Postdoctoral Scholars Policy

Revision History: 

December 11, 2025: The Board of Governors approved the Postdoctoral Scholars Policy, effective December 11, 2025. This policy supersedes the previous Postdoctoral Fellows Policy approved by the Board of Governors on October 11, 2018.

With the ratification of the University Postdoctoral Fellow Association (ULPA) Collective Agreement, Employee Postdoctoral Fellows are now governed under that agreement. As a result, this policy has been updated to apply only to Postdoctoral Scholars (those not covered by the collective agreement), while ensuring alignment with both internal agreements and external funding requirements.

Revisions: 

• The policy scope now explicitly focuses on Postdoctoral Scholars (Section 2).
• The terminology of appointment has been updated to invitation.
• Faculty Supervisors are now directed to follow the guidelines outlined on the Postdoctoral Fellows website to ensure easy access to the most current procedures as opposed to Appendix A (Section 4.1).
• The responsibilities of Postdoctoral Affairs, Faculty Supervisors and Postdoctoral Scholars have been moved to Appendix A, due to their operational nature (Section 5).
• Section 7 has been updated to clarify that Postdoctoral Scholars are eligible for leaves in accordance with their grant funding agreements, with equivalency to the leave provisions in the ULPA Collective Agreement where applicable (Section 7).
• The provisions related to the termination of invitations have been clarified (Section 8).
• The Policy was simplified and updated editorially to ensure consistency with the approved Policy Template.

December 18, 2023: Editorial Revisions