Building a Better Fellowship Experience for Graduate Students
One employee idea and an empowered team created a solution to Graduate Fellowship administration issues that have been around for years. When processes are built well, it prevents problems before they surface rather than spending University of Kansas resources solving issues from a broken process later.
Making a Difference by
- Catching Problems Before They Reach Students
Pre-semester reviews of stipend payments and tuition sponsorship forms now enable staff to proactively identify and resolve issues before they impact fellows rather than discovering problems only after payments are delayed. - Helping Faculty Better Support Fellows
New fellowship information resources have improved faculty understanding of how non-employment fellowships differ from graduate research assistant appointments, helping them set appropriate expectations and better support fellows throughout their experience. - Creating a Clear Path for Resolution
When an unrelated payment-system issue occurred this summer, the new coordination structure enabled staff to quickly identify the cause, engage the right contacts, communicate consistently with fellows and principal investigators, and implement a timely solution through a clear resolution process. - Improving Visibility Across the University
The new process provides a coordinated mechanism for identifying and tracking fellowship recipients across the university, improving visibility into their needs and strengthening administrative support.
When graduate students earn a prestigious external or internal fellowship, they should be able to focus on their research, scholarship, and professional development, not on navigating administrative complexity. Through the Jayhawks Elevate initiative, a cross-functional team at KU worked together to improve the experience of graduate students supported by non-employment-based fellowships by creating clearer processes, more consistent communication, and stronger support systems across the university.
Addressing a Hidden Challenge
For years, KU did not have a single, coordinated administrative process for externally and internally funded graduate student fellowships that are not tied to employment appointments. As a result, administering fellowships often required workarounds involving multiple offices and academic units.
During an earlier fellowship payment challenge, program coordinators became aware of stipend payment delays that affected students and highlighted the importance of timely financial support. Each time an issue arose, staff across campus worked diligently to identify the appropriate resources and resolve the situation. As similar challenges emerged over time, it became clear that there was an opportunity to develop a more streamlined, coordinated approach that would better support students and enhance their overall experience.
A One Campus Solution
Recognizing the complexity of the challenge, colleagues from multiple administrative units including KUOR Award Management Services, KUOR Administrative Compliance & Audit and Graduate & Postdoctoral Affairs came together to map the full fellowship lifecycle and better understand how fellowship administration moved across the university.
The project focused on improving the experience of fellows by ensuring they have access to:
- Clear information about how their fellowship is administered
- Consistent onboarding and payment guidance
- Key contact points when questions arise
- Better understanding of university policies and processes that affect their fellowship
- Reliable support regardless of their academic unit
The result was a new model that includes centralized tracking of externally and internally funded non-employment fellowships, clearer roles and responsibilities, more standardized information for faculty and fellows, more consistent payment administration, and a defined process for addressing issues when they occur.
The team also established centralized support for students whose academic units do not have a dedicated fellowship coordinator, ensuring more equitable access to assistance across campus.
The new process launched on July 1, 2026.
The Power of Collaboration
A key outcome of this project was the collaborative approach used to develop it. Administrative units came together to view fellowship administration as a shared student experience rather than a series of separate processes. By examining the full fellowship lifecycle collectively, the team identified opportunities to improve coordination, clarify responsibilities, and provide more consistent support for students. Team members also credited strong leadership support and empowerment, which enabled meaningful collaboration across organizational boundaries.
Supporting Student Success
Students should be able to focus on their academic and research goals, not worry about getting the benefits they were promised. The Jayhawks Elevate fellowship project demonstrates how cross-campus collaboration can transform complex processes into more student-centered systems, ensuring that fellows know where to turn for help, understand how their support is administered, and can focus on the work that brought them to KU in the first place.
By improving coordination behind the scenes, this KU team created a more seamless experience for fellows and reduced administrative barriers to allow our graduate students to focus on their academic and research goals.