University Graduate Fellowship

Current University Graduate Fellows

Go to this webpage for important information about your fellowship.

Description

The University Graduate Fellowship (UGF) directs institutional funding to support recruitment, retention, and timely degree completion for outstanding graduate students who are engaged in scholarship advancing the university's goals for research, scholarship, and creative activities (RSCA). The UGF is a two-year funding program for graduate students whose faculty mentor(s) have successfully attained external funding to support their students and is awarded through a merit-based, competitive process.

Effective the 2025-2026 cycle, the nominations for the UGF will be initiated by the faculty mentor/PI. The College of Graduate Studies (CGS) encourages program advisors/directors to work closely with faculty to know which of their students they are nominating for the UGF. 

Across both years, the student is appointed as an SDSU Research Fellow (0.4 FTE) with a minimum stipend of $30,000*.  The appointment is contingent on the student having continued enrollment at SDSU during both years and therefore ends when they graduate, take a leave of absence, enroll solely at the joint partner campus, or withdraw from their program. The student is also expected to maintain good academic standing during their fellowship.

For those students who are awarded the UGF, their faculty mentor, or the doctoral program director in certain instances, is responsible for approving the UGF Research Fellow's monthly reported absences or "No Leave Taken" entries in PeopleSoft.

For one of the two years, CGS provides the financial support for the stipend and provides the UGF Scholarship^ that can be used towards tuition, fees, health insurance, etc. Note that during the CGS-supported year, the UGF does not come with waivers for tuition and/or fees.

In the matching year, the faculty mentor’s grant (external funding through the SDSU Research Foundation only) is billed for the financial support that they have committed to. Note that during the matching year, it is up to the faculty mentor whether or not they want to provide support for the UGF Scholarship, tuition, and/or fees.

In order for applications to be competitive upon review, faculty mentors are encouraged to commit to the cost of the UGF Scholarship, along with stipend support during the match year. Please note that this fellowship does not include tuition (in-state nor out-of-state) nor other mandatory fee waivers.

*Research Fellows may not be additionally employed in a Unit 11 position (TA, GA, or ISA).

^For the 2024-2025 academic year the cost of the UGF Scholarship was $3,500. (This cost will likely increase for the 2025-2026 academic year.)

Matching Commitment

The UGF invests institutional funding that is intended to supplement, not displace, external sources of support for graduate students. Therefore, a matching requirement is included in the design of the program. Submitted applications with matching commitments that include the required stipend along with the cost of the UGF Scholarship will be scored higher. Please refer to the scoring rubric to best position your application for funding.  Key details regarding the program, including nomination instructions, and scoring rubric are linked below. 

It is the faculty mentor’s responsibility to make sure the PI of the matching fund(s) communicates with their SDSU Research Foundation grant specialist regarding all costs associated with providing matching funds for the UGF (fringe costs/UGF Scholarship/etc.). 

For flexibility, the matching year can be the first or the second year of the fellowship with the other year funded by CGS as described above. Teaching responsibilities are not permitted during the year on fellowship, nor as part of the matching commitment.

As part of the nomination, the faculty mentor (known as the co-sponsor) will submit a narrative that commits external funding for support during one of two fellowship years. External sources can be extramural funding or philanthropy that is managed through the SDSU Research Foundation. Importantly, the match cannot be made from state funds or partner campus funding sources.

The graduate program director may serve as the faculty co-sponsor in circumstances where a well-qualified nominee does not yet have a faculty mentor with financial responsibility but does have a readily identified source of external funding. For example, the program director may nominate an incoming student supported by a training grant, endowed scholarship, or external fellowship. 

Failure by the faculty mentor to honor their commitment could jeopardize further UGF funding.

Post-Award Report

If awarded, the faculty mentor and student must submit a short report detailing their accomplishments and project progress.

Important Reminder

The Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities (CSRR) and the student’s home college will be consulted to ensure that the student is in compliance with the Student Code of Conduct and/or their program’s Graduate Professional Standards.

• Award nominees and current awardees: A nomination or award is subject to being deemed ineligible if (a) it is determined by CSRR that the student is in violation of the Student Code of Conduct and/or (b) if the program notifies CGS that the student has violated their program’s Graduate Professional Standards.

Nomination Process

Only faculty co-sponsors can submit: (1) the nomination form along with (2) the nominee’s CV and (3) if applicable, a letter of support from the PI/Co-PI of the matching funds.

1. Nominations for the UGF are now initiated by the faculty mentor/PI via a Google nomination form. Nominations for the 2025-2026 cycle open on Feb. 1, 2025 and will close on Feb. 28, 2025. We encourage program advisors/directors to work closely with faculty to know which of their students they are nominating for the UGF.
2. CGS submits (a) nominees to CSRR for processing and, (b) to the SDSURF to confirm funding availability. CGS simultaneously scores the proposed level of support for the review team.
3. CGS sends nominees to the graduate program advisors/directors for ranking.
4. Graduate advisors/directors send rankings back to Graduate Studies.
5. A Faculty Review Committee reviews and scores each nomination for research, scholarship, and creative activities (RSCA).
6. The CGS Graduate Dean will review both the graduate program advisor/director rankings and the Faculty Review Committee’s RSCA scores and make a determination of awardees. 

Nomination Links

• UGF 2025-2026 Faculty Co-Sponsor Nomination Google Form
• PDF of UGF 2025-2026 Faculty Co-Sponsor Nomination Google Form (for reference only)
• 2025-2026 UGF Rubric

If you have questions, feel free to reach out to [email protected].