Dear colleagues,

I am writing to share great news about our progress in graduate education with the decision to make an additional reduction in graduate assistant fees for the upcoming academic year.

As part of the graduate education plan developed by Graduate College Dean Randy Hewes and a faculty committee, we announced a cut of approximately $425 per graduate assistant in fees for the 2018-19 academic year. In addition, we established a new tuition remission rate policy for grants and contracts that approximates actual GA tuition. Finally, we increased the graduate student resident tuition rate to offset the reduction in fees (for non-GAs, this action changed the ratio of tuition versus fees, but it did not result in a net change in the overall graduate student cost of attendance).

Due to these measures, and an additional $2 million that we have been able to earmark for graduate education savings thanks to the operational efficiencies we have achieved together, I am pleased to announce that for the 2019-20 academic year, we will again be able to reduce graduate fees. The average graduate student with 18 credit hours of enrollment will see a reduction in fees of at least $675 next year. We will raise graduate student resident tuition to offset this reduction in fees, and this will again result in no net change in the overall cost of attendance for non-GAs. All of these changes are subject to approval of the OU Regents at their June 2019 meeting.  

With this latest action, the fees charged annually to graduate assistants will be $1,100 less for students in FY2019-20 than they were just two years ago. In the near future, and as a critical step toward supporting the University’s broader goal of doubling research, we expect that these actions will position the OU Norman campus to achieve nationally competitive GA stipends.   

Thank you for all that you do to make the University of Oklahoma great. It is wonderful to be able to share this success together.