Graduate Studies Departmental Scholarship Competition.

For the 2012-2013 academic year, KU’s Office of Graduate Studies anticipates distributing approximately $500,000 in graduate fellowship funding to doctoral programs. The intent is to support departmental efforts aligned with the strategies and action items identified in strategic goal 2 of Bold Aspirations, the University’s strategic plan, which is to, “Prepare doctoral students as innovators and leaders who are ready to meet the demands of the academy and our global society.”
A complete description is available here: http://www.provost.ku.edu/planning/implementation/.

Each department may be awarded up to three fellowships:

• One first-year fellowship for a first-year doctoral student;
• One first-year fellowship for a first-year underrepresented doctoral student;
• One one-year dissertation fellowship for a current doctoral student.

Application

Departments should submit a four-page plan (no attachments) explaining departmental plans to leverage the fellowships to enable department-level strategies and action items similar to those described in Bold Aspirations Strategic Goal 2. Departmental plans should be submitted via email to graduate@ku.edu before 5 pm, Friday, December 16, 2011. Late submissions will not be considered.

Specifically, departments should address the following implementation strategies identified in Goal 2:

1. Sustainable funding for doctoral education
   • What are the current departmental funding strategies for doctoral students?
   • What does the department do now to increase external funding for doctoral education?
   • How does the department plan to make doctoral education a priority in its fundraising goals?

2. Using data to set academic program standards
   • Has the department established standards for their doctoral students? What are those standards and how have they impacted decision making about doctoral education within the department?
   • Does the department review doctoral student progress each year? If yes, what does this review process entail?

3. Doctoral student recruitment plan
   • Briefly describe the department’s doctoral student recruitment activities. What activities have been found to be useful to attracting doctoral students? What future activities would the department like to implement?
   • What strategy has the department used in the past, and what strategies are anticipated to recruit members of underrepresented groups?  (Explain which groups are underrepresented in the field.)

4. Size academic programs based on merit, mentoring, placement
   • Does the department have a formal graduate student mentoring program?
   • How has the department used the doctoral student program profile (or other data reports) to shape their doctoral program?
   • Does the department collect and track student placement data? Does the department track job market data to set admission targets for the doctoral program?

Selection

The goal is to support departments that are currently implementing or have concrete plans to implement strategies described in Bold Aspirations. Proposals will be reviewed based on the quality of the plan submitted. Each of the four items identified will be given equal weight. Departments will be notified of fellowship awards by January 18, 2012.

Administration

The stipend for each fellowship will be distributed in two equal payments at the start of the Fall 2012 and Spring 2013 terms. Graduate Studies will provide a minimum stipend of $16,000. Requests for stipends above this level must be justified in the proposal. Departments may supplement the fellowship stipend with additional scholarship funds or a partial GRA appointment. Fall and spring tuition support is limited to nine credit hours and summer tuition is not available. Course and technology fees will be included but campus fees will not be paid.

Departments will be responsible for providing support beyond the first year of study from existing funding for students receiving the first-year fellowships.  There will be no additional GTA funding provided for support during these years, and GTA assignments will need to be made consistent with the MOA during future years of study.

Departments awarded support must identify the fellowship student(s) no later than April 16, 2012. Graduate Studies will post the fellowship stipend through the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships and will oversee the tuition support posted to the student’s account.

Questions may be addressed to graduate@ku.edu or by phone at 864-8040.