Ohio State employees who wish to take undergraduate classes using their tuition benefit must either be enrolled through the Admissions Office (if degree seeking) or through Extended Education.
Review all university deadlines, especially in regards to dropping courses, to successfully use your tuition benefit.
If you have any questions about the benefit, Human Resources can be reached at 614-292-1050 or at hr@osu.edu.
Plan Highlights
The Faculty and Staff Tuition Assistance Plan:
- Does pay the instructional, general and non-Ohio resident fees up to 10 hours per term
- Does not pay for other types of expenses, such as application fees, registration fees, late fees, lab fees, computer fees, student activity fees, recreational sports fee*, COTA bus fee, insurance, and books
You may enroll in undergraduate, graduate or professional degree-granting programs upon meeting the university’s admission requirements.
*The recreational sports fee is not charged to Ohio State employee’s accounts. Learn more about Recreational Sports Membership.
Changes coming in Autumn 2025
Tuition assistance benefits help with the cost of pursuing education at Ohio State for eligible employees wanting to advance their development and careers. Investing in our workforce in this way benefits both you and the organization.
To assure the university can continue to sustain this valuable benefit, Ohio State will update the Faculty and Staff Tuition Assistance Plan effective with start of the 2025 autumn semester. Beginning August 26, 2025, if you leave Ohio State employment, the plan will require repayment of employee tuition assistance received within the 12 months prior to your departure. This requirement does not extend to dependent tuition assistance.
Additionally, the plan will no longer pay fee adjustments due to withdrawing from a course. Sometimes referred to as “one time forgiveness,” this provision will no longer apply. This means you must remain enrolled for the entire academic term for any course for which you received tuition assistance benefits in order to retain that benefit. If you do withdraw after the benefit has been applied, you will be responsible for any fees associated with that withdrawal.
We are providing this notice in advance of the 2025 effective date to help you plan appropriately. Further details about the tuition assistance changes, as well as reminders to individuals who are receiving the benefit, will be provided throughout the coming months prior to implementation.
Examples: If an employee leaves in September 2025, they would repay any tuition benefit used for autumn semester 2025, summer semester 2025 and spring semester 2025. Autumn semester 2024 would not be included because the first day of autumn 2024 classes was August 20 – more than 12 months from their departure date.
Further details and reminders will be provided in the coming months leading up to the plan change.
Refer to Faculty and Staff Tuition Assistance for more detailed information.
Tax Implications
Undergraduate tuition assistance benefits are generally not taxable.
Graduate-level tuition assistance benefits that do not exceed a certain amount in a calendar year are generally not taxable. Review the tuition assistance information for details.
Eligibility and Enrollment
- Prior to receiving the benefit, you must be admitted to the university through either the Admissions Office or the Office of Extended Education. You may enroll in undergraduate, graduate, or professional degree-granting programs upon meeting the university’s admission requirements. Contact Buckeye Link or Extended Education for assistance.
- Tuition assistance under the Plan is provided on an academic term basis. Eligible employees must enroll in the Plan for each academic term that assistance is requested.
- To enroll in the Plan for an academic term, an eligible employee must go to Workday and follow steps below to complete online application for that term, every term the eligible employee takes courses. View the Tuition Assistance Enrollment job aid for a step by step on completing the enrollment into the Plan.
- Click Benefits from the home page.
- Under the Change section, click Benefits.
- Click Faculty and Staff Tuition Assistance Enrollment option from the drop down menu.
- Enter today’s date in the Benefit Event Date field, click Submit and follow remaining steps to complete enrollment.
Eligible employees who want a paper form should complete the Faculty and Staff Tuition Assistance Application.
How to Apply
How you should apply to Extended Education depends on several factors, including whether you have taken classes at Ohio State before. Apply well before the start of semester or session you wish to attend. It may take up to three weeks for your application to be processed.