What 244 graduate students told us

• 73%

  can't cover their day-to-day living costs with their stipend alone

  Down from 84% in 2023, about the same as 2024 Report: Figure 18, students in funded programs

• 69%

  of students with extra work rank extra income as their top reason for it, ahead of work experience or personal interest

  Report: Figure 16

• 51%

  disagree that their stipend adequately pays them for their work

  22% agree Report: Figure 11

• 73%

  knew their living allowance went up this year

  After a record low in 2024 Report: Figure 9

Insecurity

• 66%

  face some level of health-care insecurity

  Report: Figure 21

• 50%

  face some level of food insecurity

  Report: Figure 19

• 27%

  face some level of housing insecurity

  Report: Figure 20

Mental health

• 38%

  rate their mental health poor or very poor

  Report: Figure 22

• 15%

  rate their mental health very poor

  Up from 8% in 2024 Report: Figure 22

Finding information

• 46%

  found it easy to find information about student resources

  Up from about 40% in 2024. 24% found it difficult, down from about 28% Report: Page 23, Figure 24

Why students miss them

• 78%

  Hard-to-use university websites

  Broken links, the same information spread over many sites, and needing the right search words.

  Report: Page 24

• 40%

  Too many emails

  Resource news buried in long emails and mixed in with event announcements.

  Report: Page 24

• 30%

  Never told

  Resources were never mentioned, or only once at orientation, among everything else.

  Report: Page 24

Shares of the written answers that explained why students hadn't heard of resources. One answer can give more than one reason.

What made the first year hard

• 1

  Paying before the first stipend

  Moving costs, housing deposits and visa fees all come due before any stipend arrives.

• 2

  Learning U of T's systems

  Little practical help at the start with ACORN, Quercus and the other platforms.

• 3

  Settling into Canada

  Getting a SIN, opening a bank account, using transit and understanding UHIP.

• 1

  One place for every resource

  A searchable hub with direct, up-to-date links, especially for mental health and insurance.

• 2

  Clear news about funding

  Departments telling students about living allowance increases in emails, orientation and department meetings.

• 3

  Fewer, clearer emails

  Resource news kept apart from event announcements, with short messages and seasonal reminders, such as tax clinics at tax time.

• 4

  Reminders beyond orientation

  Regular reminders, brief presentations in departments and a one-page resource guide every semester.

• 5

  Help before the first stipend

  A start-up advance or an earlier first stipend payment, with tuition due dates that match stipend dates.

• 6

  A guide for new arrivals

  Practical help with U of T systems, and a "Canada 101" pre-arrival guide to SIN, banking, transit and UHIP.

• 244

  responses from the nine departments in the Harmonized Base Funding Agreement (HBFA)

• 3,757

  responses across the surveys from 2017 to 2025, so we can show how things have changed