Fellowship Administration

Undergraduates who participate in special educational enrichment and research training programs during the academic year or the summer at Virginia Tech are eligible to receive funds through the Fellowship Disbursement Process (Payroll ST) if there is no work requirement. In the past, these disbursements were primarily made through Accounts Payable.

Please Note: If the student is providing work for service, i.e. not involved in training but completing a specific list of tasks (washing glassware, providing animal care, gathering literature for the researcher, etc.) then they should be hired as a student wage (for enrolled VT students) or emergency hire (non-VT students).

Undergraduate fellowships will be entered using the PAF process in Banner. Current HR Banner enterers should have access to enter fellowships for their departments. If someone needs HR Banner enterer access complete and submit the online banner access form.

The undergraduate process mirrors what is used for graduate students. New undergraduate fellowship positions (STUxxx) have been created for departments that currently have graduate fellowship positions (STPxxx) and other departments that are known to host programs that fit the requirements. Approval of fellowship disbursement transactions are handled by the Office of Undergraduate Research with support from of the Office of the Vice President for Research. Please read Procedure 23800 for procedures, restrictions and processing.

Scholarships should continue to be paid through the student account using the “Request to Pay Funds to a Student Account” form on the Bursar’s website. According to the IRS, a scholarship is generally an amount paid or allowed to a student at an educational institution for the purpose of study.  

Payroll Schedule

Undergraduate fellowships are processed under the stipend (ST) payroll.
Fellowship Payroll Schedule

Required Documents

Fellowship Information Supplement (P-12F) Please Note: If non-resident, the student may be taxed at a later date though the Accounts Receivable Office for amounts due the IRS. Please obtain the applicable documents for non-residents such as: Foreign National Data Form, Copies of: passport, visa, I-94, I20 or DS2019, SSN or ITIN if applicable. Retain documents in the department until requested.

Position Number

Use NBIPORG in Banner to lookup the position number to be used. These position numbers start with STUXXX. If a undergraduate fellowship number needs to be created then please contact the HR Service Center at 540-231-9331 or perserv@vt.edu.

PAF Begin and End Dates

There are 3 possiblities in which a fellowship can be entered and they include:

One-time Payment - If a one time payment will be given then the query date and jobs effective end date on the PAF will need to be for one salay pay period (Example: May 10 - 24). The rate will be the total amount to be paid.

Multi Payments - If multi payments will be given (payment given at beginning, middle and end) then a PAF will need to be entered for each payment and the query date and jobs effective end date on each PAF will need to be for one salary pay period (Example: 1st PAF: May 10 - 24; 2nd PAF: June 10 - 24; 3rd PAF: July 25 - August 9). The rate will be the total amount divided by the number of payments ($900 / 3 = $300).

Continuous Payments - If a continuous payment will be given through a particular timeframe (ex. May - July) then the query date on PAF should be the first day of a salary pay period (ex. May 10) and the jobs effective end date should be the last day of a salay pay period (ex. July 24). The rate will be the total amount divided by the number of pay periods ($1000 / 5 = $200).

PAF Approval Categories

New PAF approval categories have been created:
UGFHIR - Undergrad Fellowship Hire
UGFJOB - Undergrad Fellowship Add Job
UGFSTA - Undergrad Fellowship Stat Chg

Use these standard approval categories for the following actions:
CHGFND - Change Funding
JOBEND - Job End

Funding

Fellowship payments can only be charged to sponsored or private funds.

PAF Comments

Comments will need to be made in the Other Information and Comments tab on PAF to explain the nature of the fellowship.

If one of the pre-approved programs:

• Program name and Funding agency, (e.g. NSF REU Site: Wireless@VT)
•  Program website
•  Faculty/Admin contact

Pre-approved programs include: 

• Fralin Life Science Institute Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scieneering
• Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation
• Multicultural Academic Opportunities Program Summer Research Internship
• Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program
• National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (Sites and Supplements)
• National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Teachers (RET)

If not one of the pre-approved programs:

• Explain the structure and elements of the opportunity (how this experience contributes to the development of the student (i.e. Why it is training as opposed to work)
• link to the program website
• faculty director/mentor information
  any other relevant details (program dates, etc if not on website or no website exists, etc)

PAF Approval

Undergraduate fellowship PAFs will be routed to the department approver and the Office Undergraduate Research. Please be aware that the deadline to have the PAF submitted to the Office of Undergraduate Research is 5 business days prior to the deadline date on the fellowship payroll schedule. To ensure approval in a timely manner, please email ugr@vt.edu to alert them that a fellowship is pending approval.

Web Reports

There are 2 web reports for undergraduate fellowships in the HRIS web reporting system. They are labeled Stipend Appointments and Stipend History Report. These reports are located in the Departmental Reports folder.