Town Hall Sept. 23: Scholarship Management Update

Sept. 11, 2025

The UA Scholarship Process Improvement Team has been busy this summer innovating the scholarship process. The UA Foundation, UA, UAA, ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ and UAS have worked collaboratively to improve students’ educational journeys by making scholarships more accessible, timely and effective. The UA Foundation Board of Directors has approved a formal Scholarship Management Policy,  in alignment with the UA Board of Regents’ Student First Attainment Framework. In addition,  we are on schedule for the new scholarship management system, AWARDED, to go live on Oct. 1, 2025. 

The Financial Aid Offices and the UA Foundation are hosting town halls to introduce staff and faculty to the new platform on Sept. 23. Each university will have a unique time and Zoom link to join the town hall. Also, we will discuss the changes below to scholarship management. If you have any questions before the meeting,  please feel free to .

ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½ Town Hall, Sept. 23, 2:30-4:30 p.m.: 

Here’s how the approved policy and new platform will affect the scholarship review process:

  • Our new platform is designed for FERPA compliance. 
    • In response to the tightening standards in student data protection from the federal Department of Education, we will utilize AWARDED’s blind review functionality.
    • Student names and identifying information will not be visible to reviewers. The Review Scorecards will only show the Banner data associated with the scholarship criteria, the answers to the student profile questions, and the answers to any supplemental information required for that particular scholarship.
  • All scholarship applications and student award selections will be submitted through the AWARDED platform to ensure consistency, regulatory compliance, and proper tracking. 
    • Departments that manage a page of their university website will need to update the scholarship pages with links to AWARDED instead of the previous general scholarship application links.
  • All enrolled UA students will be considered for scholarships. While the scholarship pools will be larger now that all students are eligible, our new policies and platform have adapted to this change with a new division of labor: 
    • Review Committees will only have to rank scorecards. 
    • Financial Aid staff will process awards based on rankings, donor intent, and student cost of attendance.
    • Broad-qualification scholarships that are based only on Banner data no longer need committee reviews. Financial Aid staff and the UA Foundation Scholarship Team will process these awards based on donor intent and industry best practice.
  • New rolling deadlines will spread the scholarship awards across all three semesters of the academic year, so committees do not have such a heavy lift all at once.
    • Review Committees will have a posted deadline to complete their rankings each semester, and then Financial Aid staff will begin processing awards as soon as the deadline has passed, regardless of whether the rankings have been completed.
    • A schedule of scholarships and deadlines will be distributed in October 2025.