Dear Colleagues:

I am interested in learning, from those institutions who do allow
tuition remission to be used as cost sharing on Federal grants, if you
have any audit experience with tuition remission being upheld/validated
as an appropriate cost element for cost sharing.  I also would be
interested to know about any circumstances in which tuition remission
was challenged/disallowed in an audit of cost sharing.

I know that some institutions have Federally negotiated Tuition
Remission Rates as part of their Federal Indirect Cost Rate Agreements.
I would assume that those institutions probably have not had any audit
problems with using their established Tuition Remission Rates as cost
sharing.  However, for those institutions that do not have Federally
negotiated Tuition Remission Rates, when you use this cost element as
part of mandatory cost sharing, do you use a tuition remission "rate"
(pooled average) or the actual accrued tuition remission costs
associated with that project?

Our institution historically has discouraged the use of tuition
remission as cost sharing on Federal projects due to concern about
potential audit disallowances.  However, OMB Circulars A-110 and A-21
don't appear to contain any prohibition on use of tuition remission as
cost sharing (as long as it is allowable as a direct cost element on the
particular Federal grant program).  I will sincerely appreciate your
sharing with me any experience you have in this regard.

Sincerely,
Francine Massey

**********************************

Francine Massey, MPA
Policy & Planning Analyst
Research & Sponsored Programs
University of Wisconsin-Madison
750 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53706-1411
608-265-1997 (Voice)
608-262-5111 (Fax)
xxxxxx@rsp.wisc.edu

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