Selection criteria for all Access Fellowships (AFs) will be based on academic achievement and promise.

Applicants must be nominated by their departments.

Outstanding student applicants for University and Access recruitment fellowships will be considered for the Pipeline to an Inclusive Faculty (PIF) Program.

• PIF Program

The first AF competition is for recruitment. The recruitment AF is a two-year package for master’s students and a four-year package for doctoral students.

Both master’s and PhD students who receive the Access for Excellence Fellowships will be awarded $30,000 in the first year of the fellowship, or $2,500 per month in the first year of the fellowship. PhD recipients are eligible for an additional year of support when they begin their dissertation research (after completing their preliminary examination, but not before their fourth year or after their fifth year of study), providing they meet the following criteria: (1) The student must be making good progress in the program; (2) The student must have received a minimum of two years of support from their department. The Graduate College must be informed by April 1 of the year before the renewal year that students have passed their preliminary examination and plan to renew–and are not past the student’s fifth year.

In the second year (for a master’s recipient) and the second and third years (for a doctoral recipient), the student’s academic program must provide, minimally, a nine-month, 50% FTE appointment as fellow, teaching assistant, and/or research assistant. Academic/research/faculty hourly positions are not permissible in conjunction with any fellowship. Stipends must be equivalent to those provided to other students in the same department. Students with a 50% teaching or research assistantship will have their stipends topped off up to $30,000 or by a maximum of $6,000, paid over the summer by the Graduate College.  If a doctoral graduate program has a mechanism for financial support for students during years one and two, the Access Fellowship could be deferred to years three and four, provided the student has met the progress requirements described above and the program has communicated with the Fellowships and Awards Coordinator.

During the years of the fellowship fully funded by the Graduate College, recipients may accept part-time employment.  The Graduate College discourages on-campus employment in GA- (assistantship) and HG- (grad hourly) class positions exceeding 50% FTE for fellows. (Academic/research/faculty hourly positions are not permissible in conjunction with any fellowship.) Recipients may not hold the Access Fellowships simultaneously with the Dean’s Scholar or University Fellowship, nor any external award where it is prohibited by that external funding agency. Other awards may be held simultaneously; however, they must be approved by the Graduate College. It is the student’s responsibility to know and understand the regulations of the Access Fellowship and those of any other award (see Policies below).

Access Fellowship recipients also receive a full tuition and partial fee waiver from the Graduate College. The waiver covers all tuition (including differential, if any) service fee, health service fee, academic facilities maintenance fund assessment, library and information technology assessment, and part of the cost of coverage for Fall and Spring Semester towards CampusCare, if applicable. All other fees are the responsibility of the student.

Students supported by these fellowships are required to complete at least 9 semester hours each semester unless expressly authorized by the Dean of the Graduate College to carry a reduced course load. (The registration requirement was lowered from 12, effective Fall 2021.) Fellows are not required to register for the summer session by the Graduate College; however, individual departments may require summer registration. Effective Fall 2021, fellows who register in the summer must enroll in 3-5 hours to be eligible for a summer tuition waiver. Fellows should check with the department to ensure that summer registration is not required for the degree program.

Students may not receive more than two years of Access Fellowship funding from the Graduate College, i.e., one cannot win both the recruitment award and later the retention award.

• Graduate College tuition & fee waivers

During the second competition, terminal master’s and doctoral students currently enrolled at UIC may be nominated for a one-year retention award.

The general terms are largely the same ($30,000 + tuition and partial fee waiver); however, there is only one year of support from the Graduate College and the nominating department has no financial obligations to the recipient in conjunction with the one-year fellowship. Continuing terminal master’s and doctoral students who are advanced in their academic studies may be nominated, which is defined as being beyond the first semester for master’s students and successful completion of the preliminary examination(s) for doctoral students by the application deadline.

Students may not receive more than two years of Access Fellowship funding from the Graduate College, i.e., one cannot win both the recruitment award and later the retention award. Similarly, recipients of the Pipeline to an Inclusive Faculty fellowship are ineligible.

The stipend portion of the award may be taxable income; however, per guidelines set by the Internal Revenue Services (IRS), the University is not responsible for withholding or reporting income taxes on fellowship payments.

Fellows do not receive a Form W-2 on their fellowship income nor does the University report the fellowship payment as taxable income to either the state or federal government. However, the University is required to report fellowships to the IRS for informational purposes only on Form 1098-T, Tuition Statement. Taxability of the fellowship payment is a matter between the Fellow and the IRS.

More information on taxation of fellowships can be found in IRS Publication 970: Tax Benefits for Education (PDF), or by calling 1-800-829-3676.

Students who are obtaining federal loans from Financial Aid: Obtaining a fellowship WILL significantly affect your financial aid eligibility. Check with the Office of Student Financial Aid on eligibility requirements and for further information.

• Form 1040-ES
• Tax Benefits for Education
• UIC Financial Aid

Click the link below for the Transmittal and Statement of Financial Support Form

• Transmittal and Statement of Financial Support Form

Winners are selected by the Diversity Committee, which is composed of elected and appointed faculty from across UIC’s disciplinary colleges.

The Director of Graduate Studies reviews the application package that was electronically submitted to the program by the student. The DGS completes the Transmittal Form (fillable PDF), adding it as the cover page. Save the forms/documents listed above as one single PDF per nominee using the following naming convention: AF_AwardType_YearofCompetition_DepartmentName_NomineeLastNameFirstInitial.pdf

Do not use spaces in the pdf name.

Here is an example of Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable’s recruitment application from History: AF_Recruitment_2023_Hist_PointeDuSableJ.pdf.

Here is an example of Shirley Jackson’s retention application from Physics: AF_Retention_2023_Phys_JacksonS.pdf.

The PDF file must be emailed to the Graduate College using the relevant secure Box folder.

Recruitment competition:

• Arts & Humanities and Behavioral & Social Sciences: AF_Recr.6x5ltgzw1ae1qk0k@u.box.com
• Engineering, Mathematics, and Physical Sciences & Life and Health Sciences: AF_Recr.jilg698qsjllfy6q@u.box.com

Retention competition:

• Arts & Humanities and Behavioral & Social Sciences: AF_Rete.btewpwvnbpm44nyf@u.box.com
• Engineering, Mathematics, and Physical Sciences & Life and Health Sciences: AF_Rete.f0b34b6g3oly2ewe@u.box.com

*NOTE:  The department/program has to review all student requests prior to submitting the documents to the Graduate College by the deadline.

Currently unavailable. Please address questions to Benn Williams, Fellowships and Awards Coordinator, bwilli7@uic.edu.

Recruitment Fellowships: 4 p.m. (CST) on February 1, 2023. Round one winners will be announced by March 1.

Retention Fellowships: 4 p.m. (CST) on April 3, 2023. Round two winners will be announced by May 3, 2023.