External Awards

About the awards

External awards are administered to students by external agencies and organizations outside of and not related to UBC.

You may be eligible for an external award from:

  • The Provincial Government, through British Columbia provincial scholarships
  • Your parents’ association with an employer, union, or club
  • Organizations that are looking to assist students studying in a specific field

UBC encourages students to seek out external awards to further fund their studies. There may be additional external award opportunities available to students in specific faculties. Connect with your faculty’s academic advising office for more information.

Information for external organizations can be found at the bottom of this page.

Your responsibility as a student

You must communicate with the external award donor to ensure your award is forwarded to the correct office with your student information before the tuition payment deadline. Missing or incorrect information will result in processing delay.

It is important that you are aware of the terms and conditions of the external agency to keep the award funding. If you withdraw from UBC or do not fulfill the external agency’s requirements at any point in the school year, you must contact the external agency to arrange for possible repayment. UBC will not act as the mediator between you and the external agency.

Additional requirements from the external organization

Some external organizations may require a Proof of Enrolment letter and the cost of your tuition before funding is sent to UBC. You can find your Proof of Enrolment from the Student Service Centre (SSC) under Grades and Records. You can find the cost of your tuition by selecting “Tuition History” under Finances.

If you've won an external award

Cheques can be made payable to UBC and sent to Enrolment Services for processing. Funds will be assigned to your Student Service Center (SSC) account once Enrolment Services confirms that you are registered and are in Good Standing.

Award monies are scheduled to be paid to a student’s tuition account at the beginning of the academic session. It takes approximately 4 to 6 weeks for the award amount to show in your account, from the date Enrolment Services receives the fund. During busy times, such as the start of the term, the processing time may be longer.

If your external award cheque is not in Canadian dollars, UBC will deposit the cheque using the currency exchange rate of the day it is processed and not necessarily the day UBC receives it.

To ensure Enrolment Services has the proper information to deposit the cheque, you must provide the external organization with the following information:

  • Your full name
  • Student number

This information should be written on the face of the cheque in the memo or comments area. Cheques that do not include this information will not be processed.

Graduate students

If you are a graduate student who has won an external award, please email the Graduate Awards team and include the following information:

  • Your full name
  • Student number
  • Details about the award you have won (e.g., award name and/or number)

Submitting your cheque

If you're studying at UBC Vancouver

You can drop off your cheque in person at the Advising Center in Brock Hall during regular business hours or mail it to the following address:

Student Support and Advising, Enrolment Services
#1206-1874 East Mall, Brock Hall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1

Please write “Attention: External awards processing team” on the front of the mailing envelope.

UBC Okanagan students

External award cheques for students studying at UBC Okanagan should be mailed directly to the following address:

Student Records and Financial Services
214 University Centre, 3272 University Way
Kelowna BC, V1V 1V7 Canada

Please write “Attention: External Awards Processing Team” on the front of the mailing envelope.

You can find additional information about external awards for students studying on the UBC Okanagan campus.

Accepting the award

After the cheque is processed, you will receive an email notification to log into your Student Service Centre (SSC) to accept the external award.

Awards are first applied to any outstanding tuition fees. Ensure you have direct deposit set up before accepting the award if the award amount is greater than the tuition and fees owing for the term.

T4A tax documents

External award agencies who wish to issue their own T4A tax form should notify Enrolment Services. If the documentation attached to the funding received by UBC does not specify who will issue the T4A tax form to the student, UBC will issue the student a T4A by default in late February.

If you have questions

Please contact the external organization for information about the administration of external awards. Before contacting your Enrolment Services Advisor, contact the external agency first for questions about incoming funding to UBC.

Information for external organizations

Award processing

Award monies payable to multiple students must include a breakdown of their name, campus, student number, and email address on the face of the cheque in the cheque memo or comments area. Cheques received without clear instructions and student-identifying information will not be processed and will be returned to the sender.

If you would like to pay via electronic funds transfer (domestic) or wire transfer (international), please email external.award@ubc.ca for banking information. 

Awards policy

Upon submission of award funding to be processed by UBC to the external award winner, the external organization is agreeing to follow the external awards policy (pdf). Unfortunately, UBC will not be able to administer the external award if there are conflicts with the UBC policy.

Posting guidelines

UBC does not list external awards offered by corporations or individuals to promote business interest on this site. All awards listed on this page are offered by charities or non-profit organizations.

If any awards on this page are found to demonstrate conflict or violation of human rights, equity and inclusion, they will be removed. UBC is not liable or responsible in any way for the use of private and personal information provided by you to the external agencies. UBC reserves the right to remove postings at its discretion.

If you are interested in posting your award on this page, please consult the posting guidelines (pdf) before contacting UBC.

If your award does not fall within the posting guidelines, consider contacting UBC Development and Alumni Engagement to set up a permanent award for UBC students.

If you have questions

Please consult the external awards policy if you have any questions.

List of external awards

The links below provide external award information at no charge, and does not indicate UBC’s endorsement, sponsorship, or recommendation of the external agencies’ ideals or mission.     

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