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Eor Information

S.96-67

REPORT TO SENATE ?

SENATE POLICY COMMITTEE ON ?

SCHOLARSHIPS, AWARDS AND BURSARIES ?

JULY 1996

Dr. Katherine Heinrich

SPCSAB Chair

Senate Policy Committee on Scholarships, Awards and Bursaries

Report to Senate, July 1996

This report covers all

business activities of the Senate Committee on Scholarships, Awards and

Bursaries (SPCSAB) for the three semesters

95-2, 95-3

and 96-1.

Meetings.

The committee held meetings on

1995

1995

Committee members:

C. Dean (June/95 - Feb./96)

S. Roberts (Feb./96 -)

Y. Irani (Oct./95 - Apr./96)

Entrance Awards:

The UBC OSI entrance scholarship of up to $10,000

($2,500

in the first year and the remainder in

annual installments provided a high GPA is maintained) is awarded to all BC students with an

entering GPA of at least 86%. This award is well known and is one we cannot match. However,

its existence led us to repackage our existing entrance scholarships as follows: the Summit,

Regional Summit, Diamond and Specht Scholarships, are now all worth $3,500 in the first year

and following that the student will automatically be considered for the Open Scholarship (currently

paying $77 per credit hour) for a maximum total current value of close to $10,500. A similar

increase in the first year amount was made to the Caple College Transfer Scholarship. The value of

the Dean's Scholarship was raised to $3,500 in each of the first two years with the student then

becoming eligible for the Open - the total current value is, therefore, potentially just over $11,500.

No changes were made to the values of other awards.

Changes were also made to the scholarship application process in an attempt to simplify

applications for the students and adjudication at SFU. With that in mind, all students admitted to

the university are automatically eligible for the Summit and Specht awards. These are awarded

based on GPA only and, to ensure their effectiveness as a recruitment tool, may be awarded at any

time. In Fall 1995, the admission average required was 92% and in Fall 1996, is 93%.

In the case of all entrance awards of higher value, students are required to write only one essay on

a given topic, may apply for a Dean's Scholarship in only one faculty and are advised that they

should expect a final academic standing of at least 90% before applying for a Shrum or either of the

other two major awards. The number of Dean's scholarships awarded to a faculty is based on the

faculty enrolment and faculties may (and should) make Dean's scholarships available to transfer

students roughly proportional to the number of transfer. students they have. Unfortunately, despite

our attempt to consult we learned after decisions had been made that this could cause difficulties in

Senate Policy Committee on Scholarships, Awards and Bursaries, Report to Senate,

199511996,

page 2

the awarding of the Dean's Scholarship in

Arts and the issue will have to be reconsidered for the

1996/1997 adjudication process.

The above changes all took place for the 1996 competition.

Specht Applied Science

Gordon M. Shrum (National)

$22,000

8 semesters

Kenneth Strand (National)

$4,000

2 semesters

Specht in Science (National)

$4,000

2 semesters

Jack Diamond (National)

S ?

Specht Applied Science

Note that at the end of Fall

1995

two students who did not receive an entrance scholarship but who

achieved GPAs over 4.00 after a full load in 95-3 were awarded a one-semester Summit for the 96-

1 semester. The committee feels that this is appropriate action.

Open Scholarships:

The committee remains committed to work to reduce the. GPA required for students to receive the

Open Scholarship until it is equal to that required for continuation of the Shrum Entrance

Scholarship (3.60). With this intention and with the possibility of a major tuition increase for Fall

96, the committee approved the following: that the Open Scholarship no longer be valued at the full

cost of a credit hour but that its value be set annually. For 96-3, 97-1 and 97-2 it is set at $77 per

credit hour. It was decided to modify the terms of the Open Scholarship to "capture" students who

had had high GPAs over several semestersbut did not qualify for Opens because of poor results in

their first semesters. Such students will have to self-identify to be considered for an Open

Scholarship (at this time there are no students in this category).

