Fellowships are normally merit-based awards that support graduate students in pursuing their academic degree programs. Such awards typically require that the student be enrolled and progressing in a graduate degree program, meeting academic requirements of the degree program, taking certain courses or pursuing master’s or doctoral research. They generally do not require work effort as one might find in an RA or TA appointment. In this way, they operate much like scholarship awards, and in many places the terms fellowship and scholarship are synonymous with one another.
A variety of different funding resources may support fellowship awards. This could include college, school or departmental endowments or gift budgets. Students might apply for and be awarded external fellowship awards that may be administered through the UW for the purposes of tuition support and benefits coverage. Unless they are specifically for graduate fellowship support, federal grants and state funds do not typically support fellowship awards.
Because fellowships are normally merit-based awards that are not in payment for any work-based service, they are not covered by a union contract in the same way that RAs or TAs are covered by the UAW/UW Academic Student Employee contract. Executive Order 30 provides policies for fellowship appointments.
For detailed information about fellowship awards, please review the links below.