Tuition and Fee Remission

Graduate student tuition and fee remissions represent a significant contribution of the university to the education of graduate students. These remissions are governed by a complex set of rules that arise from accounting principles, human resources policies, collective bargaining agreements, and other university policies.

Definitions​

  • Remission
  • Payment of the tuition and fees owed by a student.
  • PEP
  • Petition for Exception to Policy. This petition must be approved by Graduate Studies to employ students who do not meet eligibility guidelines for academic appointments.
  • GSR
  • Graduate Student Researcher, a graduate student who performs research related to the student's degree program in an academic department or research unit under the direction of a faculty member or authorized principal investigator. (APM 112-4, b. 20)
  • ASE
  • Academic Student Employee, a student who is employed in the teaching title codes noted in APM Appendix II-B, section IV.
  • Tuition
  • Charges to a student for instructional and operating costs of the campus. For the purpose of calculating remission, program fees paid by students in self-supporting degree programs are considered tuition in this policy.
  • Fees
  • Charges to a student for campus-based student and health services.
  • NRST
  • Non-Resident Supplemental Tuition, a supplemental tuition charged to a student who is not classified as a resident of the State of California for tuition purposes.
  • PDST
  • Professional Degree Supplemental Tuition, a supplemental tuition charged to a student in certain degree programs.
  • SSDP
  • Self-Supporting Degree Programs, these programs do not receive state funding and are wholly funded by the program fees paid by students enrolled in the program.
  • Professional Students
  • Students whose degree objectives are the M.D., D.V.M., J.D., and M.B.A. are considered professional school students.
  • Academic Graduate Student
  • Graduate students who are enrolled in non-professional, state-funded graduate degree programs.

Eligibility & Remission Benefit

A. Students must be appointed to remission-eligible titles in accordance with all university hiring policies codified in APM Appendix II-B.

B. Remission benefits for student academic appointments are outlined below and in APM Appendix II-B. (Refer also to Exhibit A, Remission Reference Guide)

  • 1. Students must be appointed to a single title (GSR or ASE) at a minimum of 25% FTE in order to be eligible for the remission benefit associated with the title. Students with dual appointments of less than 25% each in different titles (i.e. 10% ASE and 15% GSR) are not eligible for remission as they have not met the minimum threshold requirement in a single title. GS2014-02 2 of 7
  • 2. GSR Remission Benefit: full remission of tuition and fees. NRST remission is a benefit of employment for doctoral students until they advance to candidacy. After advancing to candidacy, doctoral students receive the UCOP NRST Waiver for three years and then a UC Davis Post-Candidacy NRST Fellowship to offset years four and five. After this five year period, the NRST charges become the responsibility of the student to pay. (Refer to section VI.) For master’s students, NRST is a benefit of employment throughout their master’s enrollment.
  • 3. ASE Remission Benefit: remission of tuition, partial fees, and partial NRST charges. The fees included in the partial fee remission include the: (1) Student Services Fee, (2) Student Services Health Fee, and (3) premium for the Student Health Insurance Program (SHIP). The remission benefits for ASE’s are in accordance with the ASE Bargaining Agreement; the Bargaining Agreement provisions take precedence over local policies as changes occur.

Eligibility for NRST Diversion

When the salary fund source of a GSR appointment does not allow for payment of NRST, it is the responsibility of the hiring department to initiate a diversion of the remission to an allowable fund source. The hiring department may divert the remission only if one of the following circumstances apply:

  1. If a granting agency, or a specific fund source, requires a student be hired as a GSR, but does not permit NRST to be charged, the NRST remission must be diverted to a program-controlled fund source where NRST remission is allowable (e.g., gift account, research and education fund, indirect cost return fund, etc.). Please include documentation from the funding agency that states NRST is not an allowable charge and attach this to your request. Requests without documentation will be denied.
     
