As a demonstration of its commitment to graduate education and to the critical role that graduate assistants play in supporting the university's research, teaching and outreach missions, Auburn University provides Graduate Tuition Fellowships to its graduate assistants who meet or exceed specific requirements. The fellowships are administered through the Graduate School. There is no application process associated with this program. All contact and any questions concerning availability of assistantships should be directed to specific academic departments or the deans' offices of the respective academic colleges or schools. Questions pertaining to the Graduate Tuition Fellowship Program that are not answered fully by the material below or by the FAQs should be directed to the Graduate School.
The Policy:
Students
with a qualifying assistantship* will automatically receive a Graduate
Tuition Fellowship that pays resident and
non-resident tuition, course fees, and student activity fees (no more than 15
attempted hours per semester) for all attempted hours** each
semester during which the qualifying assistantship is held until a maximum
level of support has been received. This maximum is directly linked to the
minimum number of hours required by the curriculum in which the student is
enrolled. For master’s and specialist students on assistantship, the maximum
tuition fellowship support available is the minimum program*** plus 10
hours and for doctoral degrees, the maximum amount of support from the tuition
fellowship is the minimum program*** plus 20 hours. Students are charged
a processing fee each semester in which their fellowship is used****.
*
An assistantship is qualified for the Graduate Tuition Fellowship
regardless of the type (teaching, research or other) under the following
conditions:
(a)
the Fellow has a minimum appointment of .25 FTE (i.e., at least 10 hours
per week),
(b)
the Fellow is in the assistantship for the full semester (no later than
the 8th class day [5th class day in Summer Semester],
through the last day of the semester),
(c)
the Fellow receives an assistantship stipend greater than or equal to the
minimum set by the Provost ($612/month for academic year 2008-09),
(d)
the Fellow is a degree seeking student (although provisionally accepted
students are eligible for their first semester),
(e)
the Fellow is in good academic standing (GPA at least 3.0), and
(f)
the Fellow is registered for at least 1 hour, but not more than 15 hours, of
course work.
**
Attempted hours are defined as any hours for
which the university charges tuition or fees, regardless of level
(undergraduate versus graduate) or grade type (graded, pass/fail, or
ungraded). The fellowship, however, does NOT pay for distance education courses or any of their related fees.
***
The minimum program consists of the basic requirements of the program in
question for course work, along with Graduate School minimums for thesis hours
(in thesis option master’s degrees) and dissertation hours. The minimum is
specified for each degree program and is a matter of public record. Students
may keep up with the amount of support available to them by logging onto the
Graduate TUition Fellowship System (GTUFS) http://graduate.auburn.edu/gtufs/
. This on-line system is useful to graduate assistants for keeping a record of
the support used and remaining.
****
This fee is $248 in 2007-08.
When
the support available to students through the tuition fellowship program is
exhausted, they will continue to receive a waiver for the non-resident portion
of tuition as long as they maintain their assistantship.
Non-Alabama
students holding assistantships that qualify for the tuition fellowship for two
consecutive semesters but not the next, may request the waiver of the
non-resident portion of tuition from the Bursar for that unsupported third
semester. The waiver is not automatic but must be directly requested from the
Bursar.
Examples:
A doctoral student continuously
supported with a qualifying assistantship is in a program that requires a
minimum of 65 hours to complete. The maximum Graduate Tuition Fellowship
support available to this student is 65 + 20 = 85 hours. If the student has not
completed the degree in 85 supported hours and he/she retains an assistantship,
tuition and fees will be charged at in-state rates thereafter.
A master’s or specialist
degree student continuously supported with a qualifying assistantship is in a
program that requires a minimum of 33 hours. The maximum Graduate Tuition Fellowship
support available is 33 + 10 = 43 hours. After 43 supported hours, tuition and
fees are charged to students holding a qualifying assistantship at in-state
rates.
Limitations:
Distance
education: The Graduate Tuition
Fellowship does NOT pay for courses for which a distance education fee is
charged.
Number of degrees: Students with qualifying assistantships will
automatically receive the tuition fellowships for one degree or for two linked degrees.
It they change curricula or begin another graduate degree, the fellowship
support previously received will be subtracted from the support available.
Example 1: A student completes a master’s degree in route to the doctorate in
same discipline. The total amount of fellowship support available to the
doctoral student is calculated as (a) the minimum doctoral program plus (b) 20
hours minus (c ) the number of hours of tuition support provided while a master’s
student.
Example 2: A student has undertaken a dual-master’s degree program that is
recognized in the university curriculum as a joint degree. If the minimum
program for the dual degree is 54 hours, the maximum amount of fellowship
support available to the joint master’s degree student is 54 + 10 = 64 hours.
Example 3: A student begins a master’s degree in one discipline but changes to
another master’s program before completing the degree. If the first degree
required a minimum of 33 hours, and if the student received 15 hours of tuition
fellowship support before changing to a program requiring a minimum of 30
hours, the maximum amount of tuition fellowship support available to the
student in his/her second degree program is 30 + 10 - 15 = 25 hours.
Number of
semesters: Students must be enrolled each semester they receive the
tuition fellowship, but they are not required to be enrolled full-time. No
student will receive more than 12 semesters of support while remaining a master’s
student, even if they have taken less than the maximum number of hours for
which they are eligible, given their degree program. Likewise, no doctoral
student will receive more than 24 semesters of support (inclusive of master’s
study supported at Auburn).
Students Supported on
Extra-Mural Fellowships:
A
number of departments have students supported on extra-mural fellowships. It is
the practice of the Graduate School to treat these fellowships as
assistantships for the purposes of the Graduate Tuition Fellowship Program.
However, these students are not automatically included for the program.
Therefore, each Semester, each department with such fellowships should supply
the list of fellows to the Graduate School so that they may receive the
Graduate Tuition Fellowship.
