NIU topped the two other Board of Regents schools in the number of tuition waivers awarded to graduate assistants during fiscal year 1988.

About 1,100 NIU graduate assistants had their tuition waived in FY88 compared to about 820 at Illinois State University and about 100 at Sangamon State.

The Board of Regents governs NIU, Illinois State University in Normal and Sangamon State University in Springfield.

Richard Wagner, Illinois Board of Higher Education executive director, along with other board members, had requested that public universities in Illinois prepare a tuiton waiver report in December 1988 because of recent trends in the number and value of waivers.

The report’s results were revealed at Wednesday’s IBHE meeting at Western Illinois University in Macomb.

NIU also ranked first with 1,790 tuiton waivers in all three possible categories: graduate assistants, faculty and staff and cooperating teachers.

ISU had 1,765 tuition waivers and Sangamon State had 261.

Cooperating teachers are elementary and high school teachers who provide teacher training to college students in exchange for taking a course at NIU.

NIU had the smallest number of non-employment tuition waivers awarded to graduate students at 39. Sangamon State had 58 and ISU had 313.

The IBHE report states “tuition waivers are a common component of the benefit package offered to graduate assistants in exchange for teaching or research services. Universities also waive tuition for faculty and staff in order to provide professional development opportunities.”

Tuition waivers can be provided to graduate students for academic talent and financial need. In Illinois, financial assistance grant funds are not available to graduate students, according to the IBHE report.

Members of the IBHE said the value of a waiver awarded to a student depends upon the number of enrolled courses.

Tuition waivers awarded to graduate assistants in FY88 were the largest waiver category in both monetary value and number of recipients since 1986, the Board said.

The IBHE report also states that the number of graduate tuition waivers awarded has not increased since FY86.