Graduate Studies Funding
Graduate student funding opportunities include fellowships, scholarships, grants to assist with travel to conferences, and other forms of support.Graduate Teaching Assistant Awards and Distinguished Service Award
Nominations for the 2010 competition will be announced in late fall 2009.
Graduate Initiative for Diversity
Graduate Fellowship for Diversity
Graduate Assistantship for Diversity
Eunice Harkey Melik Graduate Minority Scholarship
The Graduate Initiative for Diversity is intended to increase the participation in graduate study at KU by students who are from groups underrepresented in their field of study. A limited number of one-year fellowships and assistantships are available to students who have been admitted to our graduate programs no earlier than the spring semester of 2009. Nominees are expected to possess an outstanding academic record. The fellowships provide a one-year stipend of $20,000 plus payment of up to 9 graduate credit hours of tuition and fees for the fall and spring semesters. Exceptions for tuition of up to 12 graduate credit hours will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Teaching and research assistantships provide compensation at the normal rate for such appointments. Teaching and research assistants will receive a tuition waiver or in-state fee status in accordance with his/her research or teaching appointment. Awards to students will be during their first year of study. Departments are expected to offer a half-time teaching or research assistantship for the remaining years of study, provided the student maintains good academic standing and satisfactory employment performance.
The following must be submitted with the nomination: completed nomination coversheet; nomination statement by department, including a statement that the student is from a group underrepresented in their field of study; student’s personal essay; student’s curriculum vitae/resume; transcripts of all college or university work; copy of GRE scores or other method of testing and/or evaluating quality; three letters of reference, and signed access waiver form indicating student’s access to files or recommendations.
Graduate Scholarships
Nominations for the 2010 competition will be announced in late fall 2009.
Dwight Eisenhower/Clifford Roberts Graduate Fellowship
Nominations for the 2010 competition will be announced in late fall 2009.
Harry S. Truman Good Neighbor Awards
Nominations for the 2010 competition will be announced in late fall 2009.
KU Funding Sources
Madison & Lila Self Graduate Fellowship
The mission of the University of Kansas Madison and Lila Self Graduate Fellowship is to identify, recruit, and provide development opportunities for exceptional Ph.D. students in the sciences, engineering, business, and economics who demonstrate the promise to make significant contributions to their fields of study and society as a whole.
Graduate Scholarly Presentation Travel Fund
The Graduate Scholarly Presentation Travel Fund
is available to Lawrence campus graduate students only. You must be presenting a paper or the disciplinary equivalent at a national or regional meeting of a learned or professional society. A student may receive an award ($400) only once, and funds are available on a first-come, first-served basis. If you are presenting a paper and this fund is exhausted, check with your department to see whether it can provide travel assistance.
The University Women's Club of the University of Kansas
The University Women's Club of the University of Kansas makes five $1,000 awards each year to eligible full-time graduate and undergraduate women. Awards are based on academic merit, need, service and activities, career plans and other criteria.
Departmental Opportunities
For incoming and current graduate students, check this link for opportunities available through home departments: http://www.scholarships.ku.edu/graduate.shtml
Selected External Funding Opportunities
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation funds research and education in most fields of science and engineering. It does this through grants, and cooperative agreements to more than 2,000 colleges, universities, K–12 school systems, businesses, informal science organizations and other research organizations throughout the United States. The Foundation accounts for about one-fourth of federal support to academic institutions for basic research.
NSF receives approximately 40,000 proposals each year for research, education and training projects, of which approximately 11,000 are funded. In addition, the Foundation receives several thousand applications for graduate and postdoctoral fellowships.
The agency operates no laboratories itself but does support National Research Centers, user facilities, certain oceanographic vessels and Antarctic research stations. The Foundation also supports cooperative research between universities and industry, US participation in international scientific and engineering efforts, and educational activities at every academic level.
National Academy of Sciences
National Academy of Sciences Research Associateship awards are open to doctoral level scientists and engineers (U.S and Foreign Nationals) who can apply their special knowledge and talents to research areas that are of interest to them and to the participating host laboratories and centers.
