Graduate Tuition Waiver Policy

OSU graduate appointments and eligibility

All graduate students who meet the following criteria are eligible to hold a graduate appointment. See the Graduate Appointments section in the Catalog.

  • Be a regularly admitted, conditionally admitted, or provisionally admitted graduate student at Oregon State University (i.e., not a graduate non-degree-seeking, postbaccalaureate student, or PharmD, DPT, or DVM student).
  • Be enrolled as a full-time degree-seeking graduate student at Oregon State University, completing a minimum of 12 credits of instruction each term (3 credits during summer session if on appointment). Audit registrations, course withdrawals, and enrollment in INTO OSU may not be used to satisfy these minimum enrollment requirements.
  • Be making satisfactory progress toward an advanced degree as defined by the Office of Graduate Education and the student’s program.

Eligible graduate students may hold the following type of appointment:

  • Graduate Fellowship (GF) appointments are awarded tuition waivers and other scholarship funds for which specific duties or work effort are not required. The Office of Graduate Education has a yearly budget to provide tuition support for fellowship appointments. Tuition support for qualified fellowships awarded as waivers, i.e. full tuition scholarships, directly applied against tuition charges on a student account for up to 12 credits each term, with no provision for summer tuition support.

For Graduate Assistantship appointments, visit the OSU graduate tuition remission policy.

OSU graduate tuition waiver policy for fellowships and targeted non-appointment support

  1. Units are responsible for appointing Graduate Fellowships as a condition to award tuition waivers and stipends, whether the waiver is supported by the Office of Graduate Education, academic unit, or directly by the fellowship award.
  2. University units eligible to award tuition waivers to graduate fellowship appointments include all academic colleges including the Office of Graduate Education and interdisciplinary degree programs reporting to the Dean of the Office of Graduate Education.
  3. The Office of Graduate Education's tuition waiver funding is subject to annual budget availability and must be requested each year by the student's program. The Office of Graduate Education may be unable to consider any tuition support requests not submitted by the third Monday in February in advance of the academic year of requested support.
  4. Graduate Fellows whose stipends are paid by an eligible university unit via approved OSU Foundation funds may receive a tuition waiver upon the recommendation of the unit and the approval of the Office of Graduate Education. Tuition waivers on formal Graduate Fellowship appointments will be assessed at resident rates. The stipend level must meet or exceed the minimum 0.49 FTE graduate appointment level published annually by the Office of Graduate Education. The stipend level is $2352/month for the 2025-2026 academic year, and it will be $2399/month for the 2026-2027 academic year.
  5. Graduate Fellows whose stipends are paid by an eligible university unit or directly by the institution via competitive training grants and/or portable external fellowships may receive a tuition waiver upon the recommendation of the unit and the approval of the Office of Graduate Education. Tuition waivers on formal Graduate Fellowship appointments will be assessed at resident rates. The tuition waiver may be cost shared, depending upon the education allowance provided for tuition, if such cost sharing has prior approval of the Office of Graduate Education and the Research Office. The stipend level must meet or exceed the minimum 0.49 FTE graduate appointment level published annually by the Office of Graduate Education.
  6. Graduate students, including international students, who are not on assistantship or fellowship appointment, may be awarded a Laurels Block Grant Scholarship for a full or partial tuition waiver upon recommendation of the unit and with the approval of the Graduate Dean. Laurels Scholarships will be allocated to programs by the Office of Graduate Education on an annual basis via a competitive selection process. The goal for use of these funds is that at least half of the funds will be allocated during the graduate student recruiting phase and committed by April 15 each year.
  7. The Office of Graduate Education Dean will have authority to award targeted graduate tuition waivers to eligible students not on assistantship or fellowship appointment who do not fall into the categories provided by items #3 through #5 above if doing so meets other institutional interests in diversity, enrollment goals, faculty productivity, student retention, or student success.

Tuition Waiver Guidelines

  1. The Office of Graduate Education will be responsible for conducting a review of these policies annually in consultation with the Provost and Executive Vice President, the Vice President for Finance and Administration, deans, directors, and others with direct responsibility for graduate fellowship appointments.

  2. The Office of Graduate Education will have the authority to provide tuition waivers to students not appointed on formalized assistantships to support recruitment and enrollment goals, including, but not limited to:

    • Diversity Advancement Fellowship
    • McNair Scholars
    • PNNL-OSU Distinguished Graduate Research Program
    • Provost’s Distinguished Graduate Awards
    • Thesis or Dissertation Completion Award
    • Thurgood Marshall Graduate Awardees
  3. Tuition waiver requests must be submitted annually to the Office of Graduate Education no later than the third Monday in February to qualify for full or partial support in the coming academic year.
  4. Tuition waiver funding provided to the Office of Graduate Education cannot be used to support students appointed on Graduate Assistantships, except through the Laurels Grant Block program or by approved exception to policy by the Office of Graduate Education Dean.
  5. Tuition waivers are provided on a per-term basis so support for part of an academic year is possible.

  6. The Office of Graduate Education will annually assess the use and distribution of tuition waivers from Office of Graduate Education waiver funding sources.