Graduate Student Fees and Tuition Remission

  • Calculating

    Estimating Graduate Student Tuition

    Please use the registrar's information for graduate tuition and fees for estimating the costs for extramural proposal budgets.
    • Escalate Tuition (formally Educational Fees) by six percent (6%) per year when estimating costs for multi-year projects for all Graduate Students, regardless of Residency or Nonresidency.
    • Escalate Nonresident Supplemental Tuition by seven percent (7%) per year when estimating costs for multi-year projects for Graduate Students that are Nonresidents.
    • OP policy provides for a one-hundred percent (100%) reduction in nonresident supplemental tuition for eligible doctoral students for the three years following advancement to candidacy.
    • Facilities and Administrative Costs (indirect costs) are not assessed on graduate student fee and tuition remission when using the modified total direct cost base described in UCI's Rate Agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services. See the Facilities and Administrative page for more information.
    • For NIH-funded projects, graduate student compensation (salary, benefits, fees, tuition remission, and graduate student health insurance) is capped at the 0 year postdoctoral level set for the NRSA trainee. NIH details the current rates. Please see NIH Graduate Student Compensation Budgeting and Costing Tool for guidance on budgeting and costing graduate student compensation on NIH awards.

  • Calculator And Piggybank

    Budgeting Graduate Student Fees & Tuition

    Graduate student fees and tuition is considered a fringe benefit, however, for budgeting purposes, the cost should be budgeted in the Other Direct Cost category as follows:

    • Calculate the appropriate graduate student fee and tuition remission (resident or nonresident, as applicable) for the period of time that the graduate student will receive compensation for working on the project and remain eligible for fee and tuition remission.
    • List the graduate student fee and tuition remission cost in the Other Direct Cost category of the budget.
    • Explain in the budget justification the basis for fee and tuition remission and describe how the costs were estimated for multi-year projects.
  • Eligibility

    Student Eligibility

    To be eligible for UCI's Graduate Student Fee and Tuition Remission Program, a graduate student must meet all of the following conditions:

    • The student must have an appointment in the Graduate Student Researcher series of at least 25% time for the quarter for which tuition is paid.
    • The appointment must be effective the first day of the quarter for which tuition is paid.
    • The student must be within normative time for the degree program.
    • If the student is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, they must be in the first year of study to be eligible for remission of nonresident tuition.
    • The student must be ineligible for fee and tuition remission under any other program (excluding TA remission).
  • Tuition Remission

    Payment of Tuition Remission

    To comply with UCI's cost accounting practices and UCI's Graduate Student Tuition and Fee Remission Program:

    • Payment for tuition and fee remission should be made from the same funding source that provided salary and fringe benefits whenever possible.
    • Departmental, fellowship or other unrestricted funds must be used to pay the tuition and fees of eligible graduate students receiving salary/fringe benefits from General Funds or awards originating from nonparticipating sponsors.

Tools and Guidance