Policies & Procedures

About Research Administration at GSU

Policies and Procedures for Research and Sponsored Programs

Policies and Procedures for Research and Sponsored Programs

Tuition Charges to Sponsored Programs

Background

Effective December 11, 2007 all Georgia Southern University principal investigators must include applicable graduate assistant tuition and stipend amounts in the proposal budget. In accordance with Office of Management and Budget Circular A-21, Cost Principles for Educational Institutions, tuition remission for students is an allowable direct charge on grants and contracts provided that the following conditions are met:

1. There is a bona fide employer-employee relationship between the student and the institution for the work performed,
2. the tuition or other payments are reasonable compensation for the work performed and are conditioned explicitly upon the performance of necessary work, and
3. it is the institution's practice to similarly compensate students in non-sponsored as well as sponsored activities.

Procedure

The tuition charges to grants and contracts will be budgeted at the same partial tuition scholarship level as the University provides to graduate assistants supported from institutional funds.  Also, the same value for the assistantship will apply and should be consistent with the assistantship provided to graduate assistants within the investigator’s home department.  In cases where a student is funded partially from institutional sources and partially from contract and grant sources, the partial tuition scholarship will ordinarily be charged in a proportional manner to the respective funding sources.

Exemptions

In cases where a funding agency has an explicit policy stating that tuition charges are not allowed on contracts and grants, the University will consider waiving the tuition by providing comparable tuition scholarships for students supported on such contracts and grants.   Also, in cases where a funding agency requires a matching contribution, the University may consider using partial tuition waivers for graduate assistants as a means of presenting this match.

The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, in consultation with the Graduate School, will make such commitments to waiving tuition at the time that proposal transmittal sheets are prepared.  To request an exemption, the principal investigator must submit a Graduate Tuition Waiver Request Form to the Grant Coordinator. 

Limitations

• Each graduate assistant must meet and maintain enrollment requirements applicable for graduate assistantship positions and work only on tasks towards the sponsored program. 
• If modifications to the sponsored program exclude the graduate assistant from working on the project, the principal investigator is responsible for issuing a termination notice for the position.
• If approved, this request represents a one-time approval to waive tuition, restricted to the program and the numbers of students detailed above. 
• Any award modifications which extend the period of performance of the award, as well as any additional proposals, continuations, supplements, renewals or resubmissions, will require additional approvals.

Special Circumstances: Internships, Fellowships and Traineeships

Graduate students who serve on sponsored internships present a special case. Internship appointments are usually not appropriately described as research assistantships, as these a graduate student is receiving practical training at an agency, institution, or corporation that is separate from the University, and in which the outside entity has entered into a contract with the University for the student’s professional services.  If the agency/institution/ corporation has an explicit policy that prohibits direct tuition charges as part of the contract, as mentioned above, the University may consider providing the tuition scholarship from institutional sources.  However, the University is not obligated to provide partial tuition scholarships in all instances, particularly if the internship involves a direct payment to the student without transfer of funds through the University.

Another set of special cases are fellowships and traineeships.  A fellowship is generally defined as a scholarship, whether from the University or an external source, which does not require service by the student. University fellowships, including dissertation fellowships, are considered to be scholarships rather than assistantships and policies regarding tuition benefits are subject to separate roles.  Externally funded fellowships may include full coverage of tuition as part of the educational allowance. Likewise, traineeships are usually part of federally funded programs and may or may not have teaching, research, or service requirements. Traineeships may include full coverage of tuition as a charge to the grant.