Awards are available for Postdoctoral Associates (within 5 years of the doctorate) and Senior Associates (normally 5 years or more beyond the doctorate). Associates conduct research in residence at the participating host laboratory they have chosen.
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation / American Council of Learned Societies Dissertation Completion Fellowship
Deadline: November 12, 2008
The Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowships assist graduate students in the humanities and related social sciences in the last year of Ph.D. dissertation writing. ACLS will award 65 Fellowships in this competition for a one-year term beginning between June and September 2009 for the 2009-10 academic year. The Fellowship tenure may be carried out in residence at the Fellow's home institution, abroad, or at another appropriate site for the research. The Fellowships include funds for university fees and research support (together with stipend the award may total up to $33,000) but may not be held concurrently with any other major fellowship or grant.
Woodrow Wilson Foundation— Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
Deadline: November 14, 2008
The Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships are designed to encourage original and significant study of ethical or religious values in all fields of the humanities and social sciences, and particularly to help Ph.D. candidates in these fields complete their dissertation work in a timely manner. In addition to topics in religious studies or in ethics (philosophical or religious), dissertations appropriate to the competition might explore the ethical implications of foreign policy, the values influencing political decisions, the moral codes of other cultures, and religious or ethical issues reflected in history or literature. In the 2009 Newcombe competition, 29 Fellows will receive $24,000 for 12 months of full-time dissertation writing; in addition, their graduate schools will be asked to waive tuition and/or remit some portion of their fees.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture Scholars-in-Residence Program
Deadline: December 1, 2008
Schomburg Scholars-in-Residence Fellowships are awarded for continuous periods of six or twelve months at the Schomburg Center (a research unit of the New York Public Library), with maximum stipends of $25,000 for six months and $50,000 for twelve months. Fellows must devote full time to their research projects. They are expected to be in continuous residence at the Schomburg Center and to participate in the intellectual life of the Program. They may not be employed during the period in residence except sabbaticals from their own institutions.
Next Generation Fellowships for Leadership in Asian Affairs
National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR)
Deadline: TBA / January 2009
The Next Generation Fellowship is a one-year, post-master’s degree fellowship designed to further the professional development of Asian affairs specialists. Recipients are located at NBR’s headquarters in Seattle. Fellows collaborate with leading scholars to conduct independent research and participate in the briefing of research findings to the policymaking community in Washington, D.C.
Chinese Government Scholarship
Deadline: TBA / March 1, 2009
Undergraduate and graduate students are invited to apply to a Chinese Government Scholarship for the study of Chinese language and culture in China during the 2009–2010 academic year. This scholarship, administered by the China Scholarship Council (CSC) in Beijing and covers basic expenses in China.
Useful Links
The following links may also be useful in your search for funding:
- Emily Taylor Women’s Resource Center
- Office of Student Financial Aid
- Private Scholarship list & applications
- Fulbright information
- The Hall Center for the Humanities support page lists funding opportunities for both students and faculty.
- The KU Center for Research (KUCR) Funding Opportunities page with links to numerous sources of information on research funding, including government programs, foundations, KUCR itself and other KU offices. The site also contains links to searchable databases and grant alert services.
- The KU Center for East Asian Studies invites qualified University of Kansas graduate students to apply for Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships for summer 2009 and for the academic year 2009–10. Summer awards pay tuition up to $4,000 and a stipend of $2,500. Awards for the academic year pay tuition up to $12,000 and a stipend of $15,000.
- The Community of Science (COS) Funding Opportunities Database is the world's most comprehensive funding resource, with more than 25,000 records representing nearly 400,000 opportunities, worth over $33 billion. It covers a broad spectrum of funding opportunities for scholars in all disciplines from the sciences to the arts and humanities.
Through KU's institutional membership to COS, the Funding Opportunities Database and other COS services are available from any on-campus computer and on personal computers at home for those who use KU's dial-in connections. KU faculty and graduate students can click on the "Join" link from the COS homepage, and enter the appropriate information to register their profile with COS.
top