Only in specific circumstances is additional compensation allowed for academic appointees, these circumstances are outlined in the salary administration section of the Academic Personnel Manual. A one-time payment is additional compensation provided to an academic appointee for occasional service or activities that fall outside of the appointee’s normal responsibilities. These payments are governed by specific policies and not all additional services/activities are eligible for additional compensation.

Eligible one-time payments are listed below, activities or services that do not fall under the outlined categories will require exceptional approval.

All one-time payment requests must be approved by the Office of Academic Personnel prior to the activity or service and before payments can be processed and paid to the academic appointee.

A. Honoraria

1. Policy and Eligible Titles

An honorarium is a payment by the University to an academic appointee for lectures and similar services that fall outside the appointee’s normal academic responsibilities to the University (APM 666).

All requests for payment of honoraria to University academic appointees should be forwarded to the Vice Provost through the Office of Academic Personnel.

Vice Chancellors, Academic Deans, and the Director, UCI Medical Center are delegated the authority to approve payment of honoraria of up to $2,500 to individuals who are not University employees. This authority may not be redelegated further.

All academic appointees are eligible to receive an honorarium payment.

2. Service Activities

A UC academic appointee may receive honoraria for one of the following activities:

  • A special lecture or a short series of such lectures at a campus other than the faculty member’s home campus.
  • A campus sponsored program review for a campus other than the faculty member’s home campus.
  • A concert or other creative work on any UC campus including where the appointee serves.
  • University-sponsored conferences and panels when these activities occur on any UC campus including where the appointee serves.

Within the University community and its activities, honorarium payments for those who are not UC employees include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • A payment for conducting a seminar or a workshop of no more than two-week’s duration.
  • A payment for a musical demonstration related to Music Department instruction.
  • A payment for a guest speaker at a commencement exercise or other similar function.
  • A payment for an appraisal of an article to be submitted to a professional publication.
  • A payment to Continuation Education of the Bar (CEB) authors and lecturers.

3. Approval Authority

Honoraria AmountApproval AuthorityRequires additional written justification?
Up to $2,500Vice Provost of Academic PersonnelNo
$2,501 – $5,000Vice Provost of Academic PersonnelYes
$5,001 or greaterUC Office of the PresidentYes

These delegations can also be found at https://www.policies.uci.edu/delegations/ida629.php.

4. Restrictions

  • State funds may not be used for honoraria payments
  • The following are not considered honoraria:
    • Departmental personnel actions or ad hoc committees, service on thesis, committees or service on campus or systemwide committees
    • Performance fee payments to individuals or groups for professional services not directly related to academic functions.
    • Payments to independent consultants providing primarily professional or technical advice to the University in an independent contractor relationship.
    • Payments to faculty consultants who hold a faculty appointment and who provide specialized professional or technical advice to a campus extramurally supported project or to an activity supported from University funds.
    • Additional compensation for Summer Session Teaching, University Extension Teaching, University Extension Correspondence courses or Extramurally Funded Research.
  • Total annual honoraria under this policy may not exceed 10 percent of the appointee’s annual (July-June) base salary. State funds may not be used.
    • Example for annual honoraria max calculation for appointees less than 100%:
      Annual Base Salary = Annual Rate x Average Annual FTE
      10% Honoraria Limit = Annual Base Salary x 10%
      • Example:  $120,000 (annual rate)  x .50 (average annual FTE) = Base salary of $60,000
      • In this example the 10% limit is calculated as: $60,000 x 10% = $6,000 annual honoraria limit

5. Payment

The home campus/unit must confirm that the academic appointee is eligible to receive the honorarium prior to payment, if needed, please confer with the Office of Academic Personnel.

The honoraria payment is not retirement base building eligible.

Details for how to process one-time payments can be found here

B. Faculty Consultants

1. Policy and Eligible Titles

A. A faculty consultant is a faculty member (as defined in APM 110-4-15), who acts occasionally as a professional consultant in connection with a research project under the auspices of the University, provided that the faculty member is not regularly engaged on the project (APM 664)

B. Faculty from any UC Campus are eligible for this category.

C. Such service is not considered consulting as defined in APM 025 and APM 671, and the time spent as a faculty consultant does not count toward the time limit in those specific policies.

D. The Vice Provost for Academic Personnel is the approving authority for faculty consultant requests.

2. Compensation Rate

The allowable maximum compensation amount per day is the faculty member’s daily rate plus an additional 30 percent.

The daily rate for academic-year appointees is determined by dividing the appointee’s total nine-month salary by 171. For fiscal-year appointees, the daily rate is determined by dividing the total annual salary by 236.

Example calculation:

Academic TypeDaily Rate Calculation30% of daily rateMax Daily Rate
Academic Year$110,000/171 = $643$643 x .30 = $193$836
Fiscal Year$110,000/236 = $466$466 x .30 = $140$606

The daily rate for a faculty consultant will be based on the Total Negotiated Salary (TNS) for HSCP faculty and Total UC Salary (TUCS) for NSTP faculty.

3. Payment

No state general funds can be used for this category. Details for how to process one-time payments can be found here.

C. Awards or Prizes
  1. A payment made to an academic appointee for winning an award or prize.
    • Award or prize must be a result of a competitive process.
    • Established award programs only; not ad hoc.
    • Examples include, but are not limited to