University Graduate Fellowships
UGF APPLICATION PERIOD
September 17 - October 3, 2025 at 11:59PM CDT
UGF Categories & Eligibility
First-Year Fellowship
Prospective students are qualified for the First-Year Fellowship if they are starting their first year in a Ph.D. program. Students who have completed a bachelor’s degree or master’s degree from KU are eligible only if they are starting a new Ph.D. program. Nominees may be either domestic or international students.
Dissertation-Year Fellowship
Current students are qualified for the Dissertation-Year Fellowship if they are starting their final year of study in a Ph.D. program and are preparing to defend a dissertation during the fellowship year. Nominees may be either international or domestic students.
Award Details
The University Graduate Fellowship (UGF) provides a $27,850 stipend for one year and sponsorship of tuition, course, and technology fees in accordance with the GRA benefits policy during the fall and spring semesters. Tuition support averages $9,500, bringing the total fellowship package to over $37,000. The fellowship is disbursed as a 9-month GRA appointment at 0.50 FTE. No summer appointment/tuition funds are available through this fellowship.
Departments and programs are required to provide support at the same level as the University Graduate Fellowship, ideally, or at a level comparable to 3G appointments in the unit for the following four (4) subsequent years of the student's program.
Departments awarded support must identify the fellowship student(s) no later than April 17, 2026.
Note: Starting from the 2025-2026 award cycle, all departments awarded a UGF will be required to participate in a mentoring training program provided by the Office of Graduate Studies. Details about this program will be provided at the time of the award notification. For questions regarding the mentoring program, please reach out to Nicole Reiz at nreiz@ku.edu.
Departmental Application
Please review the following considerations as you prepare to submit your department/program application:
- Department/programs can apply to one or more of the fellowship categories.
- Applications are accepted via the online application form linked at the bottom of this page.
- We highly recommend reviewing the application and drafting responses, as you will not be able to save the information as you go.
Note: The nomination for this award matches the nomination process for the Bernadette Gray-Little Doctoral Fellowship. Departments submitting a UGF First-Year application will also be considered for the Bernadette Gray-Little Doctoral Fellowship.
The application will ask for the following information:
- Please respond to the following prompts. Please keep your response to each prompt to 500 words or less.
1a For all First Year University Graduate Fellows, the department/program is required to provide financial support for the following four (4) years of the student's program. This funding should ideally be at the same level as the University Graduate Fellowship, but at minimum, it must be comparable to other .50FTE 3G appointments in the unit. How will your department provide 4 additional years of financial/funding support for graduate students recruited on a First-year UGF?
1b Briefly discuss the process(es), metrics, and/or data your graduate program uses in making funding decisions and 3G appointments, and how these decisions balance funding support for current students with the program’s recruiting and admissions goals.
2. Please respond to the following prompts. Please keep your response to each prompt to 500 words or less.
2a Briefly summarize the current state of admissions and enrollments (eg number of applications, yield rates) in your graduate program and provide an overview of your unit’s strategic recruitment plan. In your response, indicate:
- If you are receiving a sufficient number of high-quality applications.
- If you are currently satisfied with the last 5 years of PhD yield rates, what strategies or efforts are you utilizing to maintain these yield rates
OR
- If you are not satisfied with the last 5 years of PhD yield rates, where you are losing applicants, and what plans or strategies are you using to improve your yield rates
Link: Graduate Enrollment Funnel | Yield Rates, Graduate Clearinghouse
2b Briefly discuss your program’s annual graduate student evaluation and feedback process. In your response, please describe what data and metrics are gathered and how this information is used to support your program’s graduate student retention rates and timely progress to degree.
2c To what extent do the outcomes of your PhD graduates meet the expectations of your program? In your response, discuss outcomes such as employment rates in the field (academia, industry/for profit/nonprofit/public sector), licensure pass rates, post-doctoral appointments, or other post-graduate plans as appropriate to your discipline/field.
Link: Alumni Outcomes, Doctoral Completion Survey, internal data related to accreditation if applicable
3) Please respond to the following prompts. Please keep your response to each prompt to 500 words or less.
3a Per KU Policy, the general expectation is that students should complete their doctoral program of study in 6 years of full-time study.
Using data from the doctoral time-to-degree dashboard, briefly summarize your program’s average time to degree for the last six years of graduates, and describe the strategies your program is currently using (or planning to implement) to maintain, stabilize, or reduce time to degree in alignment with KU’s six-year completion expectation.
Link: Doctoral Time to Degree
3b Using data from the doctoral retention dashboard, summarize the current state of retention and completion in your PhD program. In your response, please compare your rates over the last three cohorts to other similar disciplines at KU or KU’s overall institutional rate of retention and completion, and describe the strategies your program is currently using or planning to implement to maintain or improve rates of retention and completion.
Link: Doctoral Retention & Completion
4) Please respond to the following prompts. Please keep your response to each prompt to 500 words or less.
4a Does your program have a formal graduate student mentoring program or framework? If yes, please describe. If not, outline any plans to implement one.
Please also summarize the faculty advising structure in your doctoral program, including:
- How incoming students receive academic advising
- How faculty advisors and/or mentors are matched or assigned
- Advising or mentoring structures and strategies used to support student progression and completion
4b. Using data from the Doctoral Completion Survey in the Mentoring and Advising Data tab, summarize your program’s current performance in the areas measured, and describe the strategies your program is implementing to ensure high quality mentoring and advising practices.
If your program is currently not producing a large enough sample size (N=5) to be represented in this dashboard, describe your program’s method(s) of assessing the quality of student mentoring and advising in your unit. What are the outcomes of these assessments? Please describe the strategies your program is implementing to ensure high quality mentoring and advising practices.
Selection Criteria
Departments/programs may be awarded one fellowship per cycle.
The applications will be reviewed by the Executive Council of Graduate Faculty.
Strong applications will clearly present a sustainable funding model backed by relevant data, align program commitments with student support and recruitment needs, and use admissions, yield, and outcome data to identify challenges and propose targeted improvements. It should transparently report time-to-degree, retention, and completion metrics—comparing them to KU and peer standards—and outline clear strategies for maintaining or improving outcomes. Effective advising and mentoring structures should be supported by assessment data, with specific, data-driven plans to address areas for growth.
Applications open in September.
Applications will be reviewed by the Executive Council of Graduate Faculty in October.
Decisions regarding the fellowship applications will be sent to departments/programs mid-November.
Departments and programs awarded a UGF will select their fellow between December and April.
Fellow's information must be submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies by late April.
Applications open in September.
Applications will be reviewed by the Executive Council of Graduate Faculty in October.
Decisions regarding the fellowship applications will be sent to departments/programs mid-November.
Departments and programs awarded a UGF will select their fellow between December and April.
Fellow's information must be submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies by late April.