Your Co-op Coordinator

Your coordinator is there to help you succeed in Co-op, so make sure that you make them your greatest ally. The Co-op Coordinator helps prepare students for employment and assists students with educational, career, and personal development. They are there to monitor your learning progress and the quality of work experience.

Faculty Advisors

Many faculty members are great supporters of the Co-op program. When you encounter technical problems on a work term and need additional advice, you can possibly turn to your faculty advisor for help. Some faculty members are also interested to participate as a mentor for our co-op students. Please contact your Co-op Coordinator should you need a faculty advisor.

Academic Advisors

Each department or program has a departmental advisor who is responsible for academic advising in that particular area and can provide information about majors, minors, and honours programs. Your academic advisor is a good resource and an excellent place to start with your questions about course selection, course content and graduation requirements.

Usually, you will need to make an appointment to see an advisor. Stop by your department office for more information.

UBC Awards and Financial Aid

The University of British Columbia offers a wide range of programs to recognize students who excel academically and to assist students financially who are unable to meet basic educational costs from personal, government, or other sources. The Awards and Financial Aid Office administers academic merit-based awards for undergraduate students including students in post-baccalaureate professional programs as well as financial need-based awards (student loans) from both undergraduate and graduate students. You can direct your questions about these programs to the Awards office.

The office administers these programs:

• British Columbia Student Assistance Program
• University Loan Program
• Scholarships

Web: www.students.ubc.ca/finance

External Awards

NSERC - Natural Science and Engineering Research Council

Web: www.students.ubc.ca/finance

If you are looking for research experience at UBC, please check out NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards for more information.

NSERC provides a number of grants each year to undergraduate and graduate students to do research projects with NSERC eligible companies. In some instances, you may be asked by a company to apply for an NSERC grant. In this case, the award is granted for an approved research project that takes place in the company. The application must be returned to the company after being partially completed by the student and endorsed by a professor. It must be accompanied by an official transcript. Qualified NSERC applicants must be:

• Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada
• are registered as full-time students in natural sciences or engineering
• have not more than four terms of academic work remaining for completion of their bachelor's program
• have an overall academic standing of AT LEAST 68% (B- average) in previous years of study

A student may obtain a maximum of three undergraduate student research grants prior to receiving a Bachelor degree. A student may not receive more than one such award in a given year.

Housing

The UBC Department of Housing and Conferences provides a wide range of accommodation to over 6000 UBC students. Co-op students who are first-time housing applicants do not receive special assignment priority. However, if a student becomes a resident and has a work placement that is out of cycle with the residence term (September-April), the Housing Office may make special arrangements to reinstate a residence room assignment upon return, depending on the availability of space and sufficient advance notice.

Co-op students on a work placement for Sept-Dec, who had a previous winter session residence assignment wanting to return to UBC residences for Jan-Apr, must:

• Apply for housing as a returning resident at the time this service is available (Feb)
• Contact the UBC Housing by April 30 to indicate that you do not want a room assignment for Term 1, but want the offer deferred to Term 2. After April 30, please ask the Co-op office to send a letter to Housing requesting that you be kept on their property list

Co-op students on a work placement for Jan-April wanting to return to UBC residences for Sept-April the following year must:

• have a current residence assignment
• give a minimum 30 days written notice that you are terminating your contract to UBC Housing Office at the end of Term 1
• contact the Housing Office before the end of the re-application period (1st week in Feb) to reapply for housing for the applicable Winter Session and to ask for reinstatement as a returning Co-op student

Web: www.housing.ubc.ca

For more resource information, review "Section 1: Introduction" of the Student Handbook.