The USF Employee Tuition Program authorizes full time USF employees (except OPS) to enroll in USF credit courses, up to six credit hours per semester.  For summer, terms A, B, and C are all parts of one semester.  Refer to the topics below for specifics about this tuition program.

• Appointed to an established position (no OPS)
• Full-time
• Appointed prior to the first day of class (if on probation must receive at least an Effective overall performance rating)
• Expected to be employed full-time past the end of the semester for which enrolled
• May be on approved leave with or without pay

An employee who withdraws from the same class twice or who enrolls but does not complete the course is not eligible to take other classes under this program.  The supervisor may review exceptions and hardship situations on a case-by-case basis.  The supervisor may also determine whether an employee who did not pass a class is eligible to retake a class under this program. 

• Credit courses only
• Excludes music or theater performance, practicum, continuing education, cooperative education, correspondence courses, life-long learning, directed individual studies or research, internship, Program for Adult Credit Education (PACE), and one-to-one
• Excludes non-credit courses
• Some distance learning restrictions apply, per Educational Outreach staff
• Other exclusions may apply at other universities

Certain credited courses offered by Educational Outreach are not state funded; the program will not cover those courses and non-credit courses.  Employees should find out if the course they want to take falls into any of those categories before registering if using the Employee Tuition Program.

College credit courses which include special fee assessments to offset costs associated with the delivery at a distance or remote location are eligible following a determination of space availability, but the employee will be responsible for paying the special assessment.

Only USF courses are eligible unless the faculty or staff member's principal place of employment is not in a city with a USF campus.  In that circumstance, the employee or faculty member may enroll in courses at the closest SUS university, in accordance with the course eligibility provisions of that institution and the fee payment provisions of USF.  The employee is responsible for paying any costs over and above what this USF program would cover.  Payment should be coordinated with Budgets and Policy Analysis.

The employee registers during the regular registration period for the semester.  The employee obtains and completes the ETP request and approval form, gets supervisor's approval and submits the completed and approved form to the Cashier’s Office in Purchasing and Financial Services by the fifth day of the term.  When the form is not submitted or is submitted after the fifth day of the term, the employee’s registration in the class will be cancelled for non-payment.

The following fees are waived:

• Activities and services fees (per SCH and flat)
• Athletic fees (per SCH and flat)
• Financial Aid fees
• Health fees
• Transportation fees
• Building fees
• Out-of-state financial aid fees
• Capital Improvement fees
• Technology fees

• Matriculation fees (in-state Tuition)
• Out-of-state tuition for Staff (NOTE: if we are granted the authority to waive out-of-state tuition, USF will waive it for USF Staff employees participating in this program)
• Distance Learning fees
• Off-campus fees
• Lab fees

What employees pay for; any other fees and costs that are over and above the normal credit hour costs for the applicable campus.

• Application fees
• Books
• Late fees
• Material and Supply fees
• Repeat surcharge
• Transcript fee
• College credit courses and associated program fees and special assessments that are associated with an entire program such as the medical program, Executive MBA program.

NOTE: At the employee's department's discretion, it may pay for any or all of these fees.

Waiver of Undergraduate Tuition:

The value of undergraduate tuition waived by USF on behalf of its employees is not taxable income pursuant to Internal Revenue Code Section 117. 

Waiver of Graduate Tuition:

USF established a tuition benefit plan pursuant to Internal Revenue Code Section 127 that permits the exclusion of up to $5,250 of graduate tuition waivers from an employee’s taxable income each calendar year.

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TIME IN CLASS – HOW TO ACCOUNT FOR IT 

For Administration and Staff employees, time in class may be accounted for in one of several ways, depending on the circumstances. 

• When the immediate supervisor or higher-level supervisor requires that the employee take the class as part of professional development, time to attend class during the employee’s regular work hours is considered time worked.
• When the class is not required as part of the employee’s job, insofar as possible, the class should be taken outside of regular work hours.  When the class is not available outside of regular work hours, with the supervisor's approval, the employee may use annual leave or other earned leave or may adjust his/her workweek to cover the class time.

The immediate supervisor or higher-level supervisor may disapprove attendance in a class during work hours when the employee’s absence may be detrimental to the operations of the work unit or other operations reasons.  

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