Harvard Works Because We Do Harvard Union of
Clerical and Technical Workers

Your HUCTW Education Benefits

HUCTW supports lifelong learning for staff and have negotiated several kinds of financial assistance with Harvard to help employees with the costs of courses and other forms of education and personal development, as well as strong contract language to facilitate time away for learning. Please see below for brief description of each program, and links to more details about each.

1. Tuition Assistance Program (TAP)

The Tuition Assistance Program (TAP)assists with the costs of classes taken at Harvard University by providing access to Harvard courses at steeply reduced rates. HUCTW employees become eligible for TAP once they pass their 90-day orientation and review period. Through TAP, classes taken at the Harvard Extension School cost HUCTW staff $40 a class. At other eligible Harvard schools, TAP covers 90% of the tuition cost up front and you pay the remaining 10%. You can take undergraduate and graduate courses at eligible schools, as well as some certificate programs. More information about which schools accept TAP, which types of courses are eligible for TAP, and how many courses can be taken per semester can be found in the TAP/TRP booklet on the Harvard Human Resources website (link below).

If you are taking a Harvard class for graduate credit using TAP, it is very important that you fill the out “Job-Relatedness” section of the TAP form. In this section of the form, you are asked to give a brief explanation of how your class is related to your current job and get your supervisor to sign the form in order to avoid owing tax on graduate education classes. Learn more: huctw.org/taptax.  If you are unable to make a case for job-relatedness or unable to get your supervisor to sign your form, you will owe tax on any TAP classes taken for graduate credit valued at over $5250  (under IRS regulations, the tax is calculated based on the non-discounted price of each class). However, HUCTW has negotiated a program that will reimburse you for the majority of the tax withheld. Learn more about this program below.

2. Tuition Reimbursement Program (TRP)

The Tuition Reimbursement Program (TRP) provides members with financial assistance for classes taken at other accredited colleges and universities bedside Harvard (such as, BU, MIT, Suffolk, Simmons, NYU, etc.). As with TAP, HUCTW members become eligible for TRP once they pass their 90-day orientation and review period. TRP reimburses 90% of the cost of each eligible course, up to $5250 tax-free per year. For HUCTW members only, classes taken through TRP do not need to be job related (so for example, if you work as lab assistant in the sciences, you can use TRP to take a class in French literature at an accredited institution.) The program also helps with the costs of certificate and licensing programs, within certain guidelines. To see the full eligibility requirements and application instructions please see the TAP/TRP booklet. The company Voya manages this program for Harvard.

3. HUCTW Education Fund

The HUCTW Education Fund primarily helps with the cost of courses not eligible for assistance under the University’s Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) and Tuition Reimbursement Program (TRP). The Education Fund will reimburse HUCTW members for 50% of the cost of one course per semester. Eligible courses and programs include things like test prep courses, conferences and seminars, and adult education classes. The Education Fund will also help with the costs of non-Harvard courses eligible for TRP only if you have used up your entire $5250 TRP annual reimbursement (this is sometimes called “tapping out”). Harvard courses are not eligible for Education Fund assistance. To see the full eligibility requirements and application instructions, visit the Education Fund section of the HUCTW website.

4. Time Away for Learning

Below is contract language negotiated by Harvard and HUCTW that allows members to take time away for class attendance (under Release Time), and for professional development opportunities (under Time for Learning).

Release Time for Classes
“A staff member with two or more years of continuous service is eligible for up to three hours per week of released time (proportionately less for part-time staff), provided that s/he has made arrangements with her/his supervisor.” Page 14-15, HUCTW Agreement

Time for Learning
“The Union and the University recognize the complexity of balancing work responsibilities with the time away from regular duties often necessary for education, training, or professional development. Cooperation between staff members and managers in scheduling is therefore critical to making workforce learning opportunities real and accessible, and to ensuring productive operations. Requests for time away from regular work duties to participate in professional development may not be unreasonably denied. Employees who participate in job-related or development-oriented training programs during work hours should be paid for those hours, and should not be required to make up those hours at another time.” Page 14 -15, HUCTW Agreement

There is also strong language on negotiating flexible schedule arrangements (including hours variations and working from home, among others), on pages 17 – 19 of the Full 2015 – 2018 Agreement: https://huctw.org/contract.