Since UROP is an academic program, students must be approved in order to be activated as UROPs. The online UROP system provides you with access to approval and project related information in your DLC. We process proposals as quickly as possible, and encourage both students and staff to contact us if they are experiencing any delays.

Activation and Termination of UROP Appointments

UROP payroll is administered via the MIT Student Payroll System. All paid UROP students must be activated in the Student Payroll System using the Student Appointment section of Atlas. Approved paid UROPS must be activated in the system at the beginning of their UROP employment. UROP payroll data is sent to the Student Payroll System via nightly feed from the UROP system.

The only fields that you may enter or edit for UROP appointments are:

• Position Title – Ensuring that the “Position Title” is descriptive is most helpful, as a student may have more than one UROP or student employment position on campus.
• Position Description
• Location 
• Cost distribution – Only editable for faculty/dept. funded projects 
• Planned Hours per Week –  Please record as close to the actual planned work hours as possible, especially for international students, who are limited to work no more than 20 hours per week for all positions combined. 
• Time Group – It is suggested that UROPs be put into a Department. Lab or Center “UROP” Time group. If a UROP time group has not been set up in your DLC, you may wish to contact your department’s payroll administrator to set one up for use with all UROPs.
• Comments – optional
• CC Addresses – optional

Term start and end dates are determined based on the term of UROP approval and this information automatically appears in SAP. You can only change start and end dates to begin later than or end earlier than the given term date range. UROP appointments cannot begin prior to the start of the term or extend beyond the end date for the approved UROP term.

Refer to the online instructions on the VPF site at: http://vpf.mit.edu/set-up-an-hourly-student-appointment.

Minimum Wage

The minimum hourly rate for UROP students in the 2023-2024 academic year is $15.50/hr. The maximum UROP direct funding (funds from the UROP office) award for fall and spring will be $2,325 (150 total hours) and $7,440 (480 total hours) for the summer – paid at the $15.50/hr rate. These amounts are current for the 2023-2024 academic year and are subject to change.

Mixed Funding

Due to MIT policy based on regulations regarding overhead, you are not allowed to mix education funds (e.g. UROP funds) with sponsored research funds. If UROP has agreed to fund a student for a given term, a faculty member may not supplement this income with funds from his/her research account.

Approvals

The wage/materials and services amounts listed for approved UROPs are the maximum amounts that students can earn. When wages are charged against sponsored-research funds, indirect costs are also charged (e.g. standard MIT overhead). Please be sure to charge student wages and awarded materials and services funds to the account number indicated on their approved application.

Timesheets

Students should submit timesheets on a weekly basis like other hourly-paid employees and must be paid for all submitted timesheets, even if this includes “premium” overtime hours. However, if a student is directly funded by UROP (Direct Funding), please alert UROP staff should this occur.

Please note that departments, not UROP staff, are responsible for ensuring timely timesheet approval and verification that hours reported on timesheets are accurate/approved. Only those individuals authorized by the DLC can approve timesheets. Generally, UROP supervisors are expected to approve timesheets.

To insure that students are submitting hours authorized by the faculty supervisor, it may help to develop an internal process for timesheet verification. If a student erroneously enters hours or receives incorrect payment, the department should work with HR/Payroll to make required adjustments.

The approval emails students receive from UROP, inform them about weekly timesheet submissions. Weekly hours should be tracked to ensure that students do not go over their allotted maximum amounts.

If you have approved paid UROPs in our DLC who are not submitting timesheets, please notify their UROP supervisors and the UROP office (urop@mit.edu) so that students can be reminded of the need to submit their timesheets in a timely manner.

Holiday Pay

Students who work on a holiday can be paid for those hours, but students are not paid for hours that they do not work on a holiday.

2023-2024 UROP Pay Periods

• Summer 2023 pay period: June 5, 2023 – September 4, 2023
• Fall 2023 pay period: September 5, 2023 – January 7, 2024
• IAP 2024 pay period: January 8, 2024 – February 4, 2024
• Spring 2024 pay period: February 5, 2024 – June 2, 2024. Note: however, that graduating seniors must end spring UROPs before Commencement.
• Summer 2024 pay period: June 3, 2024 – September 2, 2024

International Students

International students are restricted in the number of hours that may be worked during any given week. During the fall and spring international students are limited to 20 hours per week and during IAP and the summer, 40 hours per week. Now that UROP students are appointed through SAP and audits monitor student worked hours, it is more important than ever to record as close to the actual planned work hours per week as possible, especially for international students who are limited to work no more than 20 hours per week for all positions combined.

