Graduate Student Salary & Tuition Costs

Budgeting for Graduate Student Salary & Tuition

Graduate Student Salary

When budgeting for a graduate student salary on a sponsored project, use at least the Graduate Assistant Minimum Salaries level. However, check with your Department’s Fiscal office to determine what the appropriate graduate student salary should be in your academic unit.

Since UFIRST calculates effort on an annualized 12-month basis at 1.0 FTE, best practice is to adjust the graduate student entry in the UFIRST proposal budget workspace as needed. For example, if a graduate student makes $25,000, their annual salary entry in UFIRST should be reflected as $50,000, and their maximum effort available to devote to the project will be 6 months, which is equivalent to 100% of their available time.

For graduate students with appointments split between two schools, consult with both UF units to determine how to budget for the split cost.

Tuition on Sponsored Projects

At UF, tuition remission is considered a component of a graduate research assistant compensation package for the work performed while on appointment.

All proposals, including resubmissions, competing renewals and supplements that include salary support for graduate research assistants and where tuition is not prohibited by the sponsor, must also include the appropriate tuition amount in the budget.

For NON-RESIDENT students, DSP recommends budgeting at $19,124 for the 2025-2026 academic and a 5% annual increase thereafter. RESIDENT tuition may be budgeted at $10,770.

Please note that if a non-resident student is hired, the non-resident rate will be charged. DSP recommends budgeting at the non-resident rate for proposal submission if the student’s status is unknown, to prevent a shortage of funds. If the awarded budget does not include the actual cost of tuition, rebudgeting may be needed, which may require sponsor prior approval, or the unit may be responsible for cost sharing the overage. Budgeting the non-resident rate in the proposal does not affect the tuition rate for in-state students and has no impact on payments made by students whether in-state or out-of-state.

UFIRST Budget Entry

Preparing Sponsor Budget Documents

When preparing budget documents for submission to a sponsor, DSP recommends representing full-time graduate student effort as 12 months at 20 hours per week for a one-year period. If the sponsor’s guidelines require a different format, be sure to follow the instructions in their solicitation. The following language is recommended for budget justifications: “Please note at the University of Florida, Graduate Students are appointed at a 0.50 FTE which equates to 100% of their efforts toward a sponsored project(s) to complete the research credit requirements of their academic program.”

Graduate Student Salary & Tuition at Award Management Stage

Graduate student tuition waivers are paid from a sponsored award as part of the Letter of Appointment system in myUFL. Visit the Student Appointments page for information and resources.

Tuition should be charged proportionally to the amount of effort devoted to the project. For example, if a graduate assistant’s time is allocated 70% to an NIH R01 award and 30% to an NSF award, then 70% of the graduate assistant’s salary and tuition should be charged to the NIH R01 and 30% should be charged to the NSF. It is not allowable to charge 100% of the tuition to an award if the graduate assistant did not work 100% on that project.

For sponsored awards that begin mid-semester, tuition should be charged for the portion of the semester that the student worked on the award. The tuition charge should be proportional to the effort on the project. For example, if a student began devoting 100% of their effort to an award on March 1 and continued until the end of the semester on May 15, 55% of the student’s tuition could be charged to the award because the time period (March 1 to May 15) equals approximately 55% of the spring semester.

Generally, graduate student fees are not charged to sponsored awards, except in the case of certain Fellowships and Training Grants. See the Fellowships and Training Grants section before for more details.

Maximum Graduate Student Compensation on NIH Research Grants

The maximum amount NIH will award for total graduate student compensation on an NIH research grant is equal to the Postdoctoral zero-level Kirschstein-NRSA stipend in effect when NIH issues the grant award. See the NRSA Rates link in the Fellowships and Training Grants section below for current rates.

Fellowships and Training Grants

Student Fees are NOT charged on Research Grants, but may be charged on Training Grants.
NIH Kirschstein-NRSA awards will provide funds for Tuition and Fees, Training Related Expenses, and Institutional Allowance, as detailed at: NRSA Rates
UF allows all required fees to be requested in all Fellowship and Training grants, unless prohibited by the sponsor guidelines.
Please work with your college or department fiscal office to make sure these costs are budgeted correctly.
You may also visit the Bursar website at: Student Fee Calculation Estimate

Last updated 5/19/25

Graduate Student Salary & Tuition Costs

On this page:

Budgeting for Graduate Student Salary & Tuition