U of A Employees Continue to Receive a Tuition Discount Benefit

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The employee tuition waiver policy remains in place at the University of Arkansas. When the Board of Trustees adopted changes in the policy for the UA System, they also gave individual campuses the option of continuing their own policies, or making specific changes.

Chancellor Joseph E. Steinmetz and other administrators have reviewed the policy, and made some relatively minor adjustments for employees hired after May 1, 2017. Those changes won’t effect employees hired before that date, who have also been continuously enrolled in a degree program. Those employees are “grandfathered in,” and will receive their original discount level as long as they remain continuously enrolled in the same degree program. Continuous enrollment is considered as at least 3 credit hours during the last calendar year.

"The waiver is a huge benefit to our employees and their families and helps us competitively recruit and retain faculty and staff to this highly competitive Northwest Arkansas regional labor market," Steinmetz said. "We therefore plan to keep the reimbursement at 90 percent for our employees on campus and 50 percent for spouses and dependents."

The changes in the policy apply to new employees and those hired before May 1 who are not continuously enrolled in a degree program:

• New full-time employees hired on or after May 1, 2017, must be employed for one full fall or spring semester to be eligible for employee or spouse/dependent waivers.
• Eligible Fayetteville campus employees will receive a 90 percent tuition waiver for undergraduate or graduate studies – excluding Law or Medical degrees -- but the credit hours are limited to 132 undergraduate credit hours or 72 graduate credit hours.
• Eligible Fayetteville campus employees taking courses at other UA System Campuses will receive a 50 percent tuition waiver up to 132 credit hours on undergraduate studies, but no discount for graduate studies.

Spouses and dependents of eligible Fayetteville campus employees will continue to receive a 50 percent tuition waiver for undergraduate studies up to 132 undergraduate credit hours. IRS guidelines will also continue to be used to determine a dependent’s eligibility for tuition waiver benefits.  

The policies can be viewed at Board Policy 440.1, Fayetteville Policies and Procedures 512.0, and UA Systemwide Policies and Procedures 445.1.

An FAQ site regarding these policies can be found on the  Treasurer’s Office  website.