  2. If a student is hired as a GSR on a non-federal fund source and the budget is insufficient to fund NRST remission, that expense may be diverted to another allowable non-federal fund source where NRST remission is allowable (e.g., gift account, research and education fund, indirect cost return fund, etc.). It is the responsibility of the P.I. to budget NRST for a reasonable number of the GSRs supported on any grant application (see section IV. of the Policy for Remission of Graduate Student Tuition and Fees). Please note, for this circumstance, diversion to a Graduate Program Fellowship Allocation (GPFA) account will not be permitted.

If either of these circumstances apply, the hiring department must follow the instructions below; if neither of these circumstances is applicable, then the NRST may not be diverted from the salary fund source.

Procedures for Diverting NRST

The NRST remission charge will initially post to the same fund source as the GSR's salary. Each month the charge will be moved to the diversion account provided on the approved request form.

Diversion of Nonresident Supplemental Tuition Remission Request
The hiring unit completes a Diversion of Nonresident Supplemental Tuition Remission Request (GS513) form for Graduate Studies approval. If an alternative, non-federal fund source is to be used, the substitution does not require graduate program approval and the request form can be submitted directly to Graduate Studies. If graduate program funds are to be used, the substitution requires endorsement by the graduate program chair before being submitted to Graduate Studies for approval.

Substitutions will be processed by Graduate Studies based on the substitution request form that is submitted and approved. Substitutions are processed in UC PATH using a Benefit Cost Transfer (BCT) form. Approved substitutions are processed at the end of the quarter requested after all charges are confirmed.

Accountability for Remission on Contracts and Grants

Applications for contracts and grants are required to include a separate direct cost budget item for “Fees, Tuition, and Nonresident Supplemental Tuition Remission.” This item includes all tuition and fee remission charges for which a qualifying appointment of a graduate student is expected to be incurred; PI’s should take this into account on multi-year budgets which involve graduate students. Grant budgets must include NRST for a reasonable number of the GSRs supported on the grant. The amount budgeted for remission should be the estimated cost of tuition and fees for the coming fiscal year, as indicated on the Budget Office website minus any GSR buy-down savings for which the "student/appointment/salary fund source" combination is eligible. This expense is treated as a direct cost, but depending on agency-specific policies, is generally not part of the direct cost base upon which indirect costs must be calculated.

