The Office of the Provost partners with Student Financial Services, Office of General Counsel, the Office of Corporate Tax, Compliance, and Payroll, Human Resources and other central offices to provide guidance on payments to students. Students may receive payments for various reasons, such as assistantships, awards, fellowships, grants, research support, scholarships, traineeships, travel, etc. The type, purpose, and primary beneficiary (student or University) of a payment determines how it is processed and to whom it must be reported.
Below are those guidelines in more detail.
If you are not sure what payment type should be used, please consult the Student Payment Matrix (coming soon) or Decision Tree (coming soon). You may also submit a ticket to Ben Helps to the Student Payments Team.
Employment
Students at the University of Pennsylvania have access to a wide variety of work opportunities.
When classes are in session, all full-time students and part-time traditional undergraduate students can work a maximum of 20 hours per week.
When classes are officially not in session, U.S. students (full-time or part-time) can work a maximum of 40 hours per week. During school breaks (Thanksgiving, Winter, and Spring), non-resident aliens must comply with their Visa as to maximum numbers of hours allowable. If you are unsure as to what those maximum hours allowable is, please check with International Student & Scholar Services Office.
A student is required to take an unpaid break or lunch of at least one-half hour after five consecutive hours of work.
Compensation for services rendered is NOT a stipend. Compensation for services rendered is considered wages and should be stated as such in an individual’s offer letter.
It is imperative that schools and centers hire individuals in the correct Job Profile based on their degree program. The following is a quick reference guide: Student Job Profile Eligibility. If students are not correctly classified, this could result in a tax liability to the individual, school/center and University.
Additional references:
Prizes and Awards
Penn Students are provided a monetary award or prize that is in recognition of religious, charitable, scientific, educational, artistic, literary, or civic achievements. These awards and prized can be a result of entering a contest.
Prizes and awards should be processed through Penn Marketplace non-PO request using object code 5344 Prizes & Awards.
Please note: If restrictions are placed on the prize or award, it is considered a scholarship and should be awarded and processed through the University’s financial aid system.
Scholarship and Fellowship
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) defines a scholarship or fellowship grant as an amount given to an individual for study, training, or research, and which does not constitute compensation for personal services.
Tuition
The University’s Student System processes payments for scholarship and fellowship tuition grants.
Stipends
A stipend is a payment that is made to an individual to support a training/learning experience and is frequently in the form of a “living allowance.” Compensation for services rendered is NOT a stipend.
Stipends are not considered wages or non-employee compensation when paid to support a training/learning experience. Please refer to the Student Job Profile Eligibility quick reference guide.
Compensation for services rendered is considered wages, not a stipend.
Stipends paid to current PENN Graduate PhD students are processed through Workday. Stipends paid to individuals who are neither Graduate PhD students nor PENN students are paid through the University’s Accounts Payable Department as a non-PO Payment request.
All Proposed stipend payment requests must include documentation describing the scholarship or fellowship program for which the stipend is paid and sufficient to establish that the stipend is a non-compensatory payment to defray living expenses during the period of the program.
Travel
The type, purpose, and primary beneficiary (student or University) of a travel payment determines how it is processed and to whom it must be reported. Payments made to students for travel should be made as follows:
Reimbursement of travel costs while conducting business on behalf of Penn – Payments made to students who travel for business as part of their job or while conducting business on behalf of Penn (e.g., assisting a professor at a conference with the presentation of the faculty member’s research) should be processed through Concur, the University’s travel system, in accordance with Penn’s travel policies. Examples include:
- Penn as Primary Beneficiary
- Example A: A student is asked to travel to a conference held in San Francisco to present a paper on behalf of a PENN department.
- Example B: A student travels to Germany to perform research for Penn, which happens to be the same topic related to student B’s dissertation. Penn would perform research on this topic regardless of student B’s dissertation topic.
- Example C: A student is asked to travel to New York City to represent the Penn in a Scholastic Bowl competition (in this example, the student is not required to be employed by the unit paying for the travel).
- Example D: A student submits a travel proposal in which the Penn business purpose is effectively described, receives departmental approval that requires a clearly stated deliverable upon the student’s return, and the student presents that deliverable to the department’s satisfaction.
- Example E: A student is asked to attend a conference or training that will enhance their knowledge and skills to effectively perform their university employment duties (e.g. student Orientation Leader).
Travel costs in furtherance of student’s education or related to a course – Payments made to students who receive funding for travel costs related to their course of study (e.g., any payment made for travel required to receive credit for the course) should be processed through Student Registration and Financial Services (“SRFS”). The School should request a SAM AID ID for each fund that it uses to issue travel awards to students. Documentation of the travel expense, educational requirement and award amount should be submitted to SRFS for review. SRFS will review the documentation, add the expense to the student’s Cost of Attendance (if approved) and schedule the award for disbursement via the Student Aid Management system.
Travel awards – Payments made to students to travel to enable them to perform research or other educational activity that is not required as part of their degree should be processed through Penn Marketplace via a non-PO payment request using object code 5345 Expense Reimbursement, which is used for travel and expense reimbursements for students, employees and guests that do not meet accountable plan rules for expense reimbursement (e.g., there is no bona fide business purpose).