Policies and Procedures
Tuition Waivers Associated with Graduate Student Assistantship Appointments
Waiver Authority
Authority to waive tuition for graduate students with assistantships is vested in the Graduate College as a unit of the Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
Purpose of Assistantships
Graduate student assistantships and their accompanying tuition waivers provide graduate students with financial resources that help defray the expenses associated with completing their graduate degrees. Students who hold assistantships experience educational and professional benefits. They gain further instruction in techniques in their fields; hone their research skills; acquire pedagogical experience necessary for an academic career; develop professional skills, including leadership, interpersonal effectiveness, and performance evaluation; and have collegial collaboration with advisors that result in joint publications.
Application Process
A tuition waiver automatically accompanies a graduate student assistantship appointment within a certain range. Students applying for admission to a graduate program on the Urbana-Champaign campus apply for assistantships by checking the appropriate box on the Application for Graduate Study. A continuing student applies directly to the appropriate department. The department may also use as application the standard Application for Graduate Appointment form, the Personal History form, or a department-specific form. Selection decisions are made by individual departments and are processed through the Office of Academic Human Resources (AHR) via the Electronic Change of Status system. Financial need is not a factor in awarding assistantships. The primary consideration are academic merit, the appropriateness of the student's abilities to the duties to be performed, and the relevance of those duties to the student's own graduate education. Each student appointed to an assistantship must meet the following minimum standards:
- The student must be registered during the term of appointment. Students with summer appointments may not be required to be registered if they were registered in the preceding spring term or have registered for the upcoming fall term.
- The student must be in good academic standing.
- For a teaching assistantship, the student must be orally proficient in English. Exceptions can be made for persons providing classroom instruction in foreign language classes when they are teaching in their native tongue.
Notice of Appointment
The Office of the Board of Trustees issues Notices of Appointment for assistantship appointments through AHR. The department must notify AHR immediately if an assistant becomes ineligible for a waiver due to a change in status during the term of the appointment.
Evaluation and Selection Process
The evaluation and selection process for the assistantship appointment and its accompanying waiver is conducted by the department. Each unit that makes assistantship appointments is responsible for ensuring that the graduate students are qualified for the appointment received. Assistants whose academic progress and service record have been satisfactory can, in many cases, expect their appointments to be renewed, subject to the availability of funds and the need for services. Departments have differing policies on the length of time they will fund students with assistantships and waivers.
Documentation Storage
Awarding departments retain records for at least three years pertaining to application, evaluation, and selection, including records for rejected applicants. The Office of Academic Human Resources retains documentation required to finalize assistantship appointments (Personal History forms, I-9 form, W-4 form, and account information). Each awarding unit will report to the Graduate College once per year on its policies governing the awarding of graduate student financial aid.
