**ATTN: Faculty. Shared on behalf of Dr. Andrew Howard, Director, Fellowship Program**
Dear Colleagues,
On behalf of the Department of Psychiatry Fellowship Programs Advisory Committee for clinical/clinical research fellows NOT involved in the Forensic/Child & Adolescent/Geriatric tracks (Drs. Lam, Yatham, Panenka, and Vila-Rodriguez, Leah Ranada, and myself), I am reaching out to you to let you know about recent developments at UBC and to appeal for your help with a UBC Department of Psychiatry Clinical/Clinical Research Fellow needs survey. Please complete the survey by Saturday, February 15, 2025; it should take less than 10 minutes of your time.
The Department of Psychiatry’s goals are:
- to promote our current clinical/clinical research fellowship programs to ensure their competitiveness financially and academically at an international level
- to assist with development of new fellowship positions
- to aid in the administration of current fellowship programs
- to help investigate funding sources for prospective UBC Psychiatry clinical and clinical research fellows
Summary of recent UBC Faculty of Medicine developments:
- Effective January 1st, 2026, all clinical (non-subspecialty) fellowship applicants will be appointed to the Faculty of Medicine Clinical Fellow Training Program. Fellows will hold UBC appointments and will be employed and paid through UBC. While funding may be external, UBC will assist with employment and training to maintain equal and effective standards.
- A Clinical Fellow Training Program Manual has been developed (11-page pdf) which encompasses the categories of clinical fellows and eligibility requirements for prospective fellows, outlines the steps in applying, describes licensing, insurance, and immigration processes, and explains the structure for clinical training, educational training deliverables, terms of academic progress, dispute processes, remuneration, benefits and entitlements, vacation and leaves, and supervision, call, service, and teaching expectations.
- The Faculty of Medicine now recognizes the following categories of fellows involved in clinical training and/or clinical research at UBC:
Postgraduate fellows: a physician pursuing further training in specialty or subspecialty (e.g. psychiatry) who has completed all requirements in home jurisdiction to practise as a physician in their specialty area (individual can be involved in a clinical or clinical research fellowship in any area of psychiatry or mental health of any kind, not including child/adolescent psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry).
VISA-sponsored fellows: postgraduate fellows who are engaged pursuant to a sponsorship agreement between the sponsor and UBC and a separate agreement between UBC and fellow (but training is still not eligible for Royal College certification) and terms and conditions of employment and training are set out in separate agreements.
Postgraduate trainees: a physician who does not meet the requirements for registration as a postgraduate fellow and has acceptable postgraduate training to warrant admission to a postgraduate program at UBC, if requested by the Associate Dean of Postgraduate Medical Education. The physician is enrolled in a postgraduate training program outside of Canada and is engaged by either an academic (UBC) or clinical (health authority) department to do further research or educational training in their specialty area at the UBC Faculty of Medicine.
SEAP fellow: A Subspecialty Examination Affiliate Program fellow will give an individual without Royal College accreditation the opportunity to register with the Royal College and complete a Royal College subspecialty examination conferring Subspecialist Affiliate status.
AFC fellow: The Area of Focused Competence fellow will be involved in a highly specialized discipline of medicine (e.g. addiction medicine) that does not meet the Royal College criteria for a specialty, subspecialty, or foundation program. Training with provide supplemental competencies through an accredited program and fellows will be eligible for Royal College accreditation as Diplomates of the Royal College.
The faculty of medicine will provide administrative support with the application process to all the above categories of fellows, and any VISA and licensing requirements, in addition to providing infrastructure for trainees’ evaluation as above, and PGME resources will be available to all Clinical Fellows.
- After a 2022 Finance Survey of all UBC Postdoctoral Fellows, the minimum remuneration for 2025-6 will align with the UBC Residents salary scale at a PGY-1 level of $67,292 per annum.
If you are a current fellowship supervisor or a prospective fellowship supervisor or have not yet considered taking a fellow but might consider it, please complete the following needs survey. There has never been a more opportune time to improve our infrastructure for current fellows and to expand the Department’s Fellowship opportunities.
The Department of Psychiatry Fellowship Programs Advisory Committee is extremely grateful for your involvement in the training of post-graduate subspecialists and professionals and wish to provide further support administratively and financially if possible for the development of fellowship programs. Thank you for taking a few minutes to complete this survey.
If you would prefer to communicate personally, would like to or would be willing to assist us on the Advisory Committee by nominating yourself or a colleague who supervises research or clinical fellows (requirement is 3-4 hours per year), or would like a copy of the Clinical Fellow Training Program Manual or any relevant Faculty of Medicine materials, please reach out to me at andrew.howard@vch.ca.
I am most grateful for your time and dedication to the training of our future colleagues.
Sincerely,
Dr. Andrew Howard
Director, Fellowship Program
Clinical Associate Professor, UBC Department of Psychiatry
We humbly acknowledge, with gratitude, that we live, work, and play as an uninvited guest on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil- Waututh) Nations.