General Remission FAQs

  • Where can I find the Student Accounting Fee Remission Table that shows the dollar amount for remission per quarter?
  • http://afs.ucdavis.edu/our_services/student-accounting/for-departments/remission-fees.html 
  • If a student has a 15% GSR appointment and a 10% Reader (ASE) appointment, are they eligible for remission?
  • No. A student must be appointed at a minimum of 25% in a single title -- GSR or ASE -- to be eligible for remission of tuition and fees. You cannot combine two different titles to reach the 25% threshold for remission eligibility.
  • If a student has a 15% GSR appointment for Department A and a 10% GSR appointment for Department B, are they eligible for remission?
  • Yes. Because the student has a total of 25% in the GSR title, they are eligible for the remission benefit accorded to GSRs.
  • If a student's appointment is terminated before the end of their appointment term, how much remission do they receive and how much is refunded to the salary fund source?
  • When a graduate student’s remission-qualifying appointment is terminated during the quarter, voluntarily or involuntarily, the student becomes financially liable for a portion of the tuition and fees for that quarter. However, students do receive remission in proportion to the time they were employed. To simplify the process, the remission benchmarks are tied to monthly periods for each quarter (see section V. of the Policy for Remission of Graduate Student Tuition and Fees); in all cases, “rounding” should favor the student. In no case is the remission to exceed the tuition and fees billed to the student account.
  • Is BANNER be used for processing tuition and fee remission? Will it be done automatically or will the award need to be entered by hand?
  • UC PATH will automatically post the remission in BANNER.
  • Can remission for a GSR hired on a grant be diverted to the Graduate Program Fellowship Allocation Fund?
  • The remission must be charged to the salary fund source; see section III. of the Policy for Remission of Graduate Student Tuition and Fees.
  • Do students enrolled in professional schools who hold remission-eligible appointments receive remission?
    Do student enrolled in self-supporting degree programs who hold remission-eligible appointments receive remission?
  • As the answer is complicated, please review section II.F., II.J. and III.4 in the Policy for Remission of Graduate Student Tuition and Fees. Please also note that some professional schools administer Self-Supporting Degree Programs (SSDPs) and those students may have a remission benefit that is different from students enrolled in state-supported professional degree programs. For instance, remission for SSDP students appointed as GSRs cannot be paid from any state fund source; for an SSDP student to be appointed to an ASE position, the hiring unit must get an approved PEP. For a list of which programs are SSDPs, please review the list at the Budget & Institutional Analysis site.
  • Can a student registered In-Absentia receive remission?
  • Students who are registered In Absentia and are appointed to a remission-qualifying appointment as a GSR are eligible for remission of the reduced tuition and fees. Students who are registered In Absentia are not eligible for ASE appointments (TA, Reader, Tutor, Assoc_in) per APM Appendix II-B.
  • Can a part-time student receive remission?
  • Yes; part-time students with an approved PEP for appointment to a remission-qualifying appointment are eligible for remission of tuition and fees.
  • Does a student on leave receive remission?
  • Students on an approved administrative, investigatory or medical leave from their academic appointment continue to be eligible for the remission benefits associated with their qualifying appointment, whether the leave is a paid or unpaid leave. Students on such a leave shall not have their remission prorated or otherwise reduced.
  • Can an undergraduate student receive remission?
  • Undergraduate students are not eligible to hold GSR appointments; undergraduates may be hired as Teaching Assistants (TAs) or Readers if the department has been unsuccessful in recruiting a qualified graduate student.  The appointment of undergraduates as TAs/Readers will be approved only under rare and compelling circumstances, and approval must be obtained through the Academic Senate - Committee on Courses of Instruction. An undergraduate who has gone through the approval process and is appointed to a TA position, will be eligible for the benefits associated with the appointment, provided the appointment is at least 25%.
  • What remission benefit does a UC Davis graduate student who is employed at another campus of the UC as an ASE or GSR have?
  • A graduate student who is enrolled at UC Davis as their home institution, but who is employed by another UC campus as an ASE or GSR is subject to UC Davis remission eligibility requirements and benefits. These students should receive the same remission amount they would have received had they been working on the UC Davis campus for whatever term their host appointment would span on the UC Davis campus. Graduate students from another UC campus who are employed as ASEs or GSRs at the Davis campus are subject to their home campus eligibility requirements; these students should receive the same remission benefit they would have received at their own home campus, for whatever term their UC Davis appointment would span on their home campus.

