The Graduate Students’ Association of the University of Alberta Information

The Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) is established by the province’s Post-Secondary Learning Act (PSLA) as a corporation to represent graduate students at the University of Alberta. (See sections 93 ff of the Act). As a stand-alone corporation, the GSA is governed by a Council established by the PSLA, led by elected officials, and run by a professional staff, with management reporting regularly through the President. The GSA is a not-for-profit body with the responsibility under the PSLA to represent graduate students to the University, including the Board of Governors. As a separate corporate entity from the U of A, the GSA has its own lawyers, auditor, chartered accountant, and professional staff. The GSA administers some $.5M in grants and bursaries, has numerous services including a health and dental plan and group insurance, and is a founding member of the Campus Food Bank. One of the GSA’s key responsibilities is to act with “exclusive authority” in representing graduate students in negotiating a Collective Agreement. (See PSLA, section 96(1)). As the official representative body for all Masters and Doctoral students at the University of Alberta, the GSA also represents over 7400 graduate students on some 150 committees, councils and boards that regulate or shape a graduate student’s academic and non-academic life at the University of Alberta.