Graduate Student Health Insurance Award

The Graduate College offers the Graduate Student Health Insurance Award (GSHI Award) for fall and spring semesters. Health insurance coverage purchased for spring semester continues through the summer term automatically. No award is provided for the summer semester. 

Eligibility is assessed on a semesterly basis, and students may receive the award for one or both semesters. To qualify for these award funds, you must submit your GSHI or GA/fellowship stipend offer letter to the Graduate College via the submission form, and you must maintain all eligibility requirements throughout the entire semester. Students must submit their annual GSHI or stipend offer letter each year in order to continue receiving the award. 

For the 2025–26 academic year, the Graduate College has been able to secure funding in order to provide a GSHI award at 100% of the single student UC SHI cost. The 25-26 AY UC Student Health Insurance rates were announced August 4, 2025. The single student rate is is $1,045.95 for fall semester 2025 and $1,475.17 for spring semester 2026 ($2,521.12 per academic year).

The maximum award is $2,521.12 for the 25-26 academic year.

Students who purchase UC student health insurance (SHI) coverage for themselves and for a spouse/dependent(s) are charged the full cost of coverage for the academic year on their fall semester bill. Students who enroll in the family plan and meet award requirements for both fall and spring will receive the full annual amount of the GSHI award ($2,521.12) on their fall bill. The GSHI Award does not provide extra funding for spouse/dependent coverage. 

Students who purchase single-student coverage, and thus are billed on a semesterly basis, will receive the GSHI Award for 100% of the semesterly charge, provided they meet and maintain all award criteria. 

If your posted GSHI Award does not reflect your current UC SHI coverage, please contact gshi@uc.edu for assistance. Students who select that they will purchase a family plan on the GSHI form, but who remain with single student coverage, will encounter an "excess, restricted, non-refundable aid" issue, which will prevent them from paying their bill in full via the online payment portal. 

Only full-time students are eligible for this award. Students must be enrolled in at least 10 graduate credit hours in order for the award to disburse to their bill. Students granted permission to register for a reduced course load, either by UC International or their program, are not exempt from registration requirement for the GSHI Award. 

If a student drops or withdraws from courses during the semester and falls below 10 graduate credit hours, the award will be removed from their student bill. The reason for 10 (rather than 12, 15, or whatever the student’s program requires as a criteria of their tuition scholarship) is that for the purposes of billing, 10 credit hours is considered full-time status for graduate students. Audited courses do not count toward this minimum. 

At the end of each award semester, the Graduate College will re-confirm students’ eligibility to make sure that all other requirements have been met (see below for description requirements). Students who fail to maintain award eligibility will have their award removed.

It is the student’s responsibility to check with the program that sponsors their graduate assistantship to make sure the pay dates for the minimum $3,051.20 in pay falls within the pay date ranges below. These date ranges will be used to pull information from UC payroll records to verify eligibility.

Please direct any questions to gshi@uc.edu.
 

To receive this award, you must:

1. Be a Graduate Assistant (teaching, research, or administrative) or Fellow, in the UC payroll system as a graduate assistant or fellow, or paid via a Catalyst "departmental item type" designated as a fellowship stipend. Hourly student worker positions (where clocking in and out is required) do NOT qualify. 

2. Be receiving stipend payments of a minimum $3,051.20 per semester through UC Payroll (for GA positions) or Catalyst (for fellowship stipend awards) within the following pay dates:

Fall Semester: 09/9/25–12/31/2025 (9 pay periods)
and/or
Spring Semester: 01/01/26–05/05/26 (9 pay periods)

• The minimum stipend is equivalent to a 10 hour per week appointment over 16 weeks at the master's/non-PhD minimum stipend rate of $19.07 per hour. 
• GAs who are awarded a 15 week appointment, rather than a 16 week appointment, must receive a minimum of $2,860.50 per semester. 
• Payroll checks from UC for grad students with a payroll status of student worker, compensated hourly, do NOT count toward the $3,051.20 requirement.
• Co-op students paid by a company other than UC during either of these semesters (fall or spring) will not have their pay from their co-op company counted toward the $3,051.20 semester pay requirement.

3. Maintain university student health insurance coverage throughout the qualifying award term. For more information about enrollment, contact the Student Health Insurance Office. Please note that students matriculated into online programs (academic sub-plans beginning with an asterisk " * ") are ineligible for UC SHI coverage, and are therefore ineligible for the GSHI awards. 

4. Enroll for at least 10 graduate credit hours in each qualifying award semester. Audited courses do not count toward this minimum.

5. Maintain eligibility to receive general funds financial aid under the 174 Graduate Credit Rule.
 

If a student does not meet all eligibility requirements throughout the qualifying award term, then they will forfeit the Graduate Student Health Insurance Award for that semester. This will result in the full semesterly amount of the award being removed from the student’s UC account.

If a graduate student waives the university health insurance, they will not be eligible for any GSHI Award.
 

• Posting of awards: Starting on August 11, 2025, awards will be posted on a weekly basis. 
  
• First Day of Classes: 8/25/26
• September 2025, GSHI will check to make sure that the student has enrolled for SHI by the SHI enrollment deadline and if not, remove the award.
• December 2025, GSHI will check to make sure that the student met all of the requirements for the GSHI Award during the fall semester and if not, rescind the fall award.
• January 2026, GSHI will check to make sure that the student has enrolled for SHI by the SHI enrollment deadline and if not, remove the award.
• April 2026, GSHI will check to make sure that the student met all of the requirements for the GSHI Award during the spring semester and if not, rescind the spring award.
  
  

Please direct any questions to gshi@uc.edu.