Beginning this semester, the University will expand graduate tuition support to cover 100% of tuition and mandatory fees for students enrolled in a Ph.D. program and students pursuing the degrees of Master of Fine Arts, Master of Landscape Architecture, and Master of Architecture.

For eligible students to receive this benefit, they must be employed half-time as a graduate teaching assistant, graduate research assistant, or as a teaching or research associate. Furthermore, they must be compliant with the minimum standards of that appointment. Students who hold a quarter-time appointment will receive prorated support. Positions must be salaried, not hourly, to count toward eligibility.

The funding to support teaching assistants has already been transferred to the colleges to enable their administrators to make the necessary adjustments.

To implement these changes for research assistants, principal investigators should work with the post-award staff in the Office of Grants and Contracts Services to reconfigure their existing budgets.

It is the intention of the Graduate School that every eligible student receive assistance to cover 100% of tuition and fees. Therefore, if a research project has exhausted its budget options with post-award staff and does not have the funding to accommodate this change, its principal investigator will be able to apply for transitional funding from the Graduate School and the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation. Post-award staff will submit funding requests to the Graduate School on behalf of principal investigators.

For eligible students who are employed by an administrative unit, such as Innovation and Commercialization or the UTA Research Institute, that unit is expected to cover the increased cost of financial support. If this is not possible for some reason, a request with an explanation should be sent to the Graduate School for transitional funding for the remainder of the current fiscal year. Similarly, administrators of academic units employing eligible students as graduate research assistants should send requests for transitional funding to the Graduate School.

All requests for transitional funding should be submitted to the Graduate School by end of day, April 28.

While it will take time for us to fully transition to this new financial model, it is a worthy effort. Every day, graduate students work alongside us in our pursuit to foster a top-notch teaching and research environment. I am so pleased that the University can offer them competitive compensation for their dedication to UTA’s mission.

If you have questions, you can contact me at grover@uta.edu. For questions regarding grant budgets, please contact Sarah Panepinto, director of the Office of Grants and Contracts Services, at sarah.panepinto@uta.edu.