The University of Massachusetts is about to institute a change in it's
policy of waiving "curriculum fee" charges on all grants and contracts.
Our curriculum fee is a "tuition" like assessment based on credit hours
that is retained by the University instead of being returned to the
General Operating Funds of the Commonwealth. We intend to continue to
waive the "tuition" component. We have a couple of questions regarding
the treatment of this "fee"-like tuition and the basis for budgeting and
charging it.

First, do other institutions have any similar fees they routinely charge
to grants? What is the basis for your rate? Is it credit hour based?
Although we think of this as tuition, it is technically called a fee.
Are there restrictions on how this money is spent?

Secondly, if your institution simply recovers tuition on your grants,
please respond to the following questions:

1) When you charge grants tuition as a direct cost do you charge the
supported student's actual tuition cost or some average amount across
all students?

2) How do you pro-rate the tuition charge against multiple accounts if
the student has multiple concurrent appointments?

3) Is there a minimum charge of tuition for students who are ABD?

4) Do you use a blended tuition value for proposal budgeting purposes?
If not, how is the tuition cost budgeted?

Any comments would be helpful.

Thanks,

Jim Ayres
Office of Grant & Contract Adm.
University of Massachusetts