Faculty who can submit a request for bridge tuition waivers must be productive researchers who are in-between grants. Bridge tuition waiver requests are not intended to support new projects, new graduate students, or to be used as match.

The GS prefers to support PhD students who have a record of peer-reviewed publications or contributing data to the “renewal” proposal for competitive funding, or in the final term of their degree program.

Request

The faculty can request three (3) to six (6) in-state tuition credit waivers per term for each student for no more than two (2) terms per student and for no more than two (2) students per term. A student already supported by this request is ineligible to receive tuition credit waivers in a subsequent request.

Procedure - Submit the following to the Graduate School at gradschool@montana.edu:

  1. A cover page explaining the reason for the request. 
  2. The student’s name, degree type, department/program, cumulative GPA, and evidence of progress towards the degree (e.g., admitted to candidacy).
  3. The requesting faculty’s name, department, and college.
  4. The amount of tuition credit waivers requested and the term(s) the waivers are to be applied.

Evaluation - The criteria to award the request are based on:

  1. The student must be in good standing with strong evidence of making progress towards their degree.
  2. The student‘s potential to complete their degree program in the term the waiver request is granted.
  3. The student must have an appointment as one of GTA or GSA (if appropriate), which includes an appropriate stipend for their program, additional supplement as per the Collective Bargaining Agreement, and work hours of no more than 19 hours/week.

The GS will evaluate the request as quickly as possible and notify the requesting faculty of the decision. Tuition credit waivers not used in the term requested cannot be rolled over. Finally, this request may not be possible if there was a significant reduction in the Institution’s waiver authority.