Science scholarships attracting international doctoral students

A scholarship that covered the difference in tuition fees between international and domestic students

helped attract doctoral candidate Fatemeh Motaghedi to the University of Windsor from Iran.

A scholarship program launched in 2021 by the Faculty of Science has attracted 13 new international doctoral students, bringing global expertise to the University of Windsor.

The scholarship is equal to the difference between international and domestic tuition, effectively allowing select international PhD students to pay domestic tuition rates.

Fatemeh Motaghedi is a chemical engineer from Iran. She joined the doctoral program in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry specifically because of the new scholarship.

“The scholarship attracted me to the University of Windsor and I was really excited to get the chance to come,” says Motaghedi. “This is a great opportunity for International students.”

Motaghedi is supervised by professors Simon Rondeau-Gagné and Tricia Carmichael.

Dr. Rondeau-Gagné says the scholarship is a dynamic recruitment tool.

“It is difficult to attract international candidates and in order to be competitive the Faculty of Science really needed to have this scholarship,” he says.

“International students come from different fields with different experiences, and this allows us to get a unique perspective — a fresh start on our research.”

The program directly connects the recruitment of international and domestic doctoral students. The number of scholarships available to each department is equal to the number of domestic PhD students recruited in the previous fiscal year.

“We are so excited to open our doors to international PhD students,” says Dan Mennill, associate dean of science for graduate studies and research. “In the first year of this scholarship program, we saw a growth of 54 per cent in our international doctoral student numbers, and we achieved our highest number of international doctoral students in more than a decade.

“At the same time, our domestic doctoral student numbers grew by 16 per cent, to achieve our highest number of domestic doctoral students in eight years.”

Enough domestic students were recruited in 2021 that 14 international scholarships will be available in 2022 across six departments in the Faculty of Science.

“Outstanding doctoral students are a vital part of research, teaching, and mentoring in the Faculty of Science, and we are so excited that this scholarship program makes it possible to recruit international PhD students,” Dr. Mennill says.

Students will be eligible for this scholarship for up to four years of full-time enrolment in a doctoral program. Supervisors of incoming international PhD candidates in the Faculty of Science may request more information from their departmental graduate chair.

Courtesy: https://www.uwindsor.ca/dailynews/2022-02-11/science-scholarships-attracting-international-doctoral-students