REST Tip of the Month - Tuition and the GTRIP incentive

Effective July 1, 2024, the University of Georgia mandates that Fall and Spring tuition be included in all sponsored projects for Graduate Assistants receiving payment from those projects, unless prohibited by the sponsor or funding opportunity. The tuition should be prorated based on the time that the student is working on the project. 

Examples
GRA 1 is employed 20 hours/week. They are working on two projects, each of which fund the student for 10 hours/week. Tuition would be charged at 50% each on both projects. 
GRA 2 is a Teaching Assistant 16 hours/week and a GRA for 4 hours/week on a sponsored project (this is sometimes referred to as a top-off). Tuition is charged proportionately based on their two assignments (teaching and research). In this example, 25% of their tuition would be billed to the project.

GTRIP Incentive
Along with the mandated tuition requirement, UGA has launched an incentive program known as the Graduate Tuition Return Incentive Program (GTRIP). The University calculates this incentive return amount based on the cost of the in-state tuition paid from the sponsored project. For the first 1,000 students the return rate will be 150% of the standard tuition rate. After that, the returns will be 100% of the standard tuition rate. Per UGA policy, at least 75% of these return funds must be used to support graduate student assistantships, and up to 25% may be used to support graduate training and professional development outside of assistantship (conference travel, research related trips, access to specialized software or core research facilities, etc.).

Franklin College will distribute these returns as follows:

• 33% will be retained by the college to strategically invest in graduate student assistantships
• 25% will be returned to the PI. These funds can be used to support graduate assistantships or for graduate student professional development
• 42% will be distributed to the contributing department for graduate student assistantships

For training grants, Franklin will return 100% of the GTRIP incentive back to the PI to further support the project.
Franklin College will distribute the GTRIP funds the following fiscal year from which they were generated. All tuition return funds must be used in the fiscal year that they are received. 

For more information regarding UGA’s GTRIP and Tuition policy, visit the links below.
 

• Tuition Policy
• GTRIP
• Franklin GTRIP Policy