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U.Va. Human Resources
Educational Benefits Policy: Employee Tuition Assistance
Applicable To:
Full-time salaried faculty, classified staff, and wage (excluding students) employees; and part-time salaried faculty and classified staff. Part-time is defined as at least 20 hours per week or 50% effort excluding students.

Policy:
Ordinarily, employees who participate in eligible educational aid programs are responsible for paying their own tuition and are reimbursed after satisfactory completion of coursework as outlined in the Tuition Reimbursement Policy. Under Tuition Assistance, Departments may, at their option, use departmental funds to reimburse the employee for tuition costs prior to the employee's course completion. The employee must demonstrate proof of satisfactory course completion to the Department.

Roles & Responsibilities:
The Office of Employee Benefits is responsible for educational benefits policies and administers the Tuition Assistance Program. The Director of The Office of Employee Benefits reviews Tuition Assistance Forms for policy compliance and job relatedness, and approves or disapproves the tuition assistance request. The Employee, prior to registration, submits tuition assistance form for approval to the Department then the Office of Employee Benefits. After approval, the employee registers and pays for the course. The employee initiates the tuition assistance process by submitting the approved tuition assistance form and paid tuition bill to the Department, which processes the payment. Upon course completion, the employee submits evidence of satisfactory course completion to the Department to document the transaction.

Forms:
The "Tuition Assistance Form" is used to apply for Tuition Assistance. This form is included at the end of this document and as a link off the on-line version of this policy.

General Information:
Tuition Assistance Description:
  • Applies to study for credit or non-credit courses; no auditing is permitted. Non-credit courses may be taken at a high school, business school, technical institute, or other educational institution. Courses taken for college credit must be taken at an institution that has been accredited by a regional accrediting organization for higher education, and may be taken at a community college, college, university, on-line or other mode of learning.
  • Part-time study cannot exceed 11 undergraduate semester credits or 8 graduate semester credits per academic semester.
  • Courses must meet one or more of the following criteria: be job-related, or required in a job-related curriculum, degree program, professional certificate or license; or if a classified employee, support the documented "Employee Development Plan" section of the employee's Employee Work Profile (EWP).
  • The tuition assistance request must be made, and approval granted, before course registration.
  • Eligibility: The employee must be either full-time salaried faculty or classified staff with 90 days of continuous salaried service, or a full-time wage employee with 90 days of continuous service with no more than one, 30 day break in service; OR the employee must be part-time salaried faculty or classified staff with 6 months of continuous salaried service. Part-time is defined as 20 hours per week or 50% effort. The period of service is measured from date of hire to the first day of the course.
  • Assistance for courses taken at an institution other than the University of Virginia will be made for tuition costs up to but not exceeding in-state tuition costs of an equivalent course at the University of Virginia.
  • Total assistance for tuition costs may be made for a course taken at an institution other than the University of Virginia when the equivalent course is not available at the University of Virginia.
  • Assistance may be made for registration, tuition, exams and laboratory fees. Other fees, and expenditures for books or study materials may not be reimbursed.
  • For full-time and part-time salaried faculty and full-time classified staff, courses may be taken during or after working hours.
  • If taken after working hours, the Department may provide tuition assistance for full-time and part-time salaried faculty and full-time classified staff, part-time classified staff and full-time wage employees for the entire cost of approved courses up to the maximum credits for part-time study. (The maximum credits for part-study per semester are 11 credits for undergraduate and 8 credits for graduate study.)
  • Part-time salaried classified staff and full-time wage employees must take courses during non-working hours, or adjust work schedules to take the course during non-working hours. Supervisors are encouraged to adjust work schedules as far as practical to permit attendance.
  • If taken during working hours, the Department may pay for a full-time classified staff employee's tuition and excuse him/her from duties to attend no more than three semester credit hours (or equivalent) per semester.
    Full-time classified staff may, with supervisor permission, adjust work schedules to take the course, or the amount exceeding three (3) semester hours, during non-working hours or use leave. Supervisors are encouraged to adjust work schedules as far as practical to permit attendance.
    If a course is more than three semester credit hours (or equivalent) and taken during working hours, the employee is considered to be on Educational Leave with Partial Pay for the Time of Absence. See the Educational Leave with Partial Pay Policy for more information.
  • The employee agrees to satisfactorily complete the course/s and show evidence of satisfactory completion or receive certification or licensure to his/her Department after semester completion. If the employee does not receive certification or licensure or satisfactorily complete the course with a C- or better (if graded) or pass (if pass/fail) or credit (if credit/no credit) or did attend (if noncredit), he/she agrees to repay the Department for the tuition payment advanced.
  • The employee is no longer eligible for tuition assistance and must repay the Department for the tuition payment advanced if the employee does not satisfactorily complete the course, drops or withdraws from the course; leaves the University before completing the course; if the employee is full-time or part-time salaried and reduces status to less than 20 hours per week or 50% effort; or if the employee is full-time wage and does not remain on full-time status for any reason.
  • If the employee owes money for a tuition assistance debt, he/she cannot receive additional tuition assistance or tuition reimbursement until the tuition assistance for the course is paid to the University. A Department cannot waive an employee's tuition assistance debt. The employee's debt to the University must be paid within 30 days of the employee's failure to comply with the terms of the tuition assistance program.
  • The dollar value of the Tuition Assistance may be considered taxable income, depending on the total value of the educational benefits received in a year. Contact the payroll office for more information.
Related Programs:
Eligible employees may receive tuition reimbursement for job-related courses taken at fully accredited institutions. Tuition Reimbursement, which uses departmental funds to reimburse for a course after course completion, is described in the Tuition Reimbursement Policy. Tuition Waiver may be used by eligible employees to take one UVA course (and applicable lab or discussion group ) per semester at no charge. Tuition Waiver is described in the Tuition Waiver Policy. Tuition reimbursement/assistance and tuition waiver may be used concurrently but not for the same course.

