Applicants to UBC have access to a variety of funding options, including merit-based (i.e. based on your academic performance) and need-based (i.e. based on your financial situation) opportunities.
All full-time PhD students will be provided with a funding package of at least $31,920 for each of the first four years of their PhD program. The funding package consists of any combination of internal or external awards, teaching-related work, research assistantships, and graduate academic assistantships. This support is contingent on full-time registration as a UBC Graduate student, satisfactory performance in assigned teaching and research assistantship duties, and good standing with satisfactory progress in your academic performance. CS students are expected to apply for fellowships or scholarship to which they are eligible.
All applicants are encouraged to review the awards listing to identify potential opportunities to fund their graduate education. The database lists merit-based scholarships and awards and allows for filtering by various criteria, such as domestic vs. international or degree level.
Many professors are able to provide Research Assistantships (GRA) from their research grants to support full-time graduate students studying under their supervision. The duties constitute part of the student's graduate degree requirements. A Graduate Research Assistantship is considered a form of fellowship for a period of graduate study and is therefore not covered by a collective agreement. Stipends vary widely, and are dependent on the field of study and the type of research grant from which the assistantship is being funded.
Graduate programs may have Teaching Assistantships available for registered full-time graduate students. Full teaching assistantships involve 12 hours work per week in preparation, lecturing, or laboratory instruction although many graduate programs offer partial TA appointments at less than 12 hours per week. Teaching assistantship rates are set by collective bargaining between the University and the Teaching Assistants' Union .
Academic Assistantships are employment opportunities to perform work that is relevant to the university or to an individual faculty member, but not to support the student’s graduate research and thesis. Wages are considered regular earnings and when paid monthly, include vacation pay.
Canadian and US applicants may qualify for governmental loans to finance their studies. Please review eligibility and types of loans .
All students may be able to access private sector or bank loans.
Many foreign governments provide support to their citizens in pursuing education abroad. International applicants should check the various governmental resources in their home country, such as the Department of Education, for available scholarships.
The possibility to pursue work to supplement income may depend on the demands the program has on students. It should be carefully weighed if work leads to prolonged program durations or whether work placements can be meaningfully embedded into a program.
International students enrolled as full-time students with a valid study permit can work on campus for unlimited hours and work off-campus for no more than 20 hours a week.
A good starting point to explore student jobs is the UBC Work Learn program or a Co-Op placement .
Students with taxable income in Canada may be able to claim federal or provincial tax credits.
Canadian residents with RRSP accounts may be able to use the Lifelong Learning Plan (LLP) which allows students to withdraw amounts from their registered retirement savings plan (RRSPs) to finance full-time training or education for themselves or their partner.
Please review Filing taxes in Canada on the student services website for more information.
Applicants have access to the cost estimator to develop a financial plan that takes into account various income sources and expenses.
111 students graduated between 2005 and 2013. Of these, career information was obtained for 106 alumni (based on research conducted between Feb-May 2016):
Sample employers outside higher education, sample job titles outside higher education, phd career outcome survey, career options.
Our faculty and students actively interact with industry in numerous fields. Via internships, consulting and the launching of new companies, they contribute to the state-of-the-art in environmental monitoring, energy prediction, software, cloud computing, search engines, social networks, advertising, e-commerce, electronic trading, entertainment games, special effects in movies, robotics, bioinformatics, biomedical engineering, and more.
Job Title Senior Director, Product & Business Development
Employer NGRAIN
These statistics show data for the Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD). Data are separated for each degree program combination. You may view data for other degree options in the respective program profile.
2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Applications | 281 | 265 | 375 | 299 | 278 |
Offers | 31 | 40 | 41 | 45 | 26 |
New Registrations | 14 | 15 | 20 | 20 | 16 |
Total Enrolment | 129 | 124 | 116 | 98 | 81 |
Upcoming doctoral exams, friday, 27 september 2024 - 9:00am, friday, 4 october 2024 - 9:30am - x836, icics building, 2366 main mall.
These videos contain some general advice from faculty across UBC on finding and reaching out to a supervisor. They are not program specific.
This list shows faculty members with full supervisory privileges who are affiliated with this program. It is not a comprehensive list of all potential supervisors as faculty from other programs or faculty members without full supervisory privileges can request approvals to supervise graduate students in this program.
