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> And as far as I can cell, most PhD students don't pay tuition. Yes, they do. But they receive a full waiver, and that waiver is not taxed. The proposed tax
by throwawayjava 9y ago
> And as far as I can cell, most PhD students don't pay tuition.
Yes, they do. But they receive a full waiver, and that waiver is not taxed.
The proposed tax bill amounts to a several thousand dollar / year increase in the tax load on graduate students, who typically make less than 30k/year.
> So, what stops Harvard from setting a zero tuition for graduate PhD students?
We'll see what clever accounting universities come up with, if any.
But indeed: a $Nk pay-cut could end up having a pretty devastating impact on academia.
- geebee 9y agoRight - so my question is, why not just set a PhD student tuition of zero? They don't make any money off this, so why charge it and always waive it? Why not just get rid of it. That would remove the option to occasionally charge the tuition, but research PhD programs, especially in STEM at elite universities? Tuition from PhD programs must be close to irrelevant.
- mattkrause 9y agoAs I posted above...they do make money off of it, and quite a bit. They're just not making it off the PhD students.
- Fomite 9y agoTwo issues: 1. That would mean redefining enrollment. What if a PhD student takes a class that involves instruction time during their research period - as I did, and as some of my students will likely do? 2. The money used to pay the instructors for PhD-level classes, of which there are some, has to come from somewhere. And for many universities, there is $0 that is "irrelevant".
- chriskanan 9y agoThe PI pays the tuition out of a grant, so the university still gets paid for PhD student tuition (just not by the student). * I'm a professor and I write a lot of proposals to fund graduate students.