Trainee as one of the allowable options to pay students.

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

Undergraduate Merit Awards

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

After Add/Drop period, verification is done on the following:

The student must be registered with the number of credits/billing hours equal to or greater than 12 credits in each semester (Fall & Winter); Summer awards will be vetted individually.

Note:

• Agricultural FMT students are calculated with 10 or more credits.
• Students registered in a CO-OP term are deemed ineligible for award payments with the exception of students in the MUST program and registered in MIME 290, MIME 291 or MIME 392 - Industrial Work Period 1, 2, or 3.

Undergraduate Research Trainees

This set of rules applies to undergraduate research trainees:

• If recipient is not a McGill 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’s 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 Undergraduate Student Stipend Factsheet.

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 McGill University.
• 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 McGill.
• 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 / Relevé 1 for tax treatment by the Federal and Quebec governments.