Year | Citation |
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2024 | Using artificial intelligence methods, Dr. Dirks developed machine learning models to unlock the information contained in spectral data. Demonstrated applications include grade estimation in mining and food quality assessment in agriculture. |
2024 | Dr. Su studied 3D computer vision for human digitalization, which converts real-world images and videos into 3D animatable avatars. His methods simplify complicated motion capture pipelines, showing a promising way for 3D avatar creations from everyday devices. |
2024 | Dr. Vining studied how computers operate on geometry and shapes, and how geometric problems can be solved with discrete optimization algorithms. By combining numerical optimization techniques with combinatorial search frameworks, he devised new algorithms that solve challenging problems in simulation, computer graphics, and video games. |
2024 | Dr. Ritschel studied the design of programming tools for end-users without previous coding experience. He investigated block-based programming languages and enriched them with visual features that help end-users write larger, more complex programs. His findings can guide the future development of more expressive end-user friendly programming tools. |
2024 | Dr. Jawahar explored how deep learning models in natural language processing could be more efficient. He introduced new, cutting-edge methods using neural architecture search, improving efficiency and performance tradeoffs in tasks like autocomplete, machine translation, and language modeling. |
2024 | Dr. Xing explored and improved the detection of topic shifts in natural language and multimedia using data-driven approaches. He proposed enhanced topic segmentation models with better coherence analysis strategies, showing potential to benefit other natural language understanding tasks like text summarization and dialogue modeling. |
2024 | Dr. Cang examined emotionally expressive touch behaviour for human-robot interaction. To be truly reactive, devices must address the dynamic nature of emotion. For her dissertation, she developed multi-stage machine learning protocols to train robots to respond to your evolving feelings. |
2024 | Dr. Newman designed tools for running and analyzing complex, electronic auctions, with applications to markets for agricultural trade in developing countries and the sale of wireless spectrum rights. His work provides a blueprint for how economists can use computer simulations to compare auction designs. |
2024 | Dr. Suhail has made significant strides in computer vision by pioneering diverse methodologies that elevate semantic comprehension and geometric reasoning abilities within computer vision systems. His works have received nominations for Best Paper Awards, highlighting the substantial impact of his work in the field. |
2024 | Dr. Banados Schwerter studied the formal requirements for detecting type inconsistencies in programming languages that combine static and dynamic type checking, and a novel reporting technique for these errors. His research will assist the design of new programming languages and help their future programmers to find and fix programming mistakes. |
Same specialization.
Further information, specialization.
Computer Science covers Bayesian statistics and applications, bioinformatics, computational intelligence (computational vision, automated reasoning, multi-agent systems, intelligent interfaces, and machine learning), computer communications, databases, distributed and parallel systems, empirical analysis of algorithms, computer graphics, human-computer interaction, hybrid systems, integrated systems design, networks, network security, networking and multimedia, numerical methods and geometry in computer graphics, operating systems, programming languages, robotics, scientific computation, software engineering, visualization, and theoretical aspects of computer science (computational complexity, computational geometry, analysis of complex graphs, and parallel processing).
Program website, faculty overview, academic unit, program identifier, classification, social media channels, supervisor search.
Departments/Programs may update graduate degree program details through the Faculty & Staff portal. To update contact details for application inquiries, please use this form .
I applied to UBC in 2020, during the pandemic. It was a close call between working with Marcus Brubaker, who co-founded my former employer Structura Biotechnology, before becoming an Assistant Professor at York University, and working with Khanh Dao Duc at UBC. Khanh introduced me to his...
I love Vancouver! It's the greatest city in the world. I love the integration of nature into the city; it has all of the mountains, forests, and oceans. In addition, the city is a melting pot of cultures, and that's definitely reflected at UBC. It feels like there's a place for everyone at UBC....
I think three factors had a differentiating effect on this decision: UBC's unique multidisciplinary environment which is key to my research as a computer scientist and bioinformatician. UBC being on the West Coast generally and Vancouver specifically and the amazing weather and nature that comes...
Find out how Vancouver enhances your graduate student experience—from the beautiful mountains and city landscapes, to the arts and culture scene, we have it all. Study-life balance at its best!
Application & Supporting Documents Deadline: December 15, 2024 (for September 2025 / January 2026)
Read our application components for detailed information about how to submit an online application, deadlines and a list of required documents to provide.
Online application will be available in late September/early October. Apply early so that your referees can submit their references by the deadline.
MSc program
PhD program
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Learn more about why you should attend UBC. PhD students in the Department of Computer Science may focus their research in the following areas: Artificial Intelligence: computer vision, decision theory/game theory, knowledge representation and reasoning, intelligent user interfaces, machine learning, natural language understanding and ...
Students admitted to the PhD program are required to demonstrate their research proficiency by completing a research project with under the supervision of a one or more faculty members, and presenting their results in a written report and oral examination before their RPE committee.
For full details on the PhD programs, see the PhD Program. The UBC Department of Computer Science PhD program has four main components: Satisfying the Comprehensive Course Requirement. Passing a Research Proficiency Evaluation. Passing a Thesis Proposal Oral Examination. Completing the Research Program.
PhD-Track Program. Our PhD Track is designed to allow graduate students without an MSc degree from a North American university to move into our PhD program after the first year without having to complete a Master’s degree or reapply for admission. This track provides applicants with more choices.
Read our application components for detailed information about how to submit an online application, deadlines and a list of required documents to provide. Online application will be available in late September/early October.
Our research-based MSc and PhD degrees in computer science provide students with theoretical, practical and analytical expertise, as well as experience in the application of scientific results to real-world problems.