Tuition usually refers to educational costs. The term can be used when referring to the cost of a single course or a full track of study. Tuition reimbursement is a process that normally involves a student paying for educational costs and being repaid by another entity at a later date.
Tuition reimbursement is a type of educational financial aid. It is designed to alleviate the costs that a student has to pay. This type of arrangement generally involves higher learning.
Unlike other forms of educational financial aid, tuition reimbursement requires the student to initially pay her own educational costs. In some cases, she may not have to literally pay. She may just have to agree to be responsible to pay. There are educational facilities that will defer the payment when reimbursement arrangements are involved. However, in the event that the monies are not provided from the expected source, the responsibility usually falls upon the student.
There are often conditions attached to tuition reimbursement. These vary depending on the source that is expected to reimburse a student. One common source is an employer. In an effort to encourage higher education and to attract quality workers, some employers offer to pay for their staffs’ education.
A condition that many employers attach to this benefit is that the course of study must relate to the company. This means that if a bank teller wants to study using a tuition reimbursement program, she will likely have to choose a major that involves the financial industry. Companies generally do this because they hope to receive a return on the investment. If they allowed their workers to study unrelated courses at their expense, it could be viewed as a potential loss because those workers would have to seek other companies to utilize those skills.
Other sources of tuition reimbursement are government programs and private donors. These entities are often liberal with regards to what a person studies. They tend to have a condition that is often shared by employers though.
Most tuition reimbursement is dependent on a person maintaining a certain academic standard. If she does not, she may not be reimbursed for courses that do not meet the standard. In some instances, when students do not maintain the required average, they become ineligible for any further benefits.
When a person is reimbursed depends on the entity providing the funds. Some may issue the funds as soon as enrollment can be verified. Some, however, do not issue the funds until satisfactory completion of the course can be verified.
