Policy on Graduate Tuition Remission
Tuition remission from the Graduate School supports Masters, EdS, EdD, DNP, DBA, or PhD degree programs by providing tuition support to graduate teaching or research assistants who serve in the unit in which they are graduate students. It does not provide tuition support to graduate students serving in units that do not offer a graduate degree.
Although tuition remission is paid through Financial Aid, it is not based on financial need. Tuition remission is a benefit given to students who are providing services to the university. Due to limited funding, tuition remission is prioritized for appointments that contribute directly to the university’s core missions of teaching and scholarly activity.
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The “home unit” is defined as the unit that awards the degree that the graduate assistant is pursuing. Research centers and clinics may not be the home unit.
The Graduate School will allocate GTA, GI, and GRA graduate assistantship positions to each department/unit no later than March of each year. These positions will be allocated based on demonstrated department needs and the priorities described above, and they will guarantee resident and nonresident tuition remission for one academic year. These positions will be renewed annually, but continuation from year to year will depend on demonstrated department need and on Graduate School funding.
Minimum FTE Appointment. Tuition remission will only be provided for students with a 0.50 FTE appointment within the home unit. There will be no resident or nonresident tuition remission for students with an appointment less than 0.5 FTE. Students may not circumvent the 0.5 FTE requirement by joining together smaller appointments from multiple units.
Term Credit Hour Restrictions. The Graduate School will provide tuition remission up to a maximum of nine hours of graduate-level credit in the Fall and Spring semesters. Unless a student is graduating in the Summer semester, the Graduate School will not provide tuition remission in the summer. Note that graduate students are not required to enroll in the summer semester to serve as GTAs or GRAs or to maintain continuous enrollment. Similarly, international students are not required to enroll in summer to maintain their visa status.
Total Credit Hour Limits. The Graduate School will limit the total number of credit hours for which a student may receive tuition remission. The standard limit will be 100% of the number of credit hours required for the degree that a student is pursuing. Courses in which the student received an F or an EX grade will be counted toward the total credit hour limit. In addition, the Graduate School will not offer tuition remission for any courses that cannot be applied to the student’s degree plan, such as EAP courses, a 3000-level course, or an unnecessary course outside the discipline.
Total Degree/Certificate Limits. The Graduate School will provide tuition remission for a maximum of two degrees or certificates or any combination, e.g., two Master’s degrees, one Master’s degree and one doctoral degree, one Master’s degree and one graduate certificate, etc.
Doctoral Equivalency Hours. PhD students who have achieved candidacy are expected to make maximum use of doctoral equivalency hours to maintain full-time status. The Graduate School will not cover tuition for coursework for doctoral candidates beyond the one credit hour needed to maintain continuous enrollment unless the additional credit hours are needed to reach the minimum number of credit hours required for the degree.
GRAs Supported by Grants. When an UMSL faculty member submits a grant proposal for external funding that includes the stipend for a GRA position, the Office of Research and Economic and Community Development will expect the proposal to include a budget request to fund the student’s resident tuition to the maximum extent allowed by the funding agency. If the proposal is funded, the department will charge the grant for tuition each semester that the student stipend is paid by the grant up to the dollar limit set in the original grant budget. The Graduate School will cover the nonresident tuition for grant-funded GRA positions. If the external funding agency does not allow tuition charges, the faculty member must have a written agreement that the Graduate School will provide tuition for the student before the proposal is submitted.Program Limits. As part of the process of setting strategic priorities for the campus, the Graduate School, in consultation with the appropriate academic Dean, may cap the tuition remission available to a specific program.
Internal Campus Funding There are many graduate assistants whose stipends are paid by UMSL funds outside the departmental/unit GTA/GRA budget. These include UMSL/UM System grant awards, endowment funds, faculty startup funds, and faculty or departmental GIF funds. Students supported by these funds are not eligible for tuition remission and the funds that provide the stipends are expected to provide the resident tuition. The Graduate School may have funds to provide nonresident tuition for some of these students, but this will be decided on a case-by-case basis.
Off-Campus Research. A few graduate students choose to conduct their research at other area institutions, such as local museums, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Zoo, or the Danforth Plant Science Center. Tuition payments will be linked to the source of the stipend. Whether the stipend is paid directly to the student by the institution or indirectly by donation of the stipend to an UMSL account that pays the student, that external institution is responsible for both resident and nonresident tuition. The institution may 1) pay the tuition directly, 2) adjust the stipend to compensate for tuition, or 3) pass the burden on to the student.
If an institution uses a subcontract to fund the stipend through UMSL, the subcontract must include funding for resident tuition. The nonresident tuition will be covered by the Graduate School, as is the case for other external grants/contracts.
Internships. Off-campus internships use the same model as applied to off-campus research. The off-campus unit that pays the stipend for an internship will be responsible for both the resident and nonresident tuition.