Dear Deans, Directors and Department Heads,
We would like to share with you information regarding policy and process changes for the Reimbursement provision of the Graduate College Tuition Waiver policy. These policy revisions were approved by the Graduate College Executive Committee during the Spring 2019 semester and will be in effect with the start of the Fall 2020 semester.
Full details of the policy changes are available here. A summary of these revisions are as follows:
- Academic colleges will be reimbursed from appointing units that hire their students on an annual basis. The reimbursement rate has been revised to establish a cap of 80% of Resident Graduate Base Rate tuition per semester of appointment. At AY 19-20 tuition rates, this is a cap of $5,177, per Fall/Spring semester.
- The revised policy will exclude doctoral programs from the types of programs that may be designated as a reimbursable program.
- The revised tuition waiver priority policy will further guide the reimbursement process and provides guidance when a student holds multiple appointments, or split appointments.
- Departments will no longer be responsible for "seeking reimbursement". At the end of each fiscal year, units will be reimbursed through a true-up accounting process. The Graduate College will be working in partnership with the Office of the Provost to reconcile the reimbursement charges and communicate those to the impacted units.
Each College has an existing table of tuition waiver designations for their graduate programs. The existing table is available here: https://grad.illinois.edu/gradhandbook/4.
If an academic program would like to revise their reimbursable status, they may do so by completing the Tuition Waiver Policy form. Revisions are now being accepted until December 31, 2019 for the AY 20-21. The updated tuition waiver policy table for AY 20-21 will be available on the Graduate College website no later than January 31, 2020.
The Graduate College has been in communication with units and sharing data about how graduate tuition waivers are assigned throughout the past couple of years. During AY19-20, the Graduate College will continue to share data with units to provide information on the financial impact of these changes.
In order to assist units with their administrative and budgetary planning, by the end of September 2019, the Graduate College will provide each academic department and each non-academic unit that employs graduate students a detailed breakdown of the revenue sharing implications of the new policy had it been in place for the 2018-19 AY. The Graduate College will then schedule meetings with academic and non-academic units to explain the new policy and process and answer any questions that may arise.
We hope that these changes will not only simplify campus procedures, but also institute a manageable and predictable rate for appointing units, while also providing the student's academic home with reimbursement towards the cost of educating the student.
We would be happy to answer any questions you may have, please feel free to contact us at grad@illinois.edu.
Sincerely,
Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko
Dean, Graduate College
Shahid and Ann Carlson Khan Professor in Applied Health Sciences
