Academic Employees
Tuition is waived for all faculty and academic professional employees of the university on appointment for at least 25 percent of full-time service, with an appointment that requires service for not less than three-fourths of a term. This waiver also applies to staff members of certain specifically identified related agencies, whose positions are considered equivalent to academic positions of the university. (See § 3-502.)
Graduate Assistants
University graduate students with teaching, research, graduate or pre-professional graduate assistantship appointments of from 25 through 67 percent of full-time service, for at least three-fourths of the term hold a waiver-generating appointment. Students with these appointments will receive a tuition waiver.
In certain curricula, tuition waivers for students holding assistantships are “base-rate” waivers, i.e., the waivers cover the in-state lowest full-time tuition, regardless of the student’s residency status and regardless of the source of assistantship. The students are responsible for paying the remaining tuition. It is the student’s curriculum that determines the type of tuition waiver, not the unit granting the assistantship. Units that enroll students who qualify only for base-rate tuition waivers must provide written notification of the policy in advance, so that the students will know their status upon admission.
Assistants on appointment for 68 percent or more of full-time service do not receive a tuition waiver. Caution: Assistantship appointments are cumulative. For example, if a person holds two appointments, a 25 percent and a 50 percent assistantship appointment, the person is ineligible for a tuition waiver.
Students without summer waiver-generating appointments who held waiver-generating appointments for the previous spring semester are eligible to receive summer automatic tuition waivers if they chose to enroll in the summer semester. The summer automatic waiver provides the same tuition waiver (base rate or full) as that granted during the previous spring. However, it does not provide a waiver of the same fees as a waiver-generating appointment. Only the Service Fee, the AFMFA Fee, and the Library/Information Technology Fee are waived.
Students holding waiver-generating summer session appointments receive the waivers appropriate for their appointment.
Students may not be eligible for more than one waiver at a time.
Authority to grant exceptions for graduate assistantship waivers is vested in the Graduate College as a unit of the Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
Fellows and Trainees
A fellowship or traineeship is defined as an award providing a living allowance and demanding no services in return. Fellowship/Traineeship appointments either: a) include payment by the funding agency of all tuition assessed; or b) include a full waiver; or c) supplement a waiver-generating appointment. To qualify for a waiver, the fellowship or traineeship must provide a living allowance at the established campus minimum or higher for the award period. A fellowship wavier is a full waiver regardless of whether or not the student's program is base-rate for assistantship waiver purposes. In case of dispute, the Graduate College decides whether an award is a fellowship.
Students without summer waiver-generating appointments who held waiver-generating appointments for the previous spring semester are eligible to receive summer automatic tuition waivers if they chose to enroll in the summer semester. The summer automatic waiver provides the same tuition waiver (base rate or full) as that granted during the previous spring. However, it does not provide a waiver of the same fees as a waiver-generating appointment. Only the Service Fee, the AFMFA Fee, and the Library/Information Technology Fee are waived.
Students holding waiver-generating summer session appointments receive the waivers appropriate for their appointment.
Students may not be eligible for more than one waiver at a time.
Staff Employees
Staff employees of the university, of other institutions and agencies under the university Civil Service System, and of certain specifically identified related agencies in status appointments or in appointments designed to qualify for status in an established class (e.g., trainee, intern, etc.) for at least 50 percent of full-time service may be granted waiver of tuition in any regular courses for not more than eleven credit hours in a semester if on a full-time appointment (Range II), or five credit hours if on a 50 percent to 99 percent time appointment (Range III), provided that they (1) are eligible for admission, (2) are not students defined under Civil Service Rule 250.70 (f), and (3) have enrollment approval of their employing department.
If an employee’s total registration is in a higher range than authorized above, the employee must pay the difference between the authorized range and the higher range.
Staff employees in a status, learner, trainee, apprentice, or provisional appointment may enroll without payment of tuition and service fee in regular courses directly related to the university employment not to exceed ten credit hours per semester provided that they have made application and received prior approval for enrollment as required by procedures issued by the director of nonacademic personnel and set forth in Policy and Rules—Staff.
Child of Eligible Employee
Illinois Public Act 87-0793 (SB 1353) provides, if certain eligibility criteria are met, a 50 percent tuition waiver for undergraduate education for children of university employees enrolled at an Illinois state institution of higher education.
The Board of Trustees has established the following regulations:
The waiver can be used only for undergraduate education.
The waiver shall cover 50 percent of tuition, not fees.
The waiver may be used for four years (including summers), as long as satisfactory academic progress is maintained.
The parent must be a regular employee of the University of Illinois (or other Illinois state university) with at least seven years of service on the first day of instruction of the term for which the waiver is requested, and be one whose appointment qualifies for employer-provided insurance benefits. Excluded as “parent” are annuitants; employees of university-related organizations (i.e., Foundation and Alumni Association); Civil Service temporary and extra help; graduate and undergraduate assistants; and academic hourly and student employees.
The child must be under twenty-five years of age and the child of the eligible employee by blood or adoption; or the legal child of the employee’s current spouse; or the legal ward of the eligible employee.
The child must qualify for admission to a degree program under the same requirements, standards, and policies applicable to general applications.
To apply for the waiver, the employee or child must obtain an eligibility form available at one of the following offices:
Office of Student Financial Aid, Student Services Arcade Building, 620 East John Street, Champaign
Benefits Center, Fourth Floor, 807 South Wright Street, Champaign
Staff Human Resources, 52 East Gregory Drive, Champaign
Other Categories of Students
Tuition is waived for:
Holders of tuition waiver scholarships.
Graduate students with college-level waivers
University of Illinois faculty, academic professional, and staff retirees.
Holders of grants or contracts from outside sponsors that provide payments to cover the total cost of instruction.
Cooperating teachers and administrators who receive an assignment of practice teachers, who receive assignment of students meeting the clinical experience requirement in teacher education curricula, or who cooperate in research projects related to teacher education: one semester, quarter, or summer term for each semester, quarter, or equivalent service rendered within two consecutive semesters. The waiver shall apply to the semester, quarter, or summer term of registration, as designated by the student, that is concurrent with, or following, the term of service, but must be applied no later than one calendar year from the end of the term of service. Concurrent registration on more than one campus of the university or in university extramural courses constitutes one semester, quarter, or session of eligibility for waiver.
A similar waiver is authorized for cooperating librarians, school-nurse teachers, social welfare field supervisors, recreation field supervisors, health education field supervisors, speech pathology supervisors, developmental child care field supervisors, educational psychology supervisors, continuing education supervisors, industrial relations field supervisors, and physicians who participate without salary in the instructional program of the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign.
Acceptance of more than one assignment from any of the above listed offices during any one term will generate only one waiver.