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The Graduate School at the University of Missouri–Columbia (Mizzou)

Obtaining a Graduate Student Tuition Waiver

For Degree-Granting Units

  1. A staff person in the department or program in which the student will hold an assistantship or fellowship needs to complete a Certification of Eligibility form for the student. The form can be completed for one semester, for both fall and spring semester, or for an entire year, depending on the length of the contract for the assistantship/fellowship.
  2. If the employing department is different than the student's academic home department, the completed form must be sent to the student's academic home department for the department chair's signature. If the student has a qualifying fellowship, then the host department of that fellowship must complete the form and send it to the student's academic home for the department chair's signature.
  3. The completed, signed form must then be sent to the Graduate School for processing. If any part of the form is not correctly filled out, the form will be returned to the departmental contact person with the problem area highlighted. Each department needs to elect a contact person who will be able to discuss any problems regarding the information on the Certification of Eligibility form with the GSSP Coordinator in the Graduate School.
  4. If there is a change in the student's status such that s\he is no longer eligible for the tuition waiver, it is the responsibility of the employing department, if the change is employment-related, or the academic home department, if the change is academically related, to inform the Graduate School's tuition waiver coordinator of the change so that the waiver can be adjusted accordingly.

For Non-Degree-Granting Units

  1. The non-degree-granting program needs to complete the Non-Degree-Granting Tuition Waiver Program form (pdf) and send it to the Tuition Waiver Program coordinator.
  2. If the tuition waiver request is approved, a copy of the form will be sent back to the non-degree-granting program.
  3. They will then need to complete a Certification of Eligibility form for the student they wish to hire, attach a copy of the approved tuition waiver request form to the Certification of Eligibility form, send it to the student's academic home for signature, and then have the academic home send it on to the Tuition Waiver Program coordinator.

Additional Administrative Procedures

Summer Waivers

If a student had a tuition waiver for both the fall and spring semesters, the student will get a waiver for the following summer automatically. However, if the student meets one of the following scenarios, the student's department or program 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.

Preparing to Offer a Position With a Waiver

Creating Program-Specific Policies About Tuition-Waiver-Eligible Positions

Degree-granting departments and/or programs are responsible for developing the criteria that determine whether their graduate students will receive, in any given year, an assistantship in a category that qualifies for a fee waiver. These policies must be approved by the Graduate Faculty Senate, by the dean of the school or college and by the dean of the Graduate School.

Including In-State Educational Fees in Funding Proposals

If remission of educational fees is not specifically prohibited according to the guidelines of a funding source, it is required that in-state educational fees be included as a fringe benefit in the budgets of all proposals that include graduate student stipends.

  1. The principal investigator (P.I.) on the grant proposal needs to complete a Tuition Waiver Cost-Share Request form (pdf) and send it to the Tuition Waiver Program coordinator before the proposal is submitted to the Office of Sponsored Programs.
  2. Once the tuition waiver request has been approved in the Graduate School, the Tuition Waiver Program coordinator will send word back to the P.I. of the approval.