MEMORANDUM

ATIENTION

FROM

RE:

S.13-18

Senate & Academic Services

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I

am pleased

to

submit

the Annual Report

of

the

Senate

Policy

Committee on Scholarships,

Awards and

Bursaries

(SPCSAB)

for the fiscal

year 2011-2012.

Overview:

SPCSAB is

the

committee charged

by

Senate with setting

policy

for

the

administration

of awards, student scholarships

,

bursaries and other forms of financial aid at SFU.

It

should

be noted that this is primarily

for internal awards

.

Three other

Senate committees

,

namely

SUAAC (Senate Undergraduate Awards Adjudication Committee)

,

SGAAC (Senate

Graduate Awards Adjudication Committee) and SCUH (Senate Committee on University

Honor

s

) adjudicate financial

awards to students where adjudication

is needed.

Financial Aid and

Awards

,

a

unit

within

Student

Services

,

administers

undergraduate scholarships

and awards

programs,

and

needs-based funding

opportunities including government

student loan

programs

,

Work-Stud

y

,

and

bursaries for both undergraduate and

graduate

students.

Graduate

Studies

administers all

internal

and external scholarships

,

and awards for graduate students.

For the 2011-12

fiscal

year

,

the

total amount

of student financial aid

and awards

from all sources

(undergraduate and graduate) was

up 1.8 percent

to $73

.

1

from $71.7

million

in 2010-2011.

Financial aid and awards

managed internally rose to

$13

.

2 million

from

$12.8

million

which was an

increa

s

e

of 3.1

percent.

Externally supported financial aid for 2011-12

rose 1.5 percent

from $59 to

$59.9

million. Of

internal

managed

funding

,

year over year

undergraduate

entrance scholarship

funding disbursed rose

by

2.2

percent

from $4.3 to $4.6 million as the total

number

of awards

rose to

2

,

031 from

I

,

933

.

International undergraduate

entrance scholarships increased

by percent in number

and

15 percent in funding awarded

(although

they

comprise only 23

percent

of

the

funding

disbursed

ofall entrance awards.)

The

overall

in-course

and open scholarship

budget declined by

8

percent

from $2.67

to

$2.46

million

with

the bulk

of

the

decrea

s

e

taking place in the

Open Undergraduate

Scholarships which

dropped

in total value

by 19 percent

even

though the number

eligible

increased

by

15 percent.

Although

the

value

per

unit wa

s

again set

at

$70

,

unlike

the

previous

year

,

no

S

IMO

N

FRASEn

UNIV

E

US

I

TY

ENGAGING TH

E

W

ORLD

14 percent in number

---

additional funding was added to boostthe final unit values which had been $70, $100,and $110 in

previous Summer, Fall and Spring terms.

The funding disbursed for all bursaries provided by the University was up by 4 percent in 2011-12

while the number of bursaries awarded declined by 14 percent to 4,781. The greatest part of this was

a decline of 29 percent in the number of domestic undergraduate university funded awards (from

3,015 to 2,168). Average bursary per recipient was up by

21 percent ($932 from $771) with a 51

percent increase in the domestic undergraduate bursary to $981 from $651.

The value of athletic awards rose by 63 percent year over year to $956,000 with a 37 percent

increase in the number of awards. Funding disbursed for Work Study opportunities for

undergraduates rose by 6 percent while the number of students receiving funding remained

unchanged.

Total funding for SFU graduate students in 2011-12 from internal and external sources was

$16.2 million up from $15.4 million in 2010-11. Total internally funded graduate awards rose 26

percent to $8.9 million from $7.1 million in 2010-11. Graduate scholarships/fellowships

provided by faculties and schools at SFU increased by over 16 percent to $278,000, and various

other internally funded awards rose by 46 percent to $1.84 million. There was an increase of 22

percent to $6.8 million attributable to increases in graduate fellowships, CD Nelson Scholarships

and General Entrance scholarships. Of the current Graduate SBA funding, 61 percent was

awarded as Graduate Fellowships, 13 percent for President's Ph.D. Research Stipends, 5 percent

for Special Graduate Entrance Scholarships, 5 percent for the CD. Nelson Entrance Scholarships

and 3 percent for the Provost Scholarship. Travel and other minor grants made up the remainder

(4.3 percent). It is noteworthy that internally funded graduate awards in 2011-12 have more than

recovered from the 5 percent decline that took place between 2009-10 to 2010-11 while

externally funded graduate support fell by 12 percent between 2010-11 and 2011-12. This

decrease was primarily due to the termination of the B.C. government funding programs.

Other Items of Interest

•

The scholarship retention success rate on second disbursement for the automatic BC

Secondary School Academic Excellence Scholarship moved from 88 percent to 89

percent in 2011-12.

•

The overall number of undergraduate Entrance scholarships offered versus final

registrants whom the scholarships were disbursed to in Fall 2011, was steady at about 28

percent, as it was in Fall 2010.

•

The scholarship retention success rate on second disbursement for the Gordon Shrum BC

Secondary School Major Entrance Scholarship has been above 90 percent for the past 5

years in a row.

•

The total calculated financial need decreased approximately 28 percent from the previous

year. This was in large part due to revisions that were made to the bursary needs

assessment process from Fall 2011 onward.

•

Individual student bursaries for domestic and grandfathered international students were

awarded at an annual average of 67 percent of assessed need, which was approximately

SIMON I'HASI'.H U N I V liHSIT Y

ENGAGING THE WORLD

2

---

•

24 percent higher than the previous year. This can be attributed to changes made to the

bursary needs assessment living allowance.

University designated bursaries to support aboriginal students (both graduate and

undergraduate) in high financial need again showed a 23 percent increase in bursary

funding awarded over the previous year.

There was approximately a 19 percent increase in bursary funding awarded for domestic

graduate students from the SFU Open Graduate Bursary comparedto the previous

year.

Simon Fraser remained the 2nd largest user of the StudentAid BC government assistance

programs for the 1Othyear in a row.

At Simon Fraser approximately 21 percent of all undergraduate students received funding

through StudentAid BC government assistance programs.

SIMON HtASIill UNIVERSITY

ENGAGING THE WORLD