Tuition Remission Information

The term “tuition remission” refers to all ways that the university pays tuition costs for students. Tuition remission includes tuition waivers and tuition payments. For the student receiving tuition remission, the net effect will be the same—the university will pay a portion of your tuition. Tuition waivers come from the university and tuition payments come from the employing units.

Level of Tuition Remission

The level of tuition remission will be commensurate with the level of the student’s assistantship appointment:

A half-time appointment (10 hours per week) receives remission of one-half of the resident (in-state) tuition for full-time enrollment
A full-time appointment (20 hours per week) receives full resident (in-state) tuition remission for full-time enrollment

The dollar value per credit hour of tuition remission is based on the standard university tuition rate and is the same for master’s, specialist, and doctoral students. Tuition remission requires full-time enrollment in required coursework taken as part of your degree program. See Full-time Enrollment Requirements and Financial Information in the Graduate Catalog for more information.

Tuition remission covers the resident (in-state) tuition fee, but not the local university fees or other program charges (student activity fee, athletic fee, transportation fee, market rate program fees, etc.). The current resident tuition rate is $288.16 per credit hour for graduate courses. All other fees associated with a resident credit hour are local university fees or program related charges. See UCF Tuition and Fees for details about these charges.

Tuition Waivers vs. Tuition Payments

GTAs and university fellows receive tuition remission in the form of tuition waivers, while GRAs and GAs receive tuition remission in the form of tuition payments from their employing units. All classes of GTAs, including instructors of record, teaching assistants, and graders, receive tuition waivers for their service to the teaching mission of the university. Waivers trump payments, thus, students with university fellowships receive a waiver, even if they also have a GRA assistantship. Students with mixed assignments receive waivers for the GTA portion of their assignment.

Nonresident University Fellows and Graduate Assistants

All nonresident university fellows and graduate assistants with appointments totaling 20 hours per week will be charged a “differential out-of-state fee” of $0.00 rather than the out-of-state fee of $785.15 per graduate credit hour or $511.06 per undergraduate credit hour. A helpful consequence of this is that qualifying nonresident graduate assistants and fellows will not be charged a nonresident financial aid fee since the out-of-state fee that this is based on will be $0.00.

This differential out-of-state fee is charged term-by-term and only lasts as long as you have a qualifying fellowship or assistantship. The College of Graduate Studies will assign the differential out-of-state fee at the time the student’s assistantship hiring is approved.

Please note that assistantships totaling less than 20 hours per week will not qualify students for the differential out-of-state fee, and the full out-of-state fee will be charged.

Your Fee Invoice

Tuition waivers show as a credit on the student’s term bill starting about two weeks before the first day of classes, based on approved assistantships and enrollment.

Tuition payments show as a credit on the student’s term bill after add/drop closes, starting the first business day after add/drop closes.

The fee invoice for nonresident assistantship and fellowship students who have been assigned the differential out-of-state fee rate will show no out-of-state charges. This adjustment to your fee invoice will occur when the College of Graduate Studies has approved your assistantship and will show on the student’s term bill, based on approved assistantships and enrollment.

If you have student loans or other awards, tuition remission is included in your financial aid. Please contact the Office of Student Financial Assistance if you have questions about how tuition remission will affect your financial aid packaging.

For more information on graduate tuition remission, see Understanding Your Graduate Tuition Remission.