UBC Graduate School has an excellent page for newly admitted students and steps they should take after they've been formally admitted to UBC. They also offer several orientation webinars.
Campus Housing
There are four residences on campus designed to house grad students: Fairview Crescent, Thunderbird, Marine Drive Residence, and Acadia Park. Places are given out on a first come, first served basis so apply early at vancouver.housing.ubc.ca
There are three grad student residences on campus run independently of UBC Housing.
- Green College
- St. John’s College
- St. Andrew’s Hall
- Acadia Park (for students with families)
Off Campus Housing
There are several resources are available to help find housing off campus:
- Review UBC's Living Off Campus website
- Ask your Graduate Program Manager or your supervisor to send a notice out to the current grads asking if anyone has a room to rent.
- Housing boards and notices around campus – Grad Student Centre, SUB, at the bus loop, department notice boards, etc.
UBC has an excellent day care system, as well as after school care and summer care for school age children. Note that waitlists are up to 2 1/2 years, so interim arrangements will likely be necessary.
The Vancouver School Board's website provides school enrollment details and deadlines.
All graduate students will need to get a UBC email account for UBC related communications. This is the email we will use for our departmental mailing lists. Using your UBC email is especially important when you conduct any UBC related business (eg. TA contacting students) as work emails contain personal information, such as information about students.
There are two main types of UBC email addresses that graduate students can have and you can read more about them in the link below. Please remember to let zool.gradprgm@ubc.ca know what your UBC email is as that's the email we will be using to communicate with you.
If you have questions about life as an international student, International Student Advising is here to help.
International Student Advisors are Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants (RCICs) or Regulated International Student Immigration Advisors (RISIAs) who can support you in your experience as a UBC international student.
They can help with:
- Your visa, study permit, and work permit application
- Part-time or full-time work requirements
- Learning about your health insurance coverage
- transitioning to life in Canada
If you're a newly admitted international student, the International Student Guide is a great resource for your questions on studying and working in Canada.
The annual graduate student orientation for Zoology takes place every September on Imagine Day for incoming students. Students who started in the previous May and January terms are also welcome to attend. This orientation to our program and department is mandatory so please do let the Graduate Program know if you can't attend.
The next orientation will take place on Tuesday, September 2, 2025. Please check back later in the summer for the orientation schedule.
You are required to complete certain mandatory training courses as part of your UBC employment. Once your appointment is processed, Workday (our HR/Finance system) will also prompt you to take these courses. They should be linked via your CWL but we’ve had problems with them showing up correctly in Workday so please send a copy of your certificates to our Administrative Support (zoology.info@zoology.ubc.ca) for record keeping and always keep a copy of your completed training certificate (usually a PDF) as well.
Please talk to your supervisor as well about any further safety training that you need. Certain TAships may also require additional training (please check with the instructor).
If your research requires fieldwork, we have mandatory field research safety forms that must be completed.
These webforms are for Zoology faculty members whose “home” department is Zoology. For those cross-appointed faculty whose “home” department is not Zoology please follow your home department’s guidelines and protocols. Those graduate students who are in the Zoology graduate program but whose supervisor has another “home” department (such as Botany or IRES), will need to follow the home department guidelines as well.
The Zoology Peer Mentoring Program is an optional program where new graduate students (mentees) are paired with current graduate students (mentors) to ease the transition to grad student life for incoming students and to foster social connections and a greater sense of community within the department.
This program will be structured as regular informal meetings among small groups of Zoology graduate students, meeting about once per month in their mentee/mentor groups, with one larger event each term (in the Winter Session) with everyone in the program. Some funding will be provided to each group for their small gatherings (eg. coffee, food, or activities).
Group numbers will fluctuate depending on the number of interested students but generally we try to assign two mentors to three mentees.
Invitations to the program will be emailed to students at the beginning of each term but you can contact the Zoology Graduate Program (zool.gradprgm@ubc.ca) to see how you can get involved!