Recently a number of questions have arisen regarding fellowships, assistantships, participant payments and related issues on budgeting and payments for each.  The questions have primarily focused on classification of students and how to get them paid, so the focus of this blog will be on student fellows, GRA (Graduate Research Assistants) and on paying students as participants.

Do the differences really matter?

Careful consideration should be taken when developing grant budgets to properly categorize employees as student hourly employees, fellows, research assistants or participants due to the impacts on the budget; impacts on categories like fringe benefits, tuition remission, and indirect costs.  Proper categorization or classification is also important in that if misclassified, we may have to receive sponsor approval to move the charges into the appropriate categories.

On the post-award side of things, misclassification of employees as fellows, or vice versa, may expose both the institution and the individuals involved to tax or other financial consequences.

So how do we make sense of it all?

First, there needs to be a basic understanding of the difference between fellowships, assistantships, and participant support costs.  For simplicity, the term “fellowship” will be used here for fellowships, scholarships, and trainees.  “Assistantship” will cover research assistants, teaching assistants, and service assistants (though grants typically support research assistants).  “Participant support costs” are those costs for items paid to or on behalf of participants in connection with conferences or training projects.

Fellowships provide financial support of an individual’s pursuit of learning, whether in the classroom or in tandem with a project.  Because fellowships are given to support scholarly endeavors, funds often may be used to pay for textbooks, housing, tuition, travel, or other costs related to education and/or training in a particular area.

Fellowships may or may not include a service component; may go directly to an individual or through the institution; and may or may not have deliverables.  Regardless of the terms and conditions of the fellowship, the bottom line is that the fellowship benefits the fellow.  Because fellowships support learning, students paid on a fellowship receive a stipend and should not be classified as university employees.

Assistantships provide financial support (salary) for specific work to be conducted.  At CSU, a GRA (Graduate Research Assistant) is usually funded by a grant, cooperative agreement or a contract, GTAs (Graduate Teaching Assistants) or GSAs (Graduate Service Assistants) are usually funded by the institution.  Students on assistantships are employees of the institution and their work is tied to their discipline or particular line of research.  The bottom line here is that the assistantship benefits the institution.  Students paid on an assistantship should be classified as employees.

Student hourly.  There may be times when a researcher hires a student (undergraduate or graduate) to perform routine lab work or to collect &/or analyze data.  Students hired on an hourly basis should be paid through student employee services.

Participant support.  Some programs, like the NSF REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) consider students supported by this program to be participants in the program.  Because of this, students in an REU program are not considered employees of the institution because any work they do does not provide a significant benefit to the institution.  Additionally, if the participant was not a part of the program, no one would need to be paid as an employee to perform the same function.

Side-by-side comparison

The following table shows a comparison between fellowships, assistantships, and participant support, along with hourly student employees, in terms of institutional classification; if paid through a stipend or wages; reporting of income; and the applicable CSU office to contact with questions.

When in doubt on how to classify or pay a student, please contact the appropriate unit as listed above.  Look for more information regarding relevant object codes to come out of CSU’s Business & Financial Serviceslater this year.