Tuition Reimbursement Procedures:
  • Prior to course registration, the employee completes Section I of the Tuition Assistance Form and submits it to the appropriate dean or department head.
  • The dean/department head reviews the request to determine need, job relatedness and funding availability. If approved, the dean or department head completes Section II of the Tuition Assistance Form and forwards the original to the Office of Employee Benefits. If the department head disapproves, the form is returned to the requesting employee.
  • The Director of the Office of Employee Benefits reviews the Tuition Assistance Form for job relatedness and compliance with policy. The request is approved or disapproved and the original is returned to the employee or point of contact listed on the Form.
  • The employee registers and pays for the course and submits the paid tuition bill and approved Tuition Assistance Form to the department. To obtain tuition assistance funds, the Department's business manager processes the Integrated System business transaction "Tuition Reimbursement - Employee" that results in payment to the employee. At the end of the semester, the employee must provide a copy of his/her grade report, showing successful completion of the class, to the business manager for documentation purposes.
  • Full-time salaried classified staff in a study program providing more than three (3) semester hours (or equivalent) during working hours must take the course outside of working hours or, with their supervisor's permission, adjust their work schedule so that the course, or the amount exceeding three (3) semester hours, are taken outside of working hours, or use leave. Supervisors are encouraged to adjust work schedules as far as practical to permit attendance.
    Alternatively, if the employee does attend courses for more than 3 semester hours during working hours, he/she is considered to be on educational leave with partial pay for time of absence. Full salary may be paid only for the work period, half salary for the time of absence and the employee must execute a promissory note at 3% for all expenses and the half salary paid by the University. See the Educational Leave with Partial Pay Policy for more information.
  • Part-time classified employees and full-time wage employees must take the course outside of working hours or, with their supervisor's permission, adjust their work schedule so that the course is taken outside of working hours. Supervisors are encouraged to adjust work schedules as far as practical to permit attendance.
  • After attending and completing the course the employee must provide the department with records indicating that he/she satisfactorily did complete the course with a C- or better (if for a grade), credit (if credit/no credit), pass (if pass/fail) or did attend the course (if noncredit). An employee may not receive additional tuition assistance or tuition reimbursement until these records are provided.
  • If the above records are not provided within 30 days of the employee's failure to comply with the terms of the tuition assistance agreement, the employee's department is responsible for the collection of all tuition assistance debts using the normal debt collection methods of the University of Virginia.
  • The employee's department is responsible for maintaining tuition assistance records on each employee who uses the program, including information in what courses were taken, dates of courses, costs of tuition, and completion of courses.
Tuition Assistance Form

Issued by: University Human Resources, Office of Employee Benefits
Referenced Form: Tuition Assistance Form
Issue Date: July 2002
Form(s) Page NA
Supersedes: NA
Also See : Tuition Assistance Form, Tuition Reimbursement Policy, Tuition Reimbursement Form, Tuition Waiver Policy, Tuition Waiver Form