Supplemental Retention Scholarship (SRS) Update

 

Lifeline to the finish line! Supplemental Retention Scholarship (SRS) Updated requirements for a longstanding PhD and MFA resource Date released: September 22, 2025 The UF Graduate School’s Supplemental Retention Scholarship (SRS) has long been a lifeline to get PhD and MFA Grad Gators over the finish line — by providing much-needed tuition relief to those in that final stage of dissertation or final project during their graduating semester when they have exhausted their funding contract. To keep this popular scholarship true to its purpose and maintain effective flow of its limited resources to those who need it most, the Graduate School has fine-tuned eligibility requirements for SRS applicants: They must be in their final semester and due to graduate. They must have exhausted their funding (such as department or college fellowships, assistantships or other funding). They must have been on a graduate assistant appointment or fellowship for at least three years prior. They cannot be employed as a UF TEAM employee or in a UF adjunct position. They can be employed as a student assistant or in an OPS position, but for no more than $15 an hour. They must have a degree application on file with the Registrar’s Office. They must meet the dissertation first submission deadline for the semester in which they are due to graduate. Note: The scholarship award will be released after the first submission deadline. They must include with their application a personal statement explaining why they could not complete their dissertation with the time frame of their funding. Their academic unit must supply a letter of support that explains why it can no longer fund them and why they did not complete their dissertation in the time frame of funding. They must include with their application a research plan with milestones, advising check-ins, and courses for which they will register to wrap up the semester with graduation. See: Dissertation Research Action Plan. They can only receive this scholarship once. These fine-tuned requirements will help us to make sure that the limited SRS funds get to those who most immediately need them, for the sake of optimal impact. It’s all part of the Graduate School’s commitment to sound stewardship of available resources for the benefit of the graduate student body we all serve. To learn more about the Supplemental Retention Scholarship (SRS), click here. Questions? Email us at gradawards@aa.ufl.edu.