Background

Scholarships for students enrolled at UC are processed and paid through our student accounts system known as UniverSIS.  Following that procedure helps us to maintain our compliance with financial aid laws and tax reporting laws.  Scholarships are payments made to a student on the basis of academic merit and/or financial need.

UC issued Administrative Memorandum #133 as a statement regarding compliance on this topic.

"Fellowships" is a term synonymous with "scholarships" for income tax purposes.  Fellowships may be paid to a broader community that includes UC faculty members.

Scholarships and fellowships are NEVER paid in exchange for past, present or future services rendered to the university.  In other words, if the person has to work for UC in order to receive the payment, it is not a scholarship/fellowship.

Any such payment made in exchange for services rendered by the payee will be considered wages.  Wages paid to UC employees are processed and paid through the UCFlex-HR system.

Occasionally, it may become necessary for a department to issue a non-compensatory payment (i.e. not wages) to a person who is not a UC student.  Common examples include students from high schools or other universities who participate in summer learning programs that do not earn UC academic credit.

In such cases, the Non-UC-Student Scholarship / Fellowship form may be used to facilitate the payment.  The department submits the form for approval by the Director, Tax Compliance.  The approved form can then be submitted with a Request for Payment (A114) to Accounts Payable.

Electronic Submission

The Non-UC-Student Scholarship / Fellowship form can be submitted electronically, and we encourage you to do so.  Just type your information directly onto the form and click the Submit by Email button.  The form can then be approved with a digital signature and returned to you by e-mail.  Your payment request can then go straight to Accounts Payable, already approved by Tax Compliance.

Learn more about how this electronic approval process works.