Graduate Student Support Allocation (GSSA) and Policies

Local Academic Unit Graduate Student Support Allocation (GSSA) and Policies in the College of Health and Human Development

All graduate students must pay tuition or have tuition paid from some source; there are no tuition waivers at Penn State. Tuition for students supported on full packages is charged at a reduced tuition rate. Graduate students may be offered funds that only partially offset the cost of tuition (i.e., partial tuition), but in these instances tuition will not be reduced and students will be responsible for the remainder of the full rate of graduate tuition for their respective area/college. Tuition schedules can be found here. The table of stipends for graduate assistants can be found here.

Graduate assistantships are full support packages that include payment of full tuition, stipend, payment of the Student Initiated Fee, and a subsidy for the Penn State student health insurance plan (SHIP) premium. All graduate assistantships are governed by GSAD-901 Graduate Assistants, with general information found here. All degree-seeking graduate students enrolled in residence are eligible for graduate assistantships. 

Assistantships are provided to graduate students as aids to completion of advanced degrees. As such, they should be related to the graduate student's disciplinary field and wherever possible tied to the student's program of study so as to contribute in a relevant manner to the student's professional development. Graduate assistants are first and foremost students - and graduate assistantships are intended to provide experiential educational experiences designed to prepare students for their future careers inside or outside of the academy. Assistantships may require activities in the classroom, in the laboratory or other research environment, or in other areas on campus, with the opportunity for professional development further benefiting from and enriched by the scholarly environment of the University. 

College-supported assistantships are available for students in the college of Health and Human Development and/or inter-college graduate degree program (IGDP) students being advised by College faculty. Students from outside the college that assist departments should ordinarily be paid through wage payroll using departmental funds. Under unusual circumstances exceptions may be made, after review and approval by the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education. 

There are two specific sources of funds provided to local academic units that are restricted to directly support graduate students. Expenses considered direct support of graduate students include all the components of a Graduate Assistantship (tuition, stipend, payment of the Student Initiated Fee, and a subsidy for student health insurance plan premium) plus conference travel funds, other professional development opportunities, and supplemental research support. If there is ever a question of whether a particular expense is considered direct graduate student support, please consult with the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education.  The college expects that the vast majority of the two sources of funds will go to support full Graduate Assistantship packages, and that graduate assistantships are the default for graduate funding. These two sources of funds are:

1. Grant-in-Aid (GIA) funds are University general funds held in a special General Funds account. GIA funds remaining at the end of the fiscal year are returned to the University’s central budget. GIA funds currently are allocated to the college as a fixed amount and do not increase each year. These funds should be used first, to maximize their use each year.
2. College of Health and Human Development (HHD) Graduate Student Funds are college general funds allocated to departments specified to directly support graduate students. HHD Graduate Student General Fund allocations are not fixed, and the college has historically increased these annually commensurate with the increase in graduate student stipends.

Together, these sources combined comprise the local academic unit Graduate Student Support Allocation (GSSA).

In addition to the GSSA, local academic units may also allocate other revenue (outside of endowment funds that specify otherwise) to direct graduate student support as they see fit and while maintaining a balanced local academic unit budget.

Each local academic unit is free to deploy their graduate student support resources, in a manner most consistent with departmental objectives in compliance with these guidelines.  Typically, the majority of these resources will be directed toward doctoral students; however, there can be circumstances when it will be necessary and/or advantageous direct them toward research or professional master’s students, such as to aid in recruitment of particularly promising students or to serve as a teaching assistant when a doctoral student is unavailable. 

The formula to determine the Graduate Student Support Allocation (GSSA) effective FY26 is based on the following weighted data sources, all calculated over a 3-year period:

• Number of tenured or tenure-track faculty, averaged and normalized (40% weight)
• Research expenditures, weighted by assignment of credit, averaged and normalized (20% weight)
• Undergraduate student credit hours, University Park and World Campus, averaged and normalized (20% weight)
• Graduate student expenditures funded through sources outside the GSSA (research grants, training grants, endowments, department general funds, and other general funds – RIF, faculty salary release, and startup) averaged and divided by the total departmental budget 3-year average, normalized (20% weight)

Each data element will be subject to a lagged, 3-year moving average prior to weighting. For FY26 data from FY21, FY22, and FY23 are used.  They will be recalculated yearly. 

FY26- and FY27-specific information: If the new formula resulted in a decrease in the local academic unit GSSA from the FY25 level, the actual allocation will NOT be decreased in FY26 or FY27. A calculation resulting in an increase in graduate student funding will be capped at 15% for FY26 and FY27. We will expand the caps and/or allocate according to the calculated totals in FY28 and beyond.