PhD Tuition & Aid Tuition & Aid
Overview
All students who are admitted to the Pharmaceutical Science Graduate Program receive a stipend, fully paid tuition, and paid health insurance.
A graduate student will either receive a teaching assistantship or a research assistantship, and there are additional optional sources of funding to apply for, including training grants, internal fellowships, and external fellowships.
Tuition and Fees
Tuition and fees (both resident and non-resident, with exception of $175.00 health fee and $77.00 recreation fee per semester) are paid for all graduate students who have appointments as teaching or research assistants or fellowships.
Stipends
Stipends may come from Teaching Assistantships, Research Assistantships or Fellowships. There are no separate application forms for these appointments. Your stipend can increase if you are awarded a competitive extramural fellowship. Many of our students receive these nationally competitive awards.
Appointment decisions are made by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) and the Graduate Program Committee based on information in your application and letters of recommendation.
Assistantships
Teaching Assistant
As a Teaching Assistant (TA), you’ll serve as an extension of the faculty while learning course design and execution as you develop your skills in instruction and communication. TAs offer lectures, tutor students, lead small group discussions, provide support in our pharmacy practice labs, and assist professors with other tasks including proctoring and grading.
Research Assistant
As a Research Assistant, you would support drug discovery and development in efforts focused on substance use disorder, cancer, cardiovascular disease, infectious diseases, neurological disorders, and much more. Beyond the first year, most graduate students will receive a stipend in the form of a Research Assistantship. Each student's faculty advisor largely determines responsibilities for the Research Assistant. As with the TA, satisfactory academic progress in the graduate program must be maintained in order to retain stipend support.
Additional Funding
Training Grants
Graduate students have the opportunity to apply for funding from our two National Institute on Drug Abuse Training Grants (T32s), the goal of which is to prepare promising graduate students for careers in drug abuse research. Both programs provide broad-based training in modern aspects of drug abuse research with a particular emphasis on studying the cellular and molecular aspects of receptors involved in the response to drugs of abuse, as well as the development of ligands that interact with these receptors as potential pharmacotherapies for drug abuse. The training faculty share a common interest in understanding basic mechanisms related to drug abuse at the molecular and behavioral levels and use state of the art methodological approaches involving animal models and human subjects to conduct drug abuse research.
External
Pharmaceutical Sciences students are strongly encouraged to apply for extramural fellowships. Faculty assist the students in the preparation for these applications. Among the many fellowships available, our students have been particularly successful with applications for the following:
Internal Graduate School Fellowships
Presidential Graduate Fellowships: Graduate programs are invited to nominate candidates for the 2016-2017 Presidential Fellowships. Fellowships with a stipend of $20,000, plus a tuition scholarship and student health insurance will be available. The Presidential Fellowship is a 12-month award, designed for currently enrolled students.
Multi-Year Fellowships: Pursuant to the President's response to the Committee on Graduate Education at the University of Kentucky, starting with the 1998-99 academic year the Graduate School began offering Multi-Year Fellowships that carry a stipend of $20,000, plus a tuition scholarship and student health insurance. Intended to enhance the competitive ability of UK programs, Multi-Year Fellowships are designed to attract outstanding first-year graduate students.
Quality Achievement Fellowship Awards: Awards of $3,000 per year are available to be used as "add-on" funding to supplement full fellowships or assistantships. The Daniel R. Reedy Quality Achievement Fellowships are intended to enhance the competitive ability of UK programs to attract outstanding first-year graduate students. The awards are potentially renewable for a second year for master's students or for a total of three years for doctoral students.
Dissertation Year Fellowships: In order to enhance the research dimension of graduate education, the President's Office provides funding to support Dissertation Year Fellowships for the 2016-2017 academic year at the University of Kentucky. The fellowships carry a stipend of $20,000, plus a tuition scholarship and student health insurance.