Nonresident Supplemental Tuition FAQs

  • A nonresident student is employed 25% time as a GSR and 25% time as a TA. Does s/he still receive the full NRST remission?
  • Yes, since the student is appointed at 25% time as a GSR, which meets the minimum threshold to receive the NRST remission benefit, the student's full NRST remission is charged to the grant or fund source that is providing the GSR salary.
  • A nonresident student is appointed as a 50% GSR for fall quarter, a 50% TA for winter quarter and as a 25% GSR/25% TA for spring quarter. Does the student receive the NRST remission for the full year?
  • No. The student would receive the NRST remission as a benefit of their GSR appointments for fall and spring quarters only. Students employed as Readers, Tutors, Teaching Assistants or Associates_In do not receive NRST remission as a benefit of their employment in those positions.
  • A nonresident student is employed as a GSR with 25% time allocated to one grant and 25% time allocated to another grant. Must the NRST be split evenly between the two grants or can it be split in some other proportion? Can all of the NRST be charged to one grant and not the other?
  • Grant cost accounting generally requires that changes be in proportion to the effort devoted to that project. Thus, when a GSR appointment is split between multiple grants, the apportionment of benefits costs (fees, UC SHIP and NRST) must be allocated according to the FTE allocated to each fund source, as reflected by the percentage appointment. In this example, the NRST remission charge is split evenly between the two grants. If the split appointment is not equal (for example, 30% FTE on grant A and 20% FTE on grant B), the total cost of benefits is apportioned according to the distribution of total FTE (60% of total cost is assigned to grant A and 40% is assigned to grant B).
  • A nonresident GSR is hired 25% time on a grant which will pay NRST and 25% time on a grant which will not pay NRST. Can the full NRST be charged to the grant that has the capability/capacity to pay it or must part of the NRST be charged to another account to substitute for the grant which cannot/will not pay the NRST?
  • The distribution of the cost of the NRST must reflect the same distribution of the FTE assigned to each grant and be must prorated in the same manner as fees and salary. If one of the fund sources is not able to pay its share of the NRST remission because it is funded by an agency whose policy prohibits the payment of nonresident tuition, the hiring department must provide an alternative, allowable non-federal source of funds for the NRST remission. The use of Graduate Program Fellowship Allocation Funds to pay NRST remission requires prior written authorization of the chair of the student's program.
  • A nonresident student is employed as a 20% GSR by Department A and 30% GSR by Department B. Department A takes the position that since their appointment is only at 20%, their grant should not pay any of the NRST.  Who pays the NRST?
  • The distribution of the cost of the NRST must reflect the same distribution of the FTE assigned to each grant and be prorated in the same manner as fees and salary. Since the student's total appointment as a GSR is in excess of the 25% threshold, the NRST remission cost, as well as fee and UC SHIP remission costs, is prorated to all fund sources that support the appointments.
  • A student is employed 25% as GSR on a grant funded by the XYZ Agency which will not cover NRST remissions. Does the student still receive a NRST remission?
  • Yes, but from another allowable non-federal source of funds specified by the hiring department. The use of Graduate Program Fellowship Allocation Funds requires prior written authorization of the chair of the student's graduate program. Additionally, the hiring department will need to provide written documentation (from the XYZ Agency) that it is the policy of the non-profit or governmental XYZ Agency not to provide funds for the payment of nonresident tuition. For-profit entities will not be exempted from the requirement to provide nonresident tuition remission. Please review the Diversion Process Map for details on requesting diversion of remission to another fund source.
  • A nonresident GSR is hired using 199XX funds (General Funds). Is the NRST charged to the 199XX funds or may they charge it to their Graduate Program Fellowship Allocation Funds funds?
  • "199XX funds" or "General Funds" may be either State or University General Funds. State General Funds may not be used to pay NRST remission, but University General Funds may be used for that purpose. If a nonresident student is employed using General Funds, the nonresident tuition charge will post to and must be paid by that fund source. If necessary, the Office of Resource Management and Planning will substitute University General Funds for State General Funds in the departmental account to ensure compliance with university policy.
  • A nonresident GSR receives a stipend from her/his home government. Instead of charging the NRST to the grant, can the hiring unit arrange to have the GSR pay the NRST from her/his stipend? If yes, how do we document this arrangement?
  • If the student's award from their home country, or from any other outside agency, is specifically for fees and/or tuition, this award should be used in lieu of charging the NRST to Dr. Smith's grant. This is accomplished by submitting a written request for substitution of the NRST fund source to Student Accounting. The student will need to present written documentation from the home government or outside agency specifying that this award is to be used for fees and/or tuition and the amount of the award. If the award does not cover the full cost of fees and/or tuition, the grant will be expected to provide the balance. However, if the award letter states that the award is a fellowship stipend to defray the cost of living or to provide the student with a stipend, it may not be used as a source of NRST in lieu of the employing grant. Family support does not qualify as an external source of funds for NRST for a nonresident GSR.
  • A nonresident student is hired as a GSR on Work Study funds. Is the NRST for that student charged to the Work Study funds? If not, what account should it be charged to?
  • Nonresident supplemental tuition cannot be charged to Work Study funds. The appointing department will need to provide an alternative, non-federal source of funds to pay for the nonresident supplemental tuition. Typically, alternative fund sources include a graduate program's Graduate Program Fellowship Allocation Funds allocation. The use of Graduate Program Fellowship Allocation Funds requires prior written authorization of the chair of the student's graduate program. If a suitable fund source cannot be identified, it may not be possible to hire a nonresident student on Work Study funds.