The Queen’s University School of Graduate Studies (SGS) has won the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) and Educational Testing Service (ETS) Award for Excellence and Innovation in Enhancing the Graduate Student Experience. The school is being recognized for the SGS Habitat – an online “living space” where graduate students can access resources to help navigate the challenges of life as a grad student.

“Graduate students are an integral part of our institution, and we want them to know that they have a community backing them,” says Dr. Brenda Brouwer, Vice-Provost and Dean, Queen’s School of Graduate Studies. “SGS Habitat is a go-to place for resources, information and strategies. These are tools that will last a lifetime.”

SGS Habitat provides graduate students with resources on a wide array of topics such as mental health and well-being, managing finances, navigating academic resources and establishing a career after graduation. It also provides resources for managing relationships with supervisors, avoiding procrastination and generating momentum towards completing their studies.

The award selection committee highlighted the Dissertation on the Lake program as an example of outside-the-box ways of assisting students. The five-day, four -night writing retreat on the shores of Elbow Lake provides graduate students with the opportunity to write without the distractions of everyday life. To ensure a work-recreation balance, the retreat also includes activities such as swimming, canoeing and hiking. The program is kept affordable for students by setting up at a university-managed biological station and through investments from donors and the graduate school.

Other programs include Expanding Horizons, a series of free professional development workshops, as well as Graduate and Post-Doctoral Career Week, which features sessions on practical tips and discipline-specific advice to support trainees as they develop their career.

SGS will use the prize money for a graduate student challenge. Students will be asked to create podcasts, blog entries, videos and articles to share ways of staying well and balanced in graduate school.

“It’s a way to keep the conversation going about living well and staying well and to generate ideas with those who know this world best – the students themselves, “ says Dr. Sandra den Otter, Associate Dean at Queen’s School of Graduate Studies.

The CAGS/ETS Award is presented to a CAGS member institution or to one of its graduate programs in recognition of outstanding administrative and/or programming contributions that enhance the graduate student experience and learning outcomes. For 2015, the award focused on celebrating programs that make an important contribution to “wellness and balance” in graduate student life.

The School of Graduate Studies will be honoured at the CAGS annual conference in Calgary this October.

For further information about CAGS and the ETS award, visit their website