In some universities, when academics go on strike, because they often don’t do a lot of teaching, it doesn’t make a lot of immediate difference. But imagine if the PGRs that teach were to down tools.
In March 2025, more than 2,000 teaching fellows and teaching assistants at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario did exactly that – walking out in what’s believed to be the first academic strike in the institution’s 183-year history.
Dozens of courses ground to a halt, hundreds of labs and tutorials were suspended, midterms were cancelled, and papers sat ungraded.
The university maintained that courses would continue, but the reality was undeniable – you simply cannot run a research-intensive institution without the postgraduates who actually deliver the teaching.
The trigger was what the union described as “poverty wages” – a full-time PhD candidate at Queen’s receives a guaranteed minimum of just $23,000 CAD per year, compared to approximately $36,000 for a full-time minimum wage worker in Ontario.
PSAC 901 claimed it had offered “unlimited availability to bargain” in the three weeks before the strike deadline, but the university didn’t present an offer until ten minutes before the action was set to begin. That offer was rejected – the union described a “one-time payment of $23 per year, per member to cover mental health and support needs” as “insulting.”
Six weeks later, after more than 200 faculty signed an open letter urging genuine bargaining and some professors cancelled lectures in solidarity, the two sides reached a deal – pay increases plus a 12.86 per cent market adjustment, $110,000 for childcare costs, improved sick leave, and recognition of intellectual property rights for research assistants.
The strike demonstrated something UK SUs might want to consider – graduate workers hold real leverage, and when organised, they can bring a university to its knees.
I’ve been in Canada all week, preparing to speak at a higher education conference on students’ engagement in quality. Often on our study tours we’re accused of focussing on undergraduate “stuff” – it’s a fair cop. It’s often what folk abroad think we want to know about and what we can easily find, or who’s easiest to meet.
But this week I’ve seen a lot on the PG experience that deserves one final compilation.
The twenty-three thousand dollar question
The Queen’s strike didn’t emerge from nowhere. Graduate funding has become a flashpoint across Canadian institutions, and the associations representing postgraduate students have developed sophisticated advocacy machinery to address it.
At Waterloo, the Graduate Student Association co-chaired the committee that secured a 4.5 per cent increase in minimum doctoral funding to $28,351 annually – a figure that also flows through to teaching assistant and research assistant hourly rates. The negotiation involved detailed discussions about funding motivations, appropriate levels, and the genuine challenge of forecasting student costs in an inflationary environment.
At Western, the Society of Graduate Students launched a petition accompanied by a food insecurity survey documenting the financial struggles facing postgraduate students. The advocacy contributed to the university establishing an additional $500,000 annual bursary fund in 2023, bringing total available graduate bursary funding to over $1.2 million per year.
And at Queen’s itself, even before the strike, the graduate students’ association had been campaigning against the university’s proposed elimination of the Queen’s Graduate Award for incoming masters students – a cut of approximately $4,100 per student that the association argued would disproportionately impact equity-deserving groups and undermine research capacity.
In September 2024, they joined the teaching assistants’ union and a newly-formed Students vs. Cuts group to organise a walkout outside Reem’s Hall. When, two months later, the association’s food insecurity relief programme received 258 applications within 24 hours and could only support 50, the scale of the crisis became impossible to ignore.
In the UK, there’s not a lot of SU activity in this space. The idea that student associations might co-chair committees setting minimum stipends, or that a food insecurity survey might translate into half a million dollars of new bursary funding, feels genuinely foreign.
More than a meal deal
Speaking of food insecurity – Canadian graduate associations have developed responses that go well beyond the food bank model.
At Wilfrid Laurier, the Graduate Students’ Association operates what’s believed to be the first pay-what-you-can student grocery store in Canada. The Mini Market runs on a sliding scale – students can pay anywhere from full price to nothing based on their financial circumstances, while faculty and staff pay full price to subsidise access. It stocks fresh produce, non-perishables, prepared heat-and-eat meals, and hygiene products, with proceeds flowing back into food security programming.
