H1.5 Fee Remissions
Updated: June 23rd, 2011
Fee remissions are considered a benefit derived from a graduate student’s eligible academic appointment to offset either a portion or all of a student’s assessed fees. Fee remissions are fee specific and may only be used to offset specific assessed fees in a student’s CARS account. In addition to fulfilling the academic requirements for each academic title, student appointments must also meet established criteria to be eligible for fee remissions.
Fee remission payment source. Fee remissions are paid by the same source that pays a student’s salary. The chart string used by the hiring unit to pay the student is also used during the collection process, which is the responsibility of the Payroll office.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory appointments. Students who have Graduate Student Research Assistant (GSRA) appointments at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) must remain at LBNL for the entire semester to be eligible for the fee and SHIP remission. If the appointment is terminated before the end of the semester, the remissions will be canceled and the student will be required to repay the entire LBNL remission which will be assessed in CARS. If the student then begins a GSR appointment on campus at any point after the first day of the semester, that appointment will not be for the entire semester and may not meet the criteria to qualify for the remissions.
Fee remissions in combination with other awards. Occasionally, students receive more than one type of award that is intended to pay fees or fees and tuition for a particular semester. Fee remissions for students with eligible appointments will generally take precedence over concurrent fellowship, departmental awards, and loans. If more than one type of award appears as a credit against fees or tuition in a student’s CARS account, a system-wide set of established rules governs which award is used to pay the assessments. The sequence in which CARS is programmed to accept award credits to offset fees and tuition is generally as follows. Please contact Billing and Payment Services for more information on the CARS priorities:
1. Outside agency awards
2. LBNL remissions from GSRA appointments
3. Fee and tuition remissions from UCB campus appointments
4. Department awards made through the Department Student Award System (DSAS)
5. Fellowship awards
6. Student Loans
7. Student payments
Loss of fee remission eligibility. If a student loses eligibility during the course of the semester because the appointment is cancelled; or modified such that it no longer meets the criteria for remissions, the student will be billed in CARS for the entire remission amounts and must repay them.
Intercampus transfers of fee remissions. Graduate students who are registered and enrolled at other UC campuses and hold eligible appointments at Berkeley are also eligible for remissions. However, there is no automatic system for creating the remission and transferring it to the appropriate UC campus. Berkeley hiring units must request an inter-campus transfer of remissions via a financial journal.
See All Topics in the Category: Guide to Graduate Policy, H. Academic Appointments
