Graduate Funding
The Graduate Funding team plays a vital role in supporting graduate student success by managing fellowships, coordinating assistantship hiring, and overseeing student teaching. They also oversee the administration of health insurance and tuition remission associated with these funding opportunities.
Each year, the College of Graduate Studies allocates tuition waivers for graduate assistantship students and university fellows. College/department budgets and faculty grants and contracts fund assistantship stipends and resident tuition for those who do not receive a tuition waiver.
Early admission decisions allow for timely fellowship and assistantship funding offers enabling UCF graduate programs to compete for top-ranked applicants. The College coordinates all university funding offers and uses the Graduate Financial System to track awards ensuring a comprehensive use of resources.
Graduate Assistantships
The Graduate Funding team reviewed and approved 3,249 assistantship agreements for more than 1,880 full-time enrolled graduate students supported through assistantships (GTAs, GRAs, and GAs) in 2023-2024. These appointments provide students with valuable academic or professional development experiences that prepare them for their future roles in research, teaching, or other fields.
Graduate assistantship students receive stipends from the college or unit where their duties are assigned, and UCF provides tuition remission and health insurance coverage for all qualifying appointments totaling 20 hours per week. While some graduate assistantships are available in non-academic units on campus, most assistantships are offered through the student’s graduate program or department.
Parental Leave for Graduate Assistants
The College of Graduate Studies offers a Parental Leave program for graduate students with existing assistantship agreements during pregnancy or immediately following the birth or adoption of their infant child. Approved parental leave provides paid leave from the assistantship for up to six weeks but maybe a shorter period, depending on the student’s graduate assistantship agreement(s). In 2023-2024, six graduate students were supported through the Parental Leave program.
Graduate Fellowships
In 2023-2024, UCF supported over 187 graduate students with competitive graduate fellowships that included a stipend, tuition remission, and health insurance. An additional 57 students received one-year Graduate Dean’s Fellowships of $5,000 as supplements to their graduate assistantship funding and 559 master’s, specialist, and doctoral students received a total of $277,524 in Graduate Presentation Fellowship funding for presenting their research or scholarly activity at a professional meeting or conference.
The Office of Research and College of Graduate Studies (ORCGS) Doctoral Fellowship supports up to 102 new students each year, offering a one-year fellowship of $25,000 along with a three-year commitment of GRA or GTA funding from the supporting program. The fellowship is funded by the Office of Research ($11,000), the supporting program or college ($9,000), and the College of Graduate Studies ($5,000).
Each year, the university’s Doctoral Fellowships Committee selects recipients for the Trustees ($25,000 per year) and Presidential ($20,000 per year) Doctoral Fellowships, which provide four years of competitive support, including tuition and health insurance to incoming doctoral students. In 2023-2024, UCF supported 26 new and continuing doctoral students on these awards, including 21 Trustees and five Presidential Fellows.
The college also offers a few discipline-specific fellowships. These include the Boyd Lyon Memorial Fellowship ($22,000 each year plus tuition and health insurance for two years) awarded every other year to a student in the Conservation Biology PhD program, and the MFA Provost’s Graduate Fellowship ($10,000 plus tuition and health insurance for two years), awarded to up to eight new graduate students enrolling in a UCF Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program.
The Multidisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship ($20,000 per year plus tuition and health insurance) is available to continuing doctoral students with three years of support to an outstanding student engaged in innovative multidisciplinary research. The fellowship is offered to a current doctoral student annually with a total of three students supported in 2023-2024.
The Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Completion Fellowship aims to increase timely dissertation completion among doctoral students. This award is available to students in their final semester, who have a realistic expectation of degree completion in the Spring semester. It allows students to forgo their non-research- related employment obligations and focus on completing their dissertation. In 2023-2024, 21 students received the fellowship, which includes a $10,000 fellowship, plus tuition and health insurance for the Spring 2024 semester.
In coordination with the Office of Research, the College of Graduate Studies oversees the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship program. In 2023-2024, six graduate students declared tenure on the award. CGS developed a dedicated webcourse in Canvas for the NSF Graduate Fellows providing them with opportunities to interact with other fellowship participants and access important information about their awards.
UCF Open Access Publishing Fund
In 2023-2024, the College of Graduate Studies awarded up to $1,500 to help support article processing charges (APCs) for current and recent graduate students (within one year of graduation or employment) and postdoctoral scholars. A total of 36 recipients across five colleges and multiple academic programs received more than $50,000 in funding.
Additional Fellowship Support
The College of Graduate Studies offers a variety of fellowships designed to support outstanding graduate students in their academic and research pursuits.
Additional Fellowship Opportunities
- Delores A. Auzenne Fellowships: $5,000 for one year to new or continuing graduate students.
- FAMU Feeder Doctoral Fellowships: $12,000 per year plus tuition and health insurance for four years or a Master’s at $10,000 per year plus tuition and health insurance for two years for newly admitted graduate students who completed the Florida A&M University Feeder program as undergraduates.
- McKnight Doctoral Fellowships: $16,000 per year plus tuition and health insurance for five years, funded by UCF and the Florida Education Fund (FEF).
- McNair Doctoral Fellowships: $25,000 per year plus tuition and health insurance for four years or a Master’s at $10,000 per year plus tuition and health insurance for two years for incoming McNair Scholars.
- Professional Doctoral Fellowships: $3,000 per year plus tuition and health insurance for three years for students enrolling in one of UCF’s Professional Doctoral programs.
- RAMP Doctoral Fellowship: $12,000 per year plus tuition and health insurance for four years, or a Master’s at $10,000 per year plus tuition and health insurance for two years for new graduate students who completed the UCF Research and Mentoring Program (RAMP) as undergraduates.
- The Summer Mentoring Fellowship:$4,500 plus tuition and health insurance in summer for incoming graduate students working with a faculty mentor on a summer research project. Students must participate in a series of professional development workshops and provide final research presentation at the end of the summer. We welcomed 18 students in Summer 2024.