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Current Grad Students Newsletter

Grad Student News

The Graduate@Carleton newsletter is typically distributed every Thursday morning. The next newsletter will be sent to you on Nov. 25. If you have any questions, please email us at: fgpa_newsletter@carleton.ca.


How to Say Thank You to Your Favourite Professor

The deadline is fast approaching to nominate your favourite professor for a Faculty Graduate Mentoring Award. Nominations are open until November 30. More information is available by clicking here. And just a reminder that you can now re-nominate faculty members who won this award seven or more years ago.


It's Back - Participate in SSHRC's Annual Storyteller Contest

SSHRC’s Storyteller Competition challenges postsecondary students to show Canadians, in up to three minutes or 300 words, how social sciences and humanities research is affecting our lives, our world and our future for the better. The Top 25 finalists win $3,000 and the Final Five winners among them win an additional $1,000. The deadline to apply is Jan. 24, 2022.

The Faculty of Graduate & Postdoctoral Affairs will be hosting an information session for grad students interested in participating on Mon. Nov. 22 from 1 to 3 p.m. Click here for more information about the info session and the Storyteller awards.


Need a Listening Ear?

As the term is more than half-way through, you may find your workload mounting. It’s not uncommon to experience anxiety and stress at this time. We are here to help. Check out the many health and wellness services for graduate students at Carleton. Please click here for a list of resources you can access.


Student Mental Health Framework Consultation

The Student Mental Health Framework Consultation has moved into the listening phase and Carleton encourages all members of the Carleton community to provide feedback and comments on the framework. Feedback and information sessions for students are being offered throughout the rest of November. For a list of all upcoming sessions or to provide feedback through the online form, please visit the consultation website.


Final Reminder: Apply to Graduate

If you are thinking of graduating in February, you need to apply to graduate by Dec. 1. This is also the last day for you to submit your supervisor-approved thesis in examinable form to your department.


Graduation Fall 2021

On Nov. 13th, Carleton honoured students who graduated this fall with a special celebratory video. You can watch this video on our Graduation website.

Patrice Smith, the Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs, congratulated new grad student alumni in this video.


Graduation Story: Finding a True Passion for Insects

Serita Fudlosid spent her master’s degree in biology researching how insects are being impacted by microplastics, tiny pieces of plastic pollution. The new alumna notes that while interest in microplastics is booming, most of the research focuses on marine life. However, microplastics are also found in soils, urban environments, the air, the mountains, basically everywhere.

Read More →


Graduation Story:  First Students Graduate from Carleton’s Ethics and Public Affairs Program

Meet the first graduates from the Ethics and Public Affairs PhD program. Find out about their backgrounds, their research, their future plans and why they chose to pursue this degree.

Read More →


Graduation Stories: First Students Graduate from the Migration and Diaspora Program

Rabbi Hossain is one of the Migration and Diaspora Studies program’s very first MA graduates. His career spans over 12 years working in different capacities in international agencies, non-profit organizations, and universities in Canada and overseas. Click here to read his story.

Around the time she was completing her MA in the MDS program, Farah Ismail received an offer to work as an Associate Protection Officer with UNHCR in the Pakistani province of Balochistan. Ismail said that this would not have been possible without the experience she gained from her program. Click here to read her story.

Both of these stories were written by MA Student Esme Song.


Opportunities with the 21st Century Tools for Indigenous Languages Project

The School of Linguistics and Language Studies at Carleton University is offering up to two funded graduate student positions at the MA (1–2 years) level, beginning in September 2022. These positions are part of the project 21st Century Tools for Indigenous Languages, funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Grant in 2019–2026 and hosted by the Alberta Language Technology Lab at the University of Alberta. These positions are open to new grad students as well as students who are in the first year of their MA program. For application details, click here. The deadline date to express interest is Jan. 15, 2022.


Celebrating the International Day of Persons With Disabilities

The READ Initiative and the PMC are co-hosting an event to celebrate the International Day of Persons with Disabilities and the PMC’s 30+ year anniversary. All members of the Carleton community are invited to attend. The virtual event will be held via Zoom on Dec. 3 from 1 to 3 p.m. The event will play a short documentary about the work of the PMC, followed by a panel discussion featuring reflections from important voices impacting accessibility on and off campus and conclude with a brief presentation about the Coordinated Accessibility Strategy and the future of accessibility at Carleton.


Professionalize Yourself

There are still a few professional development opportunities left this term. To learn more, visit the Graduate Professional Development website.

Coming up this week:

Nov. 18 at 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Doing More in NVivo (for advanced users)

Nov. 19 at 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. Cross-Cultural Communication

Nov. 23 at 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. Creating Portfolios

Nov. 25 at 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.  Get Connected! Finding Your Social Media Ecosystem

Find out more about new training opportunities from Mitacs by clicking herePlease note: Time spent in the Mitacs’ workshops does not count toward paid pedagogical training hours for those working as TAs.


