2026 Dissertation Completion Fellowships

The Graduate College’s Dissertation Completion Fellowships help outstanding Illinois graduate students complete their doctoral degree by providing a 12-month stipend of $25,000 along with waivers of tuition, service fee, health service fee, AFMFA fee, and library/IT fee. In addition, the fellow will receive partial payment of the graduate student health insurance fee per semester as well as basic dental and vision coverage.

Nominees must be enrolled in a program leading to the PhD, DMA, EdD, or JSD and should have completed all requirements for the doctoral degree except the dissertation. Only those students who have passed the preliminary examination by the nomination deadline and who will defend and deposit their dissertations by August 2027 are eligible for nomination. There are no exceptions to these requirements. Registration is not required at the time of nomination but is required during the award period.

The criteria used in making the awards include the significance of the research, as reflected in the nominee’s proposal and the letters of support, the student’s productivity and efficient progress toward the degree as shown in the academic record, and the likelihood that the student will defend and deposit the dissertation by August 2027. The intent of the fellowship is to help students complete their dissertations. Accordingly, awardees are discouraged from holding multiple waiver-generating appointments.

ELIGIBILITY

1. Open only to currently enrolled doctoral students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
2. Eligible students will be nominated by their department or program.
3. Nominees must be enrolled in a program leading to the PhD, DMA, EdD, or JSD and should have completed all requirements for the doctoral degree except the dissertation. Only those students who have passed the preliminary examination by the nomination deadline and who will defend and deposit their dissertations by August 2027 are eligible for nomination. There are no exceptions to these requirements.
4. Students who have already received a dissertation completion fellowship from another campus unit or an external funder are ineligible.
5. Registration is not required at the time of nomination but is required during the award period.

For more information, see the posting on Fellowship Finder: https://fellowship-finder.grad.illinois.edu/SearchResult/Fellowship/2807