Funding
The Graduate Funding team plays a vital role in supporting graduate student success at UCF. From managing fellowships and coordinating assistantship hiring to overseeing student teaching requirements, their work ensures students are supported both academically and financially. They also administer tuition remission and health insurance associated with these funding opportunities.
Each year, the College of Graduate Studies allocates tuition waivers to support graduate assistantship students and university fellows. Stipends and resident tuition for those not covered by waivers are funded through college and department budgets and faculty research grants.
By encouraging early admission decisions, the college enables programs to make competitive fellowship and assistantship offers to top-tier applicants. All university funding offers are centrally coordinated and tracked through the Graduate Financial System, ensuring transparency and efficient resource use.
Graduate Assistantships
In 2024-2025, the Graduate Funding team processed and approved 3,339 assistantship agreements, supporting 1,879 full-time graduate students across Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA), Graduate Research Assistant (GRA), and Graduate Assistant (GA) roles.
These positions 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, along with 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 supports graduate assistants through its Parental Leave Program, designed for students who are pregnant or who have recently welcomed a child through birth or adoption. Approved students may receive up to six weeks of paid leave, depending on their graduate assistantship agreement(s). In 2024-20245, 14 graduate students benefited from this important program, allowing them to balance academic and family responsibilities.
Graduate Fellowships
In 2024–2025, the College of Graduate Studies awarded competitive graduate fellowships to more than 244 students. Each fellowship included a stipend, tuition remission, and health insurance. The college also awarded 57 students one-year Graduate Dean’s Fellowships of $5,000 to supplement their graduate assistantships.
To support professional development, the college awarded
$277,524
Fellowships to
522
master’s, specialist, and doctoral students, enabling them to present their research at professional meetings and conferences.
The Office of Research and College of Graduate Studies (ORCGS) Doctoral Fellowship supports up to 102 new students each year. The fellowship offers a one-year award of
$25,000
and a three-year commitment of a GRA or GTA funding from their 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 prestigious Trustees Doctoral Fellowship
$25,000
per year
and the Presidential Doctoral Fellowships
$20,000
per year
These awards provide four years of competitive support, including tuition and health insurance, to outstanding incoming doctoral students.
In 2024-2025, UCF supported 31 new and continuing students on these awards, including 29 Trustees and two Presidential Fellows.
The college also offers several discipline-specific fellowships, including:
- 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.
- The MFA Provost’s Graduate Fellowship – $10,000 plus tuition and health insurance for two years, awarded to up to eight incoming Master of Fine Arts (MFA) students.
- The Professional Doctoral Fellowship – $3,000 per year plus tuition and health insurance for three years, for students enrolling in one of UCF’s professional doctoral programs.
The Multidisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship is also available to continuing doctoral students, with three years of support awarded to an outstanding student engaged in innovative multidisciplinary research. The fellowship provides
$20,000
per year
plus tuition and health insurance, and is awarded annually to a current doctoral student. Two students were supported through this fellowship in 2024-2025.
The Graduate Dean’s Dissertation Completion Fellowship helps doctoral students focus on finishing their dissertations by providing funding in their final semester. In 2024-2025, 19 students received a
$10,000
fellowship for the spring semester, and 13 students were awarded a
$5,000
fellowship for the summer semester, each with accompanying tuition and health insurance support.
The College of Graduate Studies also offers a limited number of fellowships for incoming students who participated in select undergraduate research or mentoring programs. These include:
- The FAMU Feeder Fellowship is for admitted graduate students who have completed the Florida A&M University Feeder program.
- The Graduate RAMP Fellowship is for newly admitted graduate students who have completed the UCF Research and Mentoring Program.
- The Graduate McNair Fellowship is for incoming graduate students who have completed the McNair Scholars program.
In collaboration with the Office of Research, the College of Graduate Studies oversees the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship program. In 2024-2025, three graduate students were awarded tenure on this prestigious award. The college coordinates closely with the NSF GRFP Fellows and offers a dedicated Canvas webcourse that connects fellows with peers and provides important information about their awards.
UCF Open Access Publishing Fund
In 2024-2025, the College of Graduate Studies awarded up to $1,500 per approved application through the UCF Open Access Publishing Fund. This program supports current and recent graduate students (within one year of graduation or employment) and postdoctoral scholars with the cost of article processing charges (APCs) for publishing in open-access journals. A total of 43 recipients across six colleges and multiple academic programs received more than $66,000 in funding, making their research more accessible to the global academic community.
Doctoral Research Support Awards
The College of Graduate Studies awarded $500 to $2,500 to 35 doctoral students in programs across eight colleges. These awards helped fund essential dissertation research expenses, including data collection, the development of specialized research-related skills, and the purchase of specialized resources needed to complete their studies.