TRU Assurance Bursary
25 bursaries of up to $20,000 each are available annually to domestic students enrolled or enrolling in a campus-based bachelor's degree program. Preference is given to applicants from one of the five open degree programs* and secondly from the TRU region**.
The bursary is available to new, transferring, and current TRU students. So it is both an entrance bursary and an in-course bursary that will fund up to the first 120 undergraduate credits completed (both TRU and transfer credits).
Study full-time, but at your own pace. The bursary funds $500 per three-credit course, so take either 15, 12, or 9 credits per term, and the bursary will adjust to fund a degree over four, five or six academic years (or the portion you have remaining). Degrees normally have 40 courses, so 40 x $500 = $20,000 funded (only up to the completion of 120 undergraduate credits at TRU or elsewhere).
Applicants must first be approved for government full-time financial aid and other available need-based aid, and then the bursary will fund your remaining financial need up to the above maximum. Returning students must also have been approved for full-time government student aid in the prior academic year.
Bursaries require an absolute minimum current and cumulative undergraduate GPA of 2.00, with a preferred minimum of 2.33 (C+).
How the bursary works
- For new students, a high school average of 70 percent based on all Grade 12 courses is required. Offers prior to high school graduation will be conditional on subsequently attaining the required average, and conditional on qualifying for full-time government financial aid.
- The bursary will only fund up to the first 120 undergraduate credits completed. This total is reduced by transfer credit and previously completed TRU credits. This means that students who have transfer credit, or change programs or majors, or who have completed other shorter academic credentials at TRU will reach their 120 credit funding limit prior to completing their degree.
- Your bursary amount will be finalized and approved after your student loan is approved once your enrolment is stable, so if you are offered an Assurance Bursary, do not include the conditional bursary approval as income on your student loan application.
- The bursary guarantees the amount of funding, not the source. Recipients of this bursary will automatically be considered for other donor bursaries during the fall and winter, and if successful, part of your bursary may be funded by another donor bursary or TRU bursary.
- This bursary is intended to pay for unfunded tuition and fees and living costs. Therefore, it will be displaced in part or wholly by tuition waivers, sponsorships, and other need-based awards that fund tuition. It will not be displaced by merit-based awards of any kind (in other words, receiving a scholarship will not reduce the amount of your bursary).
- If your current or cumulative GPA subsequently drops below 2.00, your bursary is not lost, only suspended. Once you bring your GPA back up to the minimum, your remaining eligibility will resume. Your current GPA is defined as the GPA attained during your most recently completed full-time semester at TRU.
- Study Abroad semesters qualify for funding if you are enrolled in the equivalent of at least nine undergraduate credits per semester.
- Co-op semesters do not qualify, but do not negatively impact ongoing eligibility. Students needing to extend their bursary beyond six years because of multiple co-op semesters may apply for an extension.
- The bursary funds in three-credit increments of $500 each. Therefore (for example) one additional one-credit course is not funded, but one four-credit course and two one-credit courses totaling six credits would be funded the same as two three-credit courses.
- You must accept the bursary offer before the expiry date or the bursary will be cancelled.
- Subsequent transfer from an eligible program to an ineligible program will cancel the bursary from that semester forward. Transfer from one eligible program to a different eligible program has no impact on eligibility.
How to apply
Sign in to myTRU. Under Awards and Financial Aid, click on Apply for an award
and complete the Assurance Bursary application. The application is available annually from April 15th to May 31st. The deadline may be extended if any bursaries remain available.
Eligibility
To be eligible, you must:
- be primarily admitted to a campus bachelor degree program and enrol in courses on the Kamloops or Williams Lake campus. Enrolment partially composed of Open Learning courses may be permitted and funded, but those courses must be started and completed within the traditional fall or winter semester and must fulfill requirements in your campus degree program.
*Preference is given to open degree programs, which include Bachelors of: Arts, Fine Arts, Business Administration, Computing Science, and Science.
**Secondary preference is given to students originating from BC's Thompson Rivers College Region (i.e.: BC School Districts 27, 58, 73, and 74).
Sample eight-month budget for an 80 percent course load with the bursary
| Tuition and fees for eight months, 2023-24 | $5,570 |
| Health and dental, U-Pass | $370 |
| Books and supplies (estimate) | $1,460 |
| Total educational cost | $7,500 |
| Housing (mid-range) | $7,200 |
| Food, transportation, miscellaneous | $5,200 |
| Total living cost | $12,300 |
| Total education and living cost | $19,800 |
| Government grants and loans | $12,800 |
| Assurance Bursary for 24 credits | $4,000 |
| WorkStudy or other employment | $2,500 |
| Summer or other savings | $500 |
| Total resources | $19,800 |
| Costs minus resources | Zero |