Senate Policy Committee on Scholarships, Awards and Bursaries, Report to Senate,

199511996, page 3

Open Scholarships by semester:

Semester: ?

CGPA: ?

# of Awards: Total $$: ?

95-2 ?

95-3 ?

Total for three semesters:

681

$585,573

$860

International Students:

$ 86,597

$931

Stanley Morisse Scholarship: The terms of reference for this endowed scholarship were

revisited to determine an appropriate mechanism that would ensure applications from students in

Cyprus. Contact has been made with the University of Cyprus and the first student (Sotiroulla

Aristodemou) has registrered in Fall 1996.

International Entrance Scholarship:

This scholarship continues to attract outstanding

international students from the World Colleges. Three awards have now been made:

1994 Lily Fang, China, Lester Pearson College - Management and Systems Science

1995 Marko Vasiljevic, Serbia, Lester Pearson College - Engineering Science

1996 Baran Doda, Turkey, United World College of the Adriatic - Economics

Undergraduate Policies:

Charlotte French, Director, Student Academic Resources, has

prepared a policy manual describing SPCSAB principles and the specific regulations regarding the

establishment, distribution and administration of awards and programs that are the responsibility of

the Registrar's Office. The final set of policies were approved by SPCSAB in 96-2 and have been

made available to Chairs and other officers.

Graduate Entrance Scholarships: The

committee approved a recommendation from the Dean

of Graduate Studies

the distribution of Graduate Fellowships. No significant changes have been

made over past years.

Graduate Awards Budget in Fiscal Year 1995/1996

Award Name

Number

Value

Total

1995-2 ?

C^-

GRAND TOTAL

Bal. Fwd

94/95 f.y.

Allocation

95/96 f.y.

Bal. Carryover to

96/97

$2,454,230 ?

$396,020 ?

$2,265,107 ?

$206,897

Senate Policy Committee on Scholarships, Awards and Bursaries, Report to Senate,

1996-1 ?

Bursaries:

The office of Financial Assistance distributes bursaries to both undergraduate and

graduate students. Recent data collected by that office shows that students at all academic levels

require additional financial support through bursaries and they, therefore, fill an essential need for

all students.

Bursaries are awarded on the basis of financial need to undergraduate students registered in a

minimum of 9 semester hours and graduate students registered in an approved full-time program.

In the 1995/96 award year the total calculated financial need after government student loan awards

of bursary recipients was $1,335,069. The total dollars awarded was

$945,195.

The SFU funded,

Endowed and Private bursary programs awarded $101,353 total additional dollars in

1995/96

compared to 1994/95.

UNDERGRADUATE BURSARIES

SF0 Open (domestic)

# of Students ?

Ttl. $

SFU Open (international)

Senate Policy Committee on Scholarships, Awards and Bursaries, Report to Senate,

SFU Open (international)

4,650

*For detailed reports of awards for 1995/96 in the following programs contact Charlotte French,

Student Academic Resources: government student loans and grants, the Work-Study program,--

Part-time Student Assistance, endowed and private scholarships, University service awards,

athletic awards and emergency loans.

Budget and Fundraising:

Each year the university increases scholarship/bursary funding

according to a formula based on enrolment and increase in tuition. The committee was asked by the

VP Academic to make a recommendation as to how these additional funds should be split between

the undergraduate and the graduate budgets. Looking at historical information and what takes place

at other universities, the committee did more than requested and recommended that, of the entire

university budget for scholarships, awards and bursaries, the allocation per graduate FTE be

6.5

times the allocation per undergraduate FIE. This has been adopted and will be reviewed regularly.

The committee is also interested in seeing a substantial increase in the university's endowments that

support scholarships and bursaries. It was decided that we would use an unassigned endowed

fund of $100,000 (currently used to augment the scholarships and bursary programs) to support

the 1996 Campus Campaign. We offered to add 50 cents to each dollar donated to an endowed

university scholarship or bursary fund during the campaign. In total $10,200 was donated and we

matched it with

$5,100.