At Waterloo, the GSA runs the Nourish ‘N Go programme – free meals from a local supplier at the Grad Lounge on a first-come-first-served basis, with vegetarian and vegan options available. A separate partnership with Odd Bunch delivers 50 produce boxes monthly at heavily subsidised prices – fruit and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste, sent directly to students’ doors.
At Laurier again, the GSA participates in a Town and Gown Food Security Working Group alongside the undergraduate union’s food hamper service and the local public interest research group’s distribution programme. The work goes beyond direct provision to include food education, cooking classes, and examining root causes of food insecurity in the region. A partnership with Student Affairs secured KIND bar donations to stock the Mini Market through winter 2025. There’s even a Graduate Student Cook Book compiled by the Wellness Committee – healthy, easy recipes designed for people who are simultaneously trying to write a thesis and remember to eat.
In the UK, most SU food banks operate on a discretionary, slightly shamefaced basis – you fill in a form, you collect a bag, you try not to think too hard about how you got here. The Canadian approach treats food security as a systemic issue requiring systemic responses, from sliding-scale grocery operations to produce rescue partnerships to policy advocacy. It’s quite something.
Third space, grad place
One of the most striking features of Canadian graduate student life is the existence of dedicated, graduate-owned social spaces – venues that belong to the postgraduate community rather than being borrowed from the university or shared awkwardly with undergraduates.
At Western, the Society of Graduate Students owns and operates the Grad Club, a campus pub and eatery in Middlesex College that underwent a $100,000 refresh in 2023. The venue hosts Trivia Tuesdays, monthly karaoke nights, and a tradition called the Goblet of Knowledge where graduates celebrate completing their degrees. The organisation’s strategic plan envisions expanding this into a full “Grad Wing” – a service hub including an alcohol-free café, modular presentation spaces, and a community boardroom.
At Waterloo, the GSA owns the Graduate House – a licensed venue in the historic Schweitzer Farmhouse on the university’s south campus. It serves as a hub featuring a bar, restaurant with locally sourced food including halal chicken and house-made beef burgers, espresso service, and private rooms for events and meetings. Fee-paying graduate students get discounted pricing, and the venue hosts both social gatherings and academic functions.
At McGill, the Post-Graduate Students’ Society operates out of Thomson House – an elegant limestone mansion on upper McTavish Street that the university acquired in 1968 following years of student advocacy for a dedicated graduate space. The building houses a restaurant, bar, and event spaces, plus serves as the organisation’s headquarters.
And at York, graduate students are founding corporate members of Et al. – a non-profit cooperative café and pub that opened in 2018 following successful referenda by both the graduate students’ association and the faculty association. Members of both founding organisations can register for cooperative membership at no cost, gaining voting rights at annual general meetings.
UK universities occasionally have postgraduate common rooms, usually a slightly tired space with a kettle and some furniture that predates the millennium. The idea that graduate students might own and operate licensed venues, invest in major renovations, or found cooperative enterprises with faculty associations – that represents a fundamentally different vision of what postgraduate community could look like.
The keys to the house
If graduate-owned social venues are striking, graduate involvement in housing is even more so.
At York, the graduate students’ association supported a 2019 referendum that secured approximately $75,000-80,000 in annual levy funding dedicated to affordable housing development. This levy-funded Affordable Housing Committee – comprising students, professors, staff, alumni, and community members – is working towards developing non-profit housing on or near campus. The association continues to work with the undergraduate federation on a further referendum to put a combined $1,000,000 per year towards student-owned cooperative housing.
The York association has also conducted housing tours to document conditions in university accommodation, presenting findings to administration and generating 13 formal recommendations covering pest management, maintenance, and lack of community spaces. This isn’t just advocacy about housing – it’s active development of alternatives to the profit-extracting model.
At Waterloo, the GSA conducts ongoing research and advocacy around housing affordability, publishing reports examining municipal housing issues and collaborating with the undergraduate association on housing experience surveys. Resources include guidance on both on-campus and off-campus options, information about housing fraud prevention, and ongoing engagement with university and government stakeholders.
Commissioners, not committees
Canadian graduate associations have also developed equity and equality structures that go beyond advisory committees into something more embedded and accountable.
