BMO donates $1.1 million for graduate scholarships

First scholarship recipients, Brent Doiron and Sean Bailey with BMO's senior vice-president, Jamie McMillan.

Graduate students at the University of Ottawa are benefiting from a major new source of financial support because of a $1.1 million donation from BMO Financial Group.

The donation - the largest-ever from a financial institution in the region - will fund up to ten graduate scholarships each year. When matched with Ontario Graduate Scholarships and other sources of support for graduate students, these new scholarships will mean more than $27,000 in support for each recipient. The first two scholarships were awarded in 2004.

“BMO Financial Group has a long history of promoting and supporting educational institutions across the country,” says BMO's senior vice-president, Eastern Ontario Region, Jamie McMillan. A previous donation by BMO Financial Group helped create a visiting scholarship in women's studies at the University.

President Gilles Patry noted the donation would go a long way towards ensuring that graduate students comprise 20 per cent of the entire student population by 2010 — a University objective. To reach this goal, the number of graduate students must rise from 4,000 to 6,500 in five years.