Eligibility: Graduate Tuition Waivers
- Qualifying Graduate Assistants and Fellows: Yes
- Graduate students who hold qualifying assistantships or fellowships from academic departments or qualified non-degree-granting programs and are in good academic standing in their home departments are eligible for the tuition waiver.
- Benefit-Eligible Mizzou Employees: No
- Benefit-eligible employees are not eligible for the tuition waiver, even if they hold a qualifying appointment.
- Professional Students: Occasionally
- In general, professional students (in the Schools of Law, Medicine or Veterinary Medicine) are not eligible for the tuition waiver.
- The one exception is if the student is working on a dual degree, one of which is a professional program and the other is a graduate program. The student will receive the tuition waiver for the courses associated with the graduate program but not for those courses that are only for the professional program.
- Non-Degree Graduate Students: No
- A student must be in a degree-seeking program (master's, doctoral, educational specialist) and hold a qualifying assistantship or fellowship to be eligible to receive the waiver.
Required Qualifications
Graduate Teaching Assistants and Research Assistants
- Must hold at least a quarter-time (.25 FTE, or 10 hours per week) assistantship awarded by the academic home of the student, another degree-granting program or a qualifying non-degree-granting program (see below).
- Must have a qualifying job title, as defined by the Graduate Faculty Senate.
- Continuing students must maintain "good academic standing," as determined by the academic home of the student.
- New students must have been:
- admitted based on admission criteria developed by the academic degree-granting home of the student
- approved by the Graduate School and the Graduate Faculty Senate
Fellowship Recipients
- Must hold a University-recognized fellowship, where the fellowship is awarded from the student's academic home, or from the Graduate School, or other external sources, and the fellowship stipend is administered through the Office of Financial Aid.
- Fellowship must be in an amount equal to that established yearly by the Graduate School for a quarter-time (.25 FTE, or 10 hours per week) assistantship — $2,287.50 for 2005–2006 but subject to change.
- Continuing students must maintain "good academic standing" as determined by the academic home of the student.
- New students must have been admitted
- based on admission criteria developed by the academic degree-granting home of the student
- approved by the Graduate School and the Graduate Faculty Senate
Full-Semester Assistantships and Fellowships
A student must hold the assistantship or fellowship for the entire semester in order to receive a full tuition waiver. See below, under “Special Situations,” for information about partial-semester positions.
Summer Waivers
If a student had a tuition waiver for fall semester and for spring semester, the student will get a waiver for the following summer automatically. See below, under “Special Situations,” for other scenarios in which a summer waiver is permitted.
Eligible Course Work
The waiver applies only to courses applicable and relevant to the student's degree program, or to those that have been approved by the student's adviser.
The courses that students take and receive a waiver for will be checked, and only those courses that are relevant and applicable to the students' degree program will be eligible to receive a waiver. The course check occurs after the add/drop period in a semester, so students need to be sure that the courses for which they are registered are applicable and relevant to their degree program and approved by their adviser. If an adviser returns the course check and states that a course is ineligible, the Graduate Student Tuition Waiver coordinator at the Graduate School will remove the waiver associated with the ineligible course, and the student will be responsible for the fees associated with that course.
No Plan of Study Required
A student's fee coverage is based on courses relevant to a degree program and not solely on the Plan of Study form. Therefore, Plans of Study will not be required for use in the eligibility process.
Ineligible: Center for Distance & Independent Study
Courses offered through the Center for Distance and Independent Study, even if they are on a student's Plan of Study, are not eligible for the Tuition Waiver Program.
Time Limits
The amount of time (not including summer sessions) a student can receive a tuition waiver is as follows:
| Type of Student | Maximum Years of Eligibility | Maximum Semesters of Eligibility (Not Including Summers) |
|---|---|---|
| Admitted as master’s student | 3 years | 6 semesters |
| Has relevant master’s degree, admitted as doctoral student | 5 years | 10 semesters |
| No relevant master’s degree, admitted as doctoral student | 7 years | 14 semesters |
| No relevant master’s degree, admitted to doctoral program with master’s en route | 8 years | 16 semesters |
Note: The overall limits are 2 degrees or 7 years (8, for the last scenario), whichever comes first. For all master's work, the student is limited to 3 years or 6 semesters of support.
Waivers for Assistantships in Non-Degree-Granting Units
In the case of assistantships awarded by units that have an academic mission but don't grant degrees (such as the Campus Writing Program), it may be academically sound to offer remission of Missouri resident and non-resident educational fees as a fringe benefit.
The advisory committee to the dean of the Graduate School will recommend whether it is in the overall interest of MU to provide waivers of graduate educational fees to graduate assistants holding assignments of an academic nature in such units. These decisions will be made on an individual job category basis within the specific unit making the request.
If it is determined that it is appropriate to award waiver of educational fees to graduate students holding appointments in a particular job category in a unit that doesn't grant degrees, the actual award of the waiver will be made pending approval by the student's home department.
See Obtaining a Tuition Waiver for forms and instructions.
Special Situations
- Summer waivers for students without waivers in past 2 consecutive semesters
- A student is eligible for a waiver for the summer if s/he meets one of the following scenarios, but the student's department will need to complete a Summer Session Certification of Eligibility form:
- If the student has a qualifying assistantship or fellowship for the entire summer session.
- If the student has a waiver for the preceding spring semester and the student has a qualifying assistantship or fellowship committed for the following fall semester.
- If the student is starting a program in the summer semester and has a qualifying assistantship or fellowship committed for both the following fall and spring semesters.
- Assistantship or fellowship for only part of the semester
- If students have a qualifying assistantship or fellowship for only part of a semester, their tuition waiver will be pro-rated. For example, if there are 85 working days in the semester, and the student's assistantship is for 40 of those working days, then the tuition waiver would cover 40÷85, or 47 percent, of the student's educational fees for that semester.
- If the student's assistantship or fellowship starts after the first day of the semester or ends before the last day of the semester, or if a student withdraws from the University before the end of the semester, the student will receive a partial Tuition Waiver Program tuition waiver and will be responsible for the balance of his or her resident and non-resident (if applicable) educational fees.
- If a student who has a fellowship for which a stipend was received at the beginning of the semester withdraws from the university before the end of the semester, that student may be required to return a portion of the stipend to the University.
- Student withdraws from classes in the middle of the semester
- If students withdraw from all of their classes, and they have an assistantship or fellowship, they will have to give up the assistantship or fellowship also because an enrollment requirement is in the title description for all the titles that make a student eligible for the tuition waiver.
- If a student withdraws at any time before the end of a semester in which an assistantship or fellowship and a tuition waiver has been granted, s/he will have to give up the assistantship or fellowship, and the Tuition Waiver Program tuition waiver will be pro-rated based on the amount of time in the semester that the student worked.
- For example, if a student withdraws from all classes 3/4 of the way through the semester, the student will be responsible for 25 percent of resident and non-resident educational fees. If a student had a fellowship and received a stipend at the beginning of the semester, s/he may be asked to return a portion of that stipend.
- Student gets placed on academic probation
- A student on academic probation is not eligible for the Tuition Waiver Program. While the student may still hold an assistantship, s/he will not be eligible for a tuition waiver until s/he is off academic probation. If a student earns probationary status, the department, and subsequently the student's adviser, shall be informed of the student's status. The department may request a grace period by petitioning the Graduate School dean.