Funding

PhD Student Funding

HILS provides four years of funding for each PhD student in the form of a Graduate Student Research Assistant (GSRA) position, which includes tuition, a monthly stipend September-April, and health benefits. You funding is contingent on you being a full-time PhD student and making satisfactory progress towards your degree. HILS also will provide the monthly stipend during at least one one Spring/Summer term (May-August) of your studies.

While a GSRA, you will assist your faculty advisor, or another faculty member with the approval of your advisor and the program director, on a research project for 20 hours per week. On occasion, with agreement by the faculty advisor, the student, and the HILS program director, a student may be offered a Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) position rather than a GSRA. The program director works closely with the student, his/her advisor, and other faculty to identify the most productive research and teaching assignments based on his/her skills, interests, and career trajectory.

HILS supports and encourages you in competing for additional support in the form of scholarships and fellowships from the University (such as a Rackham award) and organizations outside the university (i.e. NRSA). Rackham maintains a listing of their awards and includes links to other sources of internal and external funding on their Funding site. In the event of such an award, a student will not have an obligation to work as a GSRA.

MS Student Funding

HILS does not routinely offer funding to MS students. While HILS is unable to offer financial support to students in the master’s program, the HILS program manager can help you identify funding and employment opportunities both inside and outside of the Department of Learning Health Sciences.

Rackham Graduate School Funding Opportunities

The Rackham School of Graduate Studies provide a number of fellowships, awards, grants, and other funding to current students. Many of these are fellowships that require a nomination from the school. In this case, the HILS program manager will notify all students when there is a fellowship opportunity, and invite students to join an internal competition. The nominees are then chosen by the doctoral committee after review of materials submitted by the student and advisor. Rackham also provides small grants for conference travel, research and other graduate student expenses. A complete list of Rackham Administered Funding may be found on the Rackham website.

U-M Internal and External Funding Sources

Students have access to a variety of other U-M internal funding opportunities and the Library maintains searchable database of these U-M funding sources. The Library also has resources to aid your search for external funding with links to databases such as the Foundation Directory Online fellowship and internships programs, and scholarships for underrepresented demographic groups.

Other helpful sources of information for funding opportunities include:

• CEW+
• International Institute
• Office of Financial Aid (OFA)

You may find information on student employment at:

• Careers at the University of Michigan
• Student Employment Office