Postdoctoral or medical fellow status
Each status has its own specific characteristics. Read on to determine which option suits you best.
Postdoctoral fellow status
A postdoctoral fellow is someone with a doctoral degree or equivalent who undertakes to acquire additional or more specialized expertise by participating on a full-time basis and for a specified period of time in University research under the guidance of a faculty member capable of supervising their work.
To obtain postdoctoral fellowship status, you must meet the following requirements:
- Have earned a doctoral degree or equivalent within the last five years
- Be hosted by a regular or associate professor who agrees to provide a full-time fellowship with justification
- Have sufficient financial resources for the duration of your fellowship
- Be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident or hold a work permit
The entire fellowship must be completed within the five-year postdoctoral fellowship eligibility period. It cannot be for less than six months.
Conditional postdoctoral admission
If you have submitted your dissertation but not yet defended it, you may be conditionally admitted to a postdoctoral fellowship You must meet the following conditions:
- Be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident or hold or plan to obtain a valid work permit for the period in question
- Provide confirmation from the academic institution that the dissertation has been accepted for defence
- Provide the Registrar’s Office with official confirmation of the thesis defence date
- Successfully defend the thesis no later than 4 months after the fellowship start date
- Provide the Registrar’s Office with an official document confirming final submission of the thesis no later than 5 months after the fellowship start date
The Registrar’s Office will confirm final admission to the postdoctoral fellowship upon receipt of official proof of degree.
Postdoctoral researcher status
A postdoctoral researcher is a person who holds a doctoral degree but no longer meets the admission requirements for a postdoctoral fellowship as defined above.
To obtain postdoctoral researcher status, you must:
- Meet the same citizenship requirements as postdoctoral fellows
- Have a faculty member who agrees to host you and supervise your work
- Hold a named fellowship from an outside organization for the entire length of your stay
Appointments vary in length between 6 and 12 months and can only be renewed once.
Visiting postdoctoral fellow status
A visiting fellow is a person who is pursuing postdoctoral training at another teaching and research institution and comes to Université Laval for a short research visit. Visiting fellows are not remunerated at Université Laval. The duration of the visit is less than 4 months.
Clinical fellow status
To obtain clinical fellow status, you must meet the following requirements:
- Hold a doctor of medicine (M.D.) degree from a school or university listed in the International Medical Education Directory (IMED) published by the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER)
- Hold a specialist’s certificate recognized in your country of origin
- Have sufficient knowledge of French in accordance with the Faculty of Medicine’s policy on French proficiency for clinical fellows
- Hold a valid Canadian work permit
- Have met the requirements of the Collège des médecins du Québec
- Provide proof of funding for the duration of your complementary training at Université Laval (minimum of C$40,000 per year of training).
International clinical fellows cannot be remunerated with Canadian or Quebec public funds.
Only funding from universities, government agencies, recognized granting agencies, or foundations deemed eligible by Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS) will be accepted. Training funded from personal sources is not allowed.
Fellowships can start at any time during the year.
The maximum duration of a clinical fellowship is three years; the minimum is six months.
Admission criteria for complementary training programs in medicine are available on the Faculty of Medicine website (in French only).
In the event of a discrepancy between the French and English texts, the French version prevails.