At Western, the Society of Graduate Students elects six Commissioners representing distinct constituency groups – Accessibility, Gender Equity, Indigenous, International, Pride, and Racial Equity and Inclusivity.
Each commissioner advocates for their community’s interests at Council meetings, connects students to resources, hosts community-specific events, and is required to call constituency meetings at least once per term. The Indigenous Commission is supported by the SAGE Coordinator – a part-time role held by a current Indigenous student, jointly funded by the graduate school and the student association.
At York, the association has designated up to twelve council seats for underrepresented constituent groups to facilitate more equitable participation in governance. Representatives from student groups or organisations must notify the executive committee at least seven days before meetings, and the vice-presidents for equity and community relations personally liaise with these individuals.
At Queen’s, the I-EDIAA Commissioner role – Indigenization, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Anti-Racism and Accessibility – advocates for marginalised groups, organises events, and ensures policies reflect equity commitments. The role includes reviewing applications for the gender-affirming care fund, which provides up to $500 per year to transgender, nonbinary, and gender-diverse members for expenses ranging from surgical procedures to products assisting with gender presentation. Applications are processed confidentially with review limited to three individuals.
In the UK, EDI work in SUs tends to happen through liberation officers with limited structural support, or through working groups that report to executives who may or may not act on recommendations. The Canadian model embeds constituency representation into governance itself – with protected seats, dedicated commissioners, and funded coordinator roles.
Who’s looking after the kids?
One area where Canadian practice genuinely surprised us – parental support infrastructure.
Since 2001, FAÉCUM – the federation representing students at Université de Montréal – has operated Halte-garderie Le Baluchon, an on-campus drop-in childcare service for student parents. It offers flexible half-day blocks at subsidised rates for children aged four months to five years, receiving provincial government funding in 2023 as part of a pilot programme recognising the importance of childcare access for student retention. Graduate students pursuing extended programmes particularly benefit from arrangements that accommodate irregular academic schedules.
FAÉCUM also offers parent-student involvement bursaries – $25 per activity to offset childcare and other costs that might otherwise prevent participation in federation governance. Thomson House at McGill maintains nursing and parenting rooms, and has hosted Study Sunday events allowing parents to bring children while working on campus.
At Laurier, the GSA’s advocacy contributed to an enhanced Parental Leave Grant programme supporting full-time graduate students taking temporary leave during the first year of a child’s birth, adoption, or when a child first comes into their custody – maintaining support at 95 per cent of pre-leave funding levels. The GSA’s work helped improve the programme including reducing the required pre-leave study period.
In the UK, student parents are largely left to navigate institutional systems designed for people without caring responsibilities. On-campus childcare is rare, parental leave provisions are inconsistent, and the idea that a student association might run its own drop-in nursery feels almost unimaginable.
The casework model
UK SUs typically have an advice service – often stretched, sometimes excellent, frequently operating at capacity. Canadian graduate associations have developed peer advisor models that distribute this expertise differently.
At Waterloo, the GSA provides confidential one-to-one advising sessions helping students navigate university policies, supervisor conflicts, grievances, appeals, and discrimination concerns. Staff can accompany students to meetings with administration as support persons and help connect students to campus resources. The service has assisted over 70 students in navigating academic and workplace issues.
At Queen’s, the Student Advisors programme is staffed by trained graduate and professional students who help members navigate supervisor conflicts, funding questions, university policies, academic appeals, and experiences of discrimination or harassment. The advisors provide coaching, meeting accompaniment, help drafting correspondence, and referrals to other campus resources, with funding from both the graduate association and the graduate school.
At Western, the Peer Advisor for Academic Matters employs a current graduate student trained in university academic policies, safeTALK, and equity training to help members navigate academic challenges including supervisor relationships and appeals processes.
And at Waterloo, the GSA – in partnership with the undergraduate association – successfully advocated for the creation of an independent Ombudsperson Office, which launched in January 2025 after years of student-led campaigning dating back to 2018. The office is jointly funded 50-50 by the university and student associations, providing confidential, impartial support for students navigating academic and non-academic concerns. The university had previously lacked an ombudsperson, making it unusual among Canadian institutions.
