As UBC graduate students, there are many gardens, museums, and events offered free of cost when you bring your UBC ID card. Visit the links below for hours and more information.

Welcome to UBC! Apart from our 2023 GradStart Orientation Main Day events on August 31, G+PS staff members and your UBC graduate peers have also put together some workshops to help you kick-start your graduate journey.

All sessions will be hosted online, and the workshops will be recorded. AMA panels will not be recorded. Please note: all times are in PDT, and you can use this handy time converter to see what time it will be where you are.

Register here. (If you experience any difficulty using the online registration tool, please e-mail us at graduate.orientation@ubc.ca)

Tickets are $15, a ticket entitles you to:

• One alcoholic beverage (glass of wine, beer, OR highball) OR one non-alcoholic beverage
• Either one burger and fries OR two tacos

Just want to hang out? Graduate students are welcome to join at the Koerner’s patio, with or without a ticket!

Start off your long weekend right with a free brunch from the Graduate Student Society! Sleep in and join us between 10am and 12pm for some delicious pancakes cooked by executives and staff.

Campus tours will start after the brunch finishes.

Join the GSS at the Acadia Park Commonsblock Field for a family orientation event! Our GSS Executives will be there to speak to students and answer questions about the GSS. Activities will be provided for your kids, with face painting, crafts, and a bouncy castle for everybody to enjoy! Both new and returning students and families are invited.

GSS has compiled a comprehensive dossier of Health and Wellness resources available to graduate students of UBC Vancouver. Visit here for the entire list.

Additionally, GSS knows dealing with difficult situations as a graduate student at UBC can be challenging and exhausting. Whether a student is facing financial, housing, academic or supervisory issues, knowing what to do, seeking support, and where can be very confusing. If you are in this situation, there is no need to fret. The GSS is right here to support you.

Our Advocates are uniquely positioned to help you navigate these challenges and many more by providing answers to your questions through peer support, external advocacy and resource referrals. Our team is also actively working on new policy recommendations and proposing amendments to existing UBC policies that would benefit the graduate student community of UBC.

Our advocacy coordinators are here to help you. Contact us at:  advocacy@gss.ubc.ca

The Foodhub at UBC has compiled an extensive list of Food Access Support, Food and Nutrition Resources, as well as other financial and wellbeing support. View the entire list here, with some highlighted below.

AMS Food Bank

An emergency food relief service for UBC students in need located in the UBC Life Building. They offer various non-perishable foods, personal hygiene supplies, budgeting tips and information on additional resources in and around Vancouver.

Acadia Food Hub

A community project at UBC supporting households with food and baby supplies.

UBC Meal Share Program

Students experiencing challenges financially accessing food can apply to receive short-term support from this confidential program available from Sept-April.

Sprouts

A 100% volunteer and student-run organization operating in the Life Building from Sept-April. Through their many initiatives, they aim to make healthy, affordable, and sustainably produced food accessible to everyone on campus (students, faculty, and staff).

The GSS team has various vacancies open for councillors and ordinary members! 

To become a councillor, you must be elected as your department representative. If you are not your department rep. but would still like to join a committee, you can join as an ordinary member. 

Interested? Please email aa@gss.ubc.ca with your declaration form