Please consult the International Students Office (ISO) for questions related to paying international students.

UROPs in International Locations 

UROP students planning to work remotely should be sure to heed the guidance provided on the Remote Appointment Guidance for UROP Students page.

UROP students doing remote paid UROP work in a U.S. state other than Massachusetts should be aware there may be tax implications in that other state for receiving pay while in that state, and should consult the relevant local tax authority for guidance.  

Wellesley Students

Wellesley students are not eligible for direct support from UROP. However, supervisor funding is allowed if the faculty supervisor agrees. Wellesley students need to cross-register each term in which they undertake UROPs and should refer to the Wellesley College Student  Application Checklist for complete information. 

UROP Accounts and UROP Account eDACCA Certification

New UROP child accounts are issued to each DLC at the beginning of every academic year (generally in early September). All students funded directly by UROP during a given academic year and/or subsequent summer should be charged to this new account.

Each quarter UROP payroll coordinators (or a specified departmental colleague) are responsible for certifying the quarterly eDACCA for their department’s UROP account. We ask that payroll coordinators issue these certifications because they are appointing students and processing timesheets and are best positioned to certify effort. UROP staff will send email reminders regarding the need to certify and will certify accounts by proxy and mail you a paper DACCA for certification, should any account remain uncertified on the stated certification deadline.

IMPORTANT NOTE: UROP-funded student wages/materials and services charges must be charged to your department’s UROP account before the specified account end date (provided each year when we send you the new account number – September 30, 2023 for AY 2022-23 UROPs), in order to be eligible for UROP funding. Charges processed after the account termination date become the responsibility of your department.

Please contact UROP staff at x3-7306 or email urop@mit.edu if you have any questions about your department’s UROP account or eDACCA certifications.

Overtime

• UROP Funding. Work beyond 40 hours is automatically paid as overtime. UROP students should work no more than 40 hours per week as UROP does not have a budget to support premium wages (e.g. overtime hours). However, if a student submits a timesheet that exceeds 40 hours, the timesheet should be processed, as labor law mandates that employees must be paid for all worked hours. However, should you encounter UROP-funded students charging overtime hours, please alert UROP staff, ASAP.
• Supervisor Funding. If a student holds a single supervisor-funded position and that supervisor approves overtime, it is acceptable. Again, should a student submit a timesheet that exceeds 40 hours, the timesheet must be processed.
• More than one UROP. If a student holds more than one paid UROP or other MIT position paid through student payroll, then aggregate hours in excess of 40 are paid at time and a half. For instance, if a student has a summer UROP at 40 hours a week and another campus job at 10 hours a week, the student will earn 10 hours of overtime. Depending on when payroll is processed, these overtime hours may be charged to either “employer.” Therefore, students already working full-time on a direct funded UROP should be discouraged from accepting additional on-campus pay positions (additional UROPs or other jobs), as UROP is not budgeted to pay overtime hours. Supervisors who are funding UROP students should be informed if their summer UROPs are working other jobs so they are aware that overtime might result..

Materials and Services (M&S) Expenses

Occasionally, UROP will allot money to students for materials and services purchases, travel to conferences, etc.. These purchases can be made a few ways:

Reimbursement. A student may make these purchases up front and then approach the payroll coordinator for a reimbursement. Must be approved by UROP Staff.

Purchase Order. A payroll coordinator may set up a PO against the UROP account. Must be approved by UROP Staff.

Check. If the exact amount of the purchase is known in advance and the student is prepared to wait, the payroll coordinator may submit a “request for payment” to CAO, requesting a check made payable to the appropriate party. Must be approved by UROP Staff.

Resources

For questions regarding activation, terminations and student payroll policies, please contact the following offices:

• Student Employment Policies: For questions about student employment policies, please email/call the Student Employment staff: seo-www@mit.edu or x8-8600.
• HR-Payroll/Student Payroll Office: For questions regarding student payments or the student payroll system, NE49-4000, payroll@mit.edu, http://vpf.mit.edu/payroll.