The combination of peer advisors embedded in student associations and formal ombudsperson offices with institutional backing creates layered support that UK postgraduates largely lack.
The autonomy wars
Not everything is harmonious. Several Canadian graduate associations are engaged in significant disputes with their institutions over political autonomy and the limits of student organisation independence.
At McGill, the Post-Graduate Students’ Society was placed in default under its Memorandum of Agreement with the university after adopting motions in late 2023 and early 2024 related to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The university deemed the policy null and void, with negotiations ongoing. The organisation has also faced significant financial strain from Quebec’s Bill 96 French language law, reporting costs of approximately $7,000 per month for mandatory translation of documents including meeting minutes and contracts.
At York, the graduate association joined the undergraduate federation and college student union in issuing a joint statement of solidarity with Palestine in October 2023, which was condemned by university administration. The association faced increased legal costs and administrative pressure but reported widespread support from other organisations. In June 2024, when a pro-Palestinian encampment was erected on campus, Toronto police were called the following morning to dismantle it under the Trespass to Property Act, resulting in arrests.
York’s association has also led opposition to Presidential Regulation 4, a policy implemented in January 2022 that governs student organisations’ relationship with the university. The association argues the regulation allows administration to withdraw levy funding and limits capacity for political solidarity, activism, and advocacy.
On the defensive side – in 2019, Ontario’s provincial government introduced the Student Choice Initiative, allowing students to opt out of student union fees. The York Federation of Students, working alongside the Canadian Federation of Students, successfully challenged this in court. The Divisional Court ruled the government had exceeded its authority in interfering with university autonomy and student democracy, with the Court of Appeal upholding the decision in 2021.
These battles over autonomy – the right to take political positions, the protection of mandatory fees, the limits of administrative control – are live issues that UK SUs might recognise, even if the specific contexts differ.
Federated futures
Perhaps the most structurally interesting aspect of Canadian graduate student organisation is the federated model – where departmental associations operate with significant autonomy while sending representatives to central bodies.
At Université de Montréal, approximately 24 dedicated graduate associations cover disciplines from law to psychology to urban planning, all affiliated to FAÉCUM while maintaining their own governance and activities. The federation operates a dedicated sub-council – the Conseil des études supérieures – specifically for postgraduate concerns, with a coordination position for graduate academic affairs providing policy support and casework assistance.
Graduate students also fund FICSUM – the Fonds d’investissement des cycles supérieurs – an independent body that promotes and funds student research activities. Founded in 1995, FICSUM offers grants for conference participation, colloquium organisation, and research dissemination events. The organisation runs the journal Dire and coordinates the annual Mois de la recherche étudiante each March, when graduate associations across faculties organise symposia with enhanced funding of up to $1,200 per event.
The departmental associations themselves are remarkably active. The history graduate association has published the peer-reviewed Cahiers d’histoire since 1981 – reportedly the only student-run history journal in Canada. The physics students run SAPHARI, a two-day symposium offering graduate students a comprehensive view of career pathways in both academic research and industry. The anthropology association founded AnthropoCité in 2019, providing publication experience for master’s and doctoral students with a scientific committee guiding authors through peer review.
In the UK, departmental postgraduate societies are rare. The idea that they might publish peer-reviewed journals, run multi-day symposia with external keynotes, or receive dedicated funding streams for research dissemination – that represents a fundamentally different vision of what discipline-level organisation could achieve.
When students organise
The Queen’s strike lasted six weeks and ended with meaningful wins – pay increases, childcare funding, intellectual property recognition. But the broader lesson from Canadian graduate student practice isn’t really about strikes.
It’s about what becomes possible when students are enabled to build durable associative organisations.
UK doctoral researchers often experience their institutions as atomised individuals navigating bureaucratic systems alone – hoping their supervisor is supportive, their funding adequate, their mental health services accessible. Where they do exist, their “reps” probably feel that way too.
The Canadian model suggests an alternative – graduate students as an organised constituency with collective voice, material infrastructure, and genuine leverage.
Ten minutes before the deadline, Queen’s administration finally made an offer. It took six weeks on the picket line to get a real one. The question for UK PGRs and their SUs might be – what would it take to get to that negotiating table in the first place?