It is our intention to continue this support until the $100,000 is depleted -

and hopefully that will be soon.

The undergraduate budget of $2,484,292 and the graduate budget of $2,508,030 is distributed as

follows. Note that more detailed information on the distribution of funds at the graduate level can

be found in the annual report to Senate of the Dean of Graduate Studies.

Undergraduate Open Scholarships:

$ 550,000

Entrance Scholarships: ?

$1,198,250

Undergraduate Bursaries:

$ 388,491*

Undergraduate Awards:

$ 107,000*

SFU-Funded Workstudy:

$ 24,000*

International Graduate/Undergraduate Bursaries: ?

Graduate Fellowships:

President's PhD Research Stipend:

CD Nelson Entrance:

Special Entrance:

Graduate Bursaries:

*Administered by Financial Assistance

Senate Policy Committee on Scholarships, Awards and Bursaries, Report to Senate,

199511996, page 6

Recruitment:

One of the roles of the entrance scholarship programs is to attract the best students

to study at SFU. At the graduate level the responsibility of this lies with the departments and their

graduate studies committees. At the undergraduate level it is done mainly through the recruitment

office. In an effort to ensure that counsellors in the schools understand the scholarships process

and are able to give their students the best advice possible, during 96-1 and 96-2 school district

counsellors from North Vancouver, Vancouver, Surrey, Abbotsford, Coquitlam and Burnaby

were invited to lunch at the Diamond University Club to meet with the Chair and members of

SPCSAB, the Registrar and Dean of Student Services, and the Directors of Admissions, Student

Recruitment and Student Academic Resources. These have proven to be very valuable (some

counsellors had not previously been on the campus). Two other important recruitment activities are

the reception for new scholarship winners and their parents, and the information evening for all

new students and their families, both of which are held in the Summer before the student must

decide whether to accept our offer of scholarship and/or admission.

Motions:

The following motions were approved by the Committee during the year.

Undergraduate:

Motions (November

1995):

That the basic value of the Dean's Entrance Scholarships be increased to $7,000 over four

semesters and that the process of awarding them be simplified and moved closer to the Faculties as

a whole. Faculty recommendatons should include some proportion of college transfer applicants.

That the basic value for the Summits, Regional Summits and Specht Scholarships be increased to

$3,500.

No application required and adjudication based solely on admission averages.

That the basic value of the Caple College Transfer Scholarships and the Diamond Entrance

Scholarships be increased to

$3,500.

That the University proceed to tie some entrance scholarships to the Open Scholarships on the

understanding that the promotional literature makes it very clear that this is a potential amount, with

the actual amount determined by the student's ability to meet stipulated requirements.

That the value of an Open Scholarship be set by the Committee on a fixed dollar per credit basis

each fiscal year, and that this provision be reviewed when the details of the grant, tuition fees and

enrolment projections for 1996/1997 are known. For 1996/1997, the value was exactly equal to the

tuition charged at $77/credit.

Motion (March 1996):

That the Committee should encourage and support the Campus Campaign through matching funds

on the basis of

$.50

for each $1. donated to awards for undergraduate and graduate students.

Graduate:

Motion (May 1995):

That, in determining the distribution of funding between the graduate and undergraduate

. components of the scholarships, awards and bursaries budgets, the allocations per graduate FIFE

6.5

times the allocation per undergraduate FTE, and that for year X+l the allocation would be

based on enrolments in year X.

Senate Policy Committee on Scholarships, Awards and Bursaries, Report to Senate,

199511996, page 7

Motion (March 1996):

That the recommendations for the awarding of graduate fellowships in 1996/1997 as set out in

SPCSAB 96-3 be approved.

Achnowledgements:

Thanks should be extended to the many people involved in both recruiting

students and making the scholarship and bursary decisions.