Source: Graduate Assistant Tuition Policy, Graduate Council Resolutions, including updates.
1. General – Both In- and Out-of-State
1.1. Students with
conditional admission to a graduate degree program continue to be eligible to hold any type of graduate assistantship. Thus, departments may award a teaching, research, or administrative assistantship to a student with regular
or conditional admission without seeking special permission from the Graduate Dean.
1.2. A
conditionally admitted student whose graduate GPA falls below 3.0 at any time during his or her conditional status will not be allowed to hold a teaching assistantship; however, he or she may hold a research assistantship.
1.3. Conditionally and unconditionally (regularly) admitted students will not be placed on academic warning (formerly called probation) until after
at least 12 semester hours have been completed with an overall graduate GPA of less than 3.0. (Under the previous policy, unconditionally admitted students could go on academic warning as early as after completing the first 6 hours.)
1.4. Students must be registered in the semester for which they are receiving their assistantships in accordance with the Graduate School’s
Minimum Registration Requirements.
1.5. Students must re-qualify each semester with regard to minimum registration requirements and minimum GPA rules.
1.6. The Graduate Council has determined that the following
may not hold graduate assistantships:
(a) Students in non degree status;
(b) Students on academic warning. Only graduate students are allowed to hold graduate assistantships. Students, who have not yet earned a baccalaureate, even if they are participating in programs such as the University Scholars Program, are not allowed to hold graduate assistantships.
1.7. Students who have
provisional language admission are eligible to hold externally funded research assistantships, but may not take graduate classes and may not hold any type of teaching assistantship or internally funded research assistantship until the language provision has been removed.
1.8.
General Tuition Award. The award of an assistantship of 0.50 FTE or greater that is funded by Academic Affairs as a permanently budgeted Graduate Teaching, Research, or Administrative Assistantship entitles the student to an award equal to the cost of in- and out-of-state tuition for the semester appointed. In order to qualify, each student must be (1) admitted as a degree candidate, (2) enrolled in Graduate or Law School, and (3) have a signed memorandum of appointment on file.
1.9. In order to receive a full tuition award for the semester, the
appointment must be made before the last day to register or drop classes in each semester.
1.10. If the
assistantship is less than 0.50 FTE, the award is reduced proportionately. For example, a student with 0.25 FTE is entitled to an award equal to half of the student’s total tuition cost.
1.11. The
maximum award available will be the amount of tuition charged for 9 – 15 graduate on-campus semester hours. Those rates are published each year on the Student Account Services web pages (see “Tuition Rates” – Graduate Rates at https://studentaccounts.ua.edu/tuition-rates/#graduate)
.
1.12.
Combined Tuition Awards. Where a graduate student is awarded a combination of assistantships, fellowships, and other tuition scholarships, he or she can never receive combined tuition awards that total more than the maximum tuition rate for 9 – 15 hours. However, other scholarships that are
NOT directed to pay tuition can still be awarded even where the maximum tuition has already been paid.
1.13.
Out-of-state tuition surcharge support will only be awarded to students where the assistantship is for 0.25 FTE or greater.
1.14. The budget officer in each college has the information concerning authorized permanently budgeted assistantships, the total number of 0.50 FTE appointments, and the maximum dollar value of the semester tuition grants. These are permanently budgeted funds allocated by Academic affairs and do not include any departmental-funded assistantships. The Graduate School will not approve any requests in excess of these limits unless separate authorization has been obtained from Academic Affairs.
1.15.
Sponsored Programs Assistantships. Where an assistantship of 0.25 FTE or greater is supported from externally sponsored research funds, and the agency will pay the in-state tuition only, then the student will be entitled to an award from Graduate School funds for the out-of-state portion of the tuition. The amount of the award will be prorated in the same way as regular awards based upon the FTE of the appointment.
1.16.
Auxiliary/Department Funded Assistantships. No award is available under this program if the assistantship is connected with auxiliary or self-supporting activities or is paid from state line items or any other permanently budgeted funds that are
NOT allocated by Academic Affairs. This includes all assistantships funded on contracts and grants
NOT administered through Office for Sponsored Programs. Tuition scholarships on these funds must be funded from the same source as the assistantship stipend.
1.17. All
non-native speakers of English must successfully complete the University’s International Teaching Assistant Program (ITAP) before they can hold any teaching assistantship (category 40050 and 44010 Position Classes).
Departments MUST verify that the minimum level of ITAP pass has been achieved for the assistantship awarded.
2. Key Dates
2.1. Please ensure that deadline dates are observed – this ensures that students are not inconvenienced and that they are able to confirm their class schedules before the deadline for confirmation with their full tuition scholarship credited to their student MyBama account.
2.2. For graduate assistants to have their tuition accounts cleared by the Office of Student Account Services before the confirmation deadline, all tuition awards must be processed by awarding departments before the semester deadlines published each semester by Student Account Services.
3. Processing Tuition Scholarships
3.1. All Graduate Assistantship tuition scholarships are processed by the awarding department using the online Graduate Assistant Tuition Online Processing System (GATOPS). Access to the system is with a Bama User ID and password and security approval from the Graduate School.
3.2. Each college has its own protocols for approval of tuition awards, please refer to your dean’s office for information regarding approval routines for tuition awards.
3.3. All tuition scholarships funded all or in part through Contracts and Grants Accounting Office must be accompanied by approved Electronic Personnel Action Forms (ePA forms). GATOPS includes functionality which allows departments to scan and upload to their GATOPS posting a digital copy of the ePA form.
3.4. Generally, all tuition scholarships associated with external contracts or grants must be charged to the same fund and budget as the assistantship stipend. Special arrangements are in place to assist assistantships and fellowships funded on external contracts or grants where the agreement permits cost-share arrangements for tuition purposes. Your Contract and Grant Accounting Office accountant will advise on how to process the awards in those cases.
4. Special Situations
4.1. Departmental awards may be made where budget is available. These are classified as “Non-permanent” type awards and are processed through GATOPS identified as such. The awarding department will need to input the FOAPAL where the scholarship will be charged.
4.2. Graduate students paid from restricted funds, self-supporting budgets, or budgets of auxiliary activities are not eligible for out-of-state tuition awards under this program.
4.3. Graduate assistants whose appointments are terminated before the end of the academic semester are eligible for reduced tuition awards in the same manner as withdrawal from classes reduces tuition charges. In this way, where a graduate student withdraws from classes during a semester and thereby relinquishes the assistantship then the pro-rated adjustment of tuition scholarships will be matched with the pro-rating of tuition charges.
If you have any questions concerning tuition awards for the fall and spring semesters, please contact Mr. John Chambers at the Graduate School office (
john.chambers@ua.edu, 205-348-8282).
