Financial Aid Resources for Faculty

The policy has two parts:

Part 1

Requesting tuition credits to support Ph.D. students for whom an external source of funding provides stipend money, but does not cover tuition. 

Part 2

Requesting tuition credits to support graduate students on an extramural grant that includes tuition as an allowable expense. 

Select the tabs on the right to review each part of the policy. 

Requesting credits to support students on extramurally funded assistantships that do not have tuition as an allowable expense.

Eligibility

In any given year, Principal Investigators may apply for a one, two, or three (i.e., summer) semester full tuition scholarship (up to 9 credits per semester; 12 for programs requiring 12) from the Graduate School for every one semester of documented stipend funding obtained to support a doctoral student (1 semester of stipend funding = 1 semester of tuition).  The funding obtained must meet the following rules:

1. The stipend funding must be the same or higher than the Department’s standard full-time (50% effort) 9-mo TA rate (or 12-mo rate if applicable).
2. This policy applies to Ph.D. students. The student for whom credits are being requested must be enrolled in, admitted to a Marquette University Doctoral program. 
3. The funding must come through sanctioned university channels (e.g., UA, ORSP, etc.) and originate from sources outside the University, such as grants, gifts or fellowships that do not allow tuition as an expense (if tuition is allowed, the following in Part 2 should be followed), externally-funded fellowships awarded through MU, private donors, paid practica, etc.
4. The source of funding for the assistantship must be identified and programs must provide documentation that funding is available prior to the scholarship credits being committed.
5. Alternate sources of funding that allow for the paying of tuition credits must first be explored prior to a match being awarded. 

Exclusions

Programs may only utilize this full-tuition scholarship if it is used to fill capacity in existing doctoral programs.  The addition of a student through this mechanism must: 

1. Be used to expand the size of doctoral classes or to increase the duration of support for existing students.
2. Not result in an expansion in the number of graduate course offerings (i.e., adding the student will not require more instructional resources to be allocated)

Application Process

• All requests from Part 1 that are based on grants/contracts running through ORSP will be submitted and approved via Kuali and must be signed off on by the Department Head, PI’s College Dean, and ORSP staff.
• All requests from Part 1 that are based on funding from UA or another part of the University that does not involve ORSP will be submitted and approved by the Graduate School. Units applying for support via the Graduate School must complete the Request for Credits form and receive signatures from the Department Head and the PI’s College Dean.  The signed application, plus supporting documents should be submitted to the Dean of the Graduate School.  The Dean of the Graduate School will inform the Department with respect to how much and for which terms the tuition scholarship credits will be made available.

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Request For Credits Form

This form is to be used to request tuition scholarship credits for Ph.D. students who are fully supported by extramural funds that are not administered by the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.

Download the form

Requesting credits for extramurally funded grant applications with tuition as an allowable expense.

When preparing externally funded (federal, state, local or corporate) grants that have tuition as an allowable expense, faculty may choose to fund graduate student RA lines as part of the grant application.  When doing so, the following policy will be enforced re: budgeting for tuition on all grants that have tuition as an allowable expense.

1. Full stipend funding must be included in the grant at a rate equal to or higher than the Department’s standard full-time (50% effort) 9-mo RA rate (or 12-mo rate if applicable).
2. All tuition credits must be used for the student whose stipend is being supported through the grant. Tuition credits cannot be divided up and allocated to other students who are not being paid a stipend.
3. For grants with total annual direct costs of <$50k, 1 tuition credit per semester/per student must be included for each RA included in the grant.
4. For grants with total annual direct costs of >$50k to < $200k, 2 tuition credits per semester/per student must be included for each RA included in the grant.
5. For grants with total annual direct costs allowable of >$200k, 3 tuition credits per semester/per student must be included for each RA included in the grant.
6. Any tuition required beyond those budgeted according to the policy above will be provided by the University and can be treated as cost-share as allowed in cases where mandatory cost sharing is required by the sponsor.
7. For all training grants, the maximum allowable tuition costs should be built into the grant and this policy will cover the remaining credits or required match.
8. For grants without a cap (including NIH modular budget threshold) that allow tuition, the maximum allowable tuition costs justified by the grant (beyond the minimums listed above) should be requested. The data listed in points 1-4 above should be considered the minimum requested.  PIs should always try recover full tuition when possible.
9. For grants with a cap that allows tuition, the data listed in points 1-4 above should be considered the minimum requested. PIs should always try recover full tuition when possible presuming other scientific expenses have been fully covered.
10. If it is anticipated that a student will be continuously enrolled (i.e., past tuition credit needs), tuition credits per the above must still be included. If the credits are not needed at time of award, they may be rebudgeted.
11. When budgeting for tuition credits, PIs should budget in a stable fashion and not load all credits into one year of a multi-year grant.

Application Process

• PIs will include tuition credits in their grant applications as per the stated policy. All requests based on Part 2 will be submitted and approved via Kuali.
• Grant credits must be used before internal credits will be applied.
• This process does not take the place of the Student Grant Support form. If an award is made, this form must be completed and sent to postaward@marquette.edu.