educational assistance program

MSU's Educational Assistance program provides financial assistance for the professional development of employees in their current jobs and in the enhancement of competencies for career development and promotability at MSU.

Support Staff

Educational assistance benefits and eligibility are governed by an employee’s respective collective bargaining unit agreement. Non-union employees and Academic Specialists also have educational benefits available to them.

Educational assistance, or “ed assist,” benefits are available to help achieve educational and career development goals. There are two different aspects of educational assistance: non-credit courses and credit courses.

Educational Assistance may only be used as an individual benefit and is not available for mandatory or departmental required training, seminars, workshops, retreats and other use.

Non-Credit courses are courses/coursesthat are considered job-related or in preparation for a higher-level position; career and/or professional development-related pertaining to an employee’s stated goals or to enhance competencies. An example would be a class held at MSU HR such as Crucial Accountability.

Credit courses can either be taken at MSU or at a non-MSU accredited institution, provided it is located in the state of Michigan. MSU courses are eligible for and processed as a tuition waiver, while non-MSU courses are processed as a reimbursement. Institutions that are considered to be primarily online only (such as the University of Phoenix) or institutions that are not Michigan-based are ineligible. 

Academic Staff Professional Development Support Program

Many Academic Specialists become eligible for this program once they have accumulated 24 FTEs (full-time equivalent service months) with the university which is equal to two years of full-time service. If the specialist is less than full-time the program is pro-rated. View more information on this program.

Course Fee Courtesy

Course Fee Courtesy will waive 50% (half) of the MSU in-state undergraduate tuition rate for legal dependant children and/or legal spouse of the employee up to a total of 120 attempted credits. Attempted credits will include any transfer credits the student may have from another institution. This benefit is good towards the first undergraduate degree only and for MSU courses only.  

View more information regarding the Course Fee Courtesy benefit for your employee type:

Educational Assistance Application

The Educational Assistance Application provides eligible employees immediate access to complete an application, view pending applications and balances.  The online application is accessed in the EBS Portal. 

Please note:  This application is not for courses being taken through Organization and Professional Development (HR) or MSU IT.  Please sign up for those classes through the EBS Portal, and check Educational Assistance as your payment method, if eligible.

If you have questions about Educational Assistance, please contact Julie Rorick (CourseFeeCourtesy@hr.msu.edu) at 517-884-0177.

Effective August 26, 2014, all applications for benefit must be submitted using the online system.