PhD in Business Administration

Financial Aid / Funding

Graduate Assistantships

A limited number of graduate assistantships are available for doctoral students. These require 20 hours of work per week and are 12-month appointments except for the fourth-year assistantship which is a 9-month appointment. Students who receive a revise-and-resubmit invitation from a UTD24 or FT50 journal by January 15 of their fourth year will receive a fifth-year graduate assistantship as well. 

Students funded with assistantships are required to assist faculty with research and to teach classes, and may not hold outside employment while on funding. The timing of the teaching assignment and the classes assigned are determined by the student’s concentration. The school director is responsible for scheduling the courses. The school director will work with the doctoral program coordinator and/or the student’s dissertation chair to ensure that class assignments and the number of course preps (preferably not more than two overall) help students progress to the profession while minimizing distractions from their research.  

Students are expected to teach classes as specified in their offer letter. However, contingent on the availability of funding/budgets, students will receive a one-course-section teaching reduction (for one semester) for every accepted (not conditionally accepted) or published manuscript at a UTD24 journal. The paper must be accepted in a UTD24 journal prior to August 1 of the student’s third/fourth-year transition for the teaching release to be given in the student’s fourth year, and prior to August 1 of the student’s fourth/fifth-year transition for the teaching release to be given in the student’s fifth year, for up to a maximum of two such releases. 

Partial waivers of both in-state and out-of-state tuition fees will be given to graduate students who are appointed as graduate teaching/research assistants or associates. At the present time, the tuition waiver may be limited to a maximum of nine hours per semester. During the summer term, the tuition waiver may be limited to a maximum of six hours. Students receiving partial tuition waivers will be responsible for fees associated with credit hours taken. A health insurance subsidy is also available to students on assistantship.

University Fellowships

The university has several fellowships that newly admitted students can be nominated for by their departments.

University Graduate Fellowship- For outstanding, new students enrolling in a doctoral program. Students must not have taken or be taking classes at USF, degree or non-degree seeking, when nominated for this award.

Presidential Doctoral Fellowship- For new doctoral students with exceptional academic credentials (ex. evidence of experience in the field; research productivity, awards, honors; and professional contributions and achievements to the field). Students must not have taken or be taking classes at USF, degree or non-degree seeking when nominated for this award.

Delores Auzenne Fellowship- For talented new domestic doctoral students who contribute diversity in USF graduate programs. Students should represent individuals who are historically underrepresented in specific disciplines along the dimensions of ethnicity and gender. Student must be a new, incoming doctoral student. A master's student from USF who is entering the doctoral program may be considered for this award.

McKnight Fellowships

The State of Florida's McKnight Doctoral Fellowships are for African American or Hispanic US citizens who hold a bachelor's degree from a regionally accredited college or university. Up to 50 McKnight Fellowships are granted each year to students pursuing doctoral degrees in eligible fields of study at one of nine participating institutions in Florida. The University of South Florida is one of the participating institutions and business is one of the eligible fields of study. Interest students apply directly to the Florida Education Fund. For more information, please reference the McKnight website.

Gaiennie Fund

Rene “Bud” Gaiennie served as a senior executive for the Singer Corporation and later as a Distinguished Lecturer in Management Policy in the Muma College of Business at the University of South Florida.  He left a testamentary gift to the college with the purpose of promoting, developing and disseminating the research of USF Muma College of Business doctoral students. The Gaiennie Endowment funds the following doctoral student research related costs and travel funding.

Dissertation research grants to a maximum of $5,000 per dissertation are available to students who have been admitted to candidacy and are students in residence at USF.  Each proposal will be reviewed by the Muma College Doctoral Program Committee.  External reviews may be solicited to help the committee in its deliberations. The Muma College Doctoral Program Committee is solely responsible for the final determination of awards.

Travel funding

  • First year doctoral students will be provided up to $1000 to attend a premier conference or conference/workshop approved by the school doctoral program coordinator. 
  • $1000 annually is available to attend general and specialty conferences that have been pre-approved by the school’s representative on the Muma College Doctoral Program Committee, and where the student is presenting a paper submitted under a competitive review process. 
  • In addition to the $1000 provided to attend and present a competitively reviewed paper at a conference approved by the student’s doctoral program coordinator, students may be eligible for $1,300 in travel funding to present a competitively reviewed paper at a premier conference in their discipline. Such funding to present at a premier conference is also available to fifth year doctoral students. Additional travel funding may be considered for international premier conferences or consortiums, which will be evaluated by the Muma College Doctoral Program Committee on a case-by-case basis. Note that the funding for the premier conference is separate from the $1000 amount available for a non-premier conference, with the intent to encourage and fund two separate presentations.
  • Doctoral students submitting a paper to a conference without a faculty co-author can request reimbursement of submission fees. The request is limited to one request per student per year. The school’s coordinator must conduct a quality check on the submission prior to signing off on the Gaiennie request form.
  • A one-time allotment of $1,300 per student for travel to a conference when searching for a job is available.
  • Annually, each concentration will be allowed to nominate one doctoral student to attend a premier doctoral consortium for which the student will receive up to $1,300 in travel funding.

No funding will be provided to attend any conferences as an attendee, discussant, or track chair, except for the first year students, as described above.  With the exception of funding for fifth year for a student presenting his/her research at a premier conference, travel funding is available for the first four years a student is enrolled in the PhD program. 

Muma College of Business Doctoral Student Merit Fellowships

The Muma College of Business offers up to three $10,000 fellowships that newly admitted students can be nominated for by their departments. These fellowships are renewable for up to four years based on performance and progress in the program. Progress will be measured objectively by research productivity at the end of each year in the program. Nominees should meet one or more of the following criteria:

  • Evidence of significant research accomplishment, such as publication in a premier journal or outstanding research award
  • Evidence of superior academic achievement, such as extremely high GMAT/GRE (90-95 percentile) or attendance at a top-ranked university
  • Evidence of outstanding professional achievement (especially relating to research), such as external awards, international recognition or selection to firm research office
  • Evidence of diversity: consideration of under-represented groups in the profession or academic area
  • Evidence that the candidate is highly sought by aspirant type universities.

Fifth Year Funding

Schools may nominate students who receive a revise-and-resubmit invitation from a UTD24 or FT50 journal by January 15 of their fourth year to receive a fifth-year graduate assistantship.