Dear Colleagues,
We write with an annual reminder regarding the campus Tuition Waiver Policy for graduate assistants.
The policy includes provisions tied to the designation (i.e. traditional, reimbursable, self-supporting, etc.) of the graduate program in which the student is enrolled (as identified by the graduate program code). For this reason, we ask programs to review their current program designations at https://grad.illinois.edu/handbook/program-tuition-waiver-designations.
Programs who wish to request revisions for the 2023-2024 academic year, can do so until January 15, 2023, by completing the Tuition Waiver Policy form and submitting it to the Graduate College (grad@illinois.edu).
If no changes are needed to the program designation, no further action is necessary.
As a reminder a summary of the reimbursement policy is as follows:
1. Reimbursement will be assessed for waiver-generating assistantship appointments if the following criteria are met:
- The appointment is for a student who entered the university Fall 2020 or after, and is enrolled in a master's or certificate of advanced study degree program that has a tuition waiver policy of “reimbursable.”
- The appointment is outside the student’s academic college.
- The student has no other waiver-generating appointments (see the waiver priority policy in the Graduate College Handbook at the link below).
2. The reimbursement policy excludes doctoral programs from being designated as “reimbursable.” No reimbursement will be assessed for appointments issued to students in doctoral degree programs.
3. For programs that are designated “reimbursable,” the reimbursement rate has been set at a cap of 80% of Resident Graduate Base Rate tuition per semester of appointment. At AY 22-23 tuition rates, this is a cap of $5,376 per Fall/Spring semester. There is no reimbursement for summer automatic waivers that result from a Spring appointment.
4. The tuition waiver priority policy provides further guidance on the reimbursement process for instances when a student holds multiple appointments or split appointments.
5. At the end of each fiscal year, academic colleges will be reimbursed for qualifying appointments through an annual process coordinated by the Graduate College.
The full Tuition Waiver Policy is available on pages 47-54 in the Graduate College Handbook.
We would be happy to answer any questions you may have, please contact us at grad@illinois.edu.
Sincerely,
Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko Dean, Graduate College