Tuition Remissions and Tuition Scholarships
Each year, the Graduate School provides our department with 26 out-of-state tuition remissions,
which pays the difference between the in-state and out-of-state tuition costs for 9 or greater credit hours.
We use these funds to support 34 out-of-state students, at 6-8 credit hours (credit hours are bundled at
UNCW), to make these extremely valuable remissions extend as far as possible to support our large student
body. In addition, we receive support in the form of Graduate Tuition Scholarships that can be used to
help defray the costs of in-state tuition for our students, and in-state tuition remissions that can be used
only to support Ph.D. students.
These resources are now funded at rates that are insufficient for our program, and these
deficiencies have exacerbated the difference in support that we offer our Ph.D. vs. our M.S. students. To
ensure the competitiveness of our Ph.D. program, we decided upon the inception of the Ph.D. program that
doctoral students must receive full tuition support. However, due to the growth of our Ph.D. program, we
have lost the ability to use Graduate Tuition Scholarships to offer our M.S. students any in-state tuition
support. For instance, we are recruiting more international students who will always need a remission
since they cannot become NC state residents for tuition purposes. In addition, with the advent of the
Affordable Care Act, students can now remain on their parent’s insurance policy until they are 26 years
old, and some students are unable to apply for in-state residency without losing their insurance. Thus,
there is a population of students who remain out-of-state and deplete tuition resources that could otherwise
be used to help cover in-state tuition costs. Thus, growth of our program can only occur with additional
tuition remissions and scholarships that can cover the expanding cost of out-of-state and in-state tuition
and fees. Further, simply sustaining the M.S. programs may be impossible without additional in-state
tuition support (see below).
Adequacy of Stipend and other forms of support for our M.S. and Ph.D. students
The primary threat to the continued health and vigor of our graduate programs is the severely
inadequate support we offer our M.S. students. Our M.S. TA stipends are low, we do not offer these
students in-state tuition waivers, and we do not provide them health insurance.
The M.S. TA stipend is $11,000/academic year. This stipend is many thousands of dollars lower
than those offered by many of our sister institutions (e.g. NCSU, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Charlotte and
UNC-Greensboro), and much lower than those schools in our regional footprint with which we primarily
compete for high-quality students (e.g. Old Dominion University, University of Delaware, College of
Charleston, VIMS) (Figure 3). Many of these other programs also offer full tuition support and health
insurance.
From this low stipend, our M.S. students are required to pay in-state tuition. Although the stipend
has increased modestly over time, our tuition costs have increased at a faster rate. Thus, in 2001, in-state
tuition costs represented 17% of an M.S. stipend while in 20 14 these costs represent >42% of their stipend
(Figure 4 ). More realistically for our students, their tuition costs represent 46 % of their take-home pay
(approximately $ 1000 /month x 10 months). These students are, during this time, providing the service of
teaching our undergraduates – our primary university mission – while paying the university nearly half of
their take home pay for tuition and fees.
As this issue first began to present significant issues to our students, we carried out a voluntary
survey asking for information on monthly living expenses. Students could not include “luxury” costs, but
reported only real costs of living. The survey results (based upon 27 responses) were collated by officers
of the BIO Graduate Student Association, and reported to the Graduate Coordinator. Unfortunately, the
summary results from that year were dire. Our students’ average monthly cost of living was $1,463; their
average monthly take home at that time was $850. Rent (which averaged $569/month) and tuition costs
alone represent over 100% of the monthly take-home TA stipend of our M.S. students. This imbalance
resulted in 41% of the respondents taking out loans to meet basic living expenses. This survey was
conducted in fall of 2007! The situation has only worsened since then. Ironically, the university requires