Upcoming Award Deadlines

Application deadlines are approaching for these awards:

Due to COVID, for the fall 2021 competitions, CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC will continue to accept unofficial transcripts if official transcripts cannot be obtained. Students are expected to make every effort to provide official documents and provide true, complete and accurate information. Tri-agencies and Graduate Studies may request official hard copies at a later date.


For PhD Students or Those Who Want to Be

If you are interested in pursuing a PhD at Carleton, then you might want to register for one of our Carleton Community Graduate Info Sessions. Dates and registration info are available by clicking here.

Every week, The Conversation puts out a list of possible story ideas for PhD students and faculty to write about. Click here to find out about the latest opportunities.


For International Students

The International Student Services Office (ISSO) can answer questions about study permits, travel and quarantine plans, or health insurance, and more. Please email isso@carleton.ca.

Many international students want to stay in Canada after graduation. Let the ISSO help you explore your options by attending one of their live information sessions which are led by an authorized immigration advisor.

Express Entry Explained for International Students – Nov. 18 at 2:00 p.m.

All About Post-Graduation Work Permits – Nov. 25 at 10:00 a.m.

If you are an international student in the process of applying for Permanent Residence with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and have received documents from IRCC, you may be eligible to pay domestic rather than international tuition fees. The deadline to apply for the fall term is on or before Nov. 26. Click here for more information.

Join the ISSO for an informative session where you can learn about winter weather conditions including how to dress for the cold and how to make the most out of the winter season. Free virtual sessions take place on Nov. 25 at 2:30 p.m.

The ISSO will be offering a full lineup of free, virtual information sessions throughout the remainder of the fall semester. Find out more on the ISSO website:


Carleton Makes the List of the 2021 Corporate Knights Better World MBA Top-40 Ranking

The 2021 Corporate Knights Better World MBA top-40 ranking has been released, and six Canadian business schools, including Carleton’s Sprott School of Business, have ranked among the top 40. Click here to see the rankings.


Carleton's Energy Master Plan and Sustainability Initiatives Featured in Ottawa Green Business

Carleton University’s Energy Master Plan and our sustainability initiatives have been featured in Ottawa Green Business, including interviews with Sustainability Manager Philip Mansfield and Scott MacDonald, director of Energy Services. Read more about sustainability at Carleton online.


Are You Coming on Campus?

Please be reminded that access to the tunnel system at Carleton University remains restricted to authorized individuals and those with approval to use the tunnels for accessibility purposes.

Anyone coming on campus must complete the COVID-19 screening self-assessment every day through cuScreen. You will also need to use a QR code when you enter buildings. And you also need to complete the vaccination attestation form and submit this as soon as possible. You can find the form in cuScreen after you have logged in.

To find out when departments, including Graduate Studies, are open on campus, click here.

To access FAQs about how Carleton is coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, click here. For questions concerning current graduate studentsclick here. To view FAQs for prospective graduate studentsclick here. There have been no updates to Graduate Studies’s FAQs this past week.

Any university staff, faculty, or researchers who have cause to access federal government workplaces as a result of a grant or contract held by Carleton, where they may come into contact with public servants, are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Please note that this is a mandatory federal government requirement and that individuals who are unwilling to be vaccinated will not be permitted to work at federal government workplaces where they may come into contact with public servants. Government of Canada contracting authorities will be pursuing means to ensure compliance, up to and including contract terminations with those who do not comply with this requirement.


Important Dates and Deadlines

Nov. 25:
Winter term payment deadline. Click here for important payment information. Late payment charges and late registration charges apply to the student account on or after this date. Payment is required to complete the registration process.

Dec. 1:

  • Last day for receipt of applications from potential winter (February) graduates.
  • Last day for graduate students to submit their supervisor-approved thesis in examinable form to their department.

Dec. 10:

  • Fall term ends. Last day of fall term classes.
  • Classes follow a Monday schedule.
  • Last day to pay any remaining fall tuition fees to avoid a hold on access to marks through Carleton Central and the release of transcripts and other official documents.
  • Last day for academic withdrawal from fall term courses (no financial adjustment. After this date, you will no longer be able to drop the course. Academic withdrawals will create no financial change to your fall term fees and will result in a grade of Withdrawn (WDN) appearing on your official transcript. WDN is a permanent notation that appears on your official transcript signifying no academic credit and will not impact your CGPA. The academic withdrawal deadline to drop a full session (fall/winter) course is Tuesday, April 12, 2022, the last day of classes for the winter term.

Dec. 11-23:  Final examinations in fall term courses and mid-term examinations in fall/winter courses may be held. Examinations are normally held all seven days of the week.

Dec. 24 through Jan. 4: The university will be closed for the holiday season and will re-open on Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022.

Jan. 5, 2022: University reopens at 8:30 a.m.

Jan. 10, 2022: Winter term classes begin.

For a complete list of all official academic and financial dates and deadlines, please go to the Registrar’s websiteFor all financial matters, go to Student Accounts.