Under a new campus policy, graduate students from out-of-state who are hired as researchers at UC Davis will have their non-resident tuition remitted starting Fall 2004.
Under the policy, the funding source -- typically a grant or contract -- that provides student stipends is expected to provide non-resident tuition as a benefit of their appointment.
Graduate students provide a critical link between the research and teaching missions at UC Davis, said Jeffery Gibeling, dean of Graduate Studies. The success of the campus depends on its ability to attract and provide financial support to the best students from California, the nation and the world, he said, noting, within UC, the campus has faced a special challenge of providing non-resident tuition as part of competitive support packages. "UC Davis was the only UC campus without a policy regarding non-resident tuition remission for graduate student researchers," he said.
UC Davis will adopt what is known as the "cost-by-residency model." The new policy will require a budget line item in all new proposals for non-resident tuition for each non-resident student to be hired.
The same model is in use by six other UC campuses.
UC San Diego has been the only campus using the average-cost model, in which each campus grant or contract pays into a central pool for each resident and non-resident student hired. The non-resident tuition benefit is provided from this pool for all graduate student researchers who need it.
On June 20 Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw issued a directive that calls for implementation of the cost-by-residency model by Fall 2004. The decision came after months of consultation on campus during which the cost-by-residency model received much greater support and was perceived to be the more equitable of the two models.
"The new policy is an important first step in enabling our faculty to recruit and support great graduate students," Hinshaw said. "Our long-term goal must be to address non-resident tuition with the Legislature."
During winter and spring quarters, the campus sought detailed input from affected campus constituents about the proposed models. The Joint Academic Senate/Administration Nonresident Tuition Remission Implementation committee -- cochaired by Hinshaw and Academic Senate Chair Bruce Madewell -- tabulated comments. Standing committees of the Academic Senate, including the Graduate Council and the Committee on Academic Planning and Budget Review, also reviewed the two models.
"What was clear to me was that there was good agreement that something had to be done," Gibeling said.
"There was a lot of animated discussion about which of the two models to adopt. Some people thought we should identify some third model, but virtually nobody thought we should leave things as they were."
Gibeling is currently working with the Academic Senate to work out details of the new policy, including how to allocate a $600,000 matching commitment to the program from Hinshaw, how long to permit existing block grant funds to substitute for grant funds to pay non-resident tuition, and how to handle a variety of special funding situations.
UC's ability to attract and retain top graduate students is one of its most pressing and urgent problems, according to a report by the UC Commission on the Growth and Support of Graduate Education. Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef represented UC Davis on the commission, which urged the university to address the negative impact of non-resident tuition.
In its report, at http://www.ucop.edu/ services/innovation.pdf, the commission describes how UC research will have a profound impact on California's future and economy. Details about the cost-by-residency policy are at http://directives. ucdavis.edu/2003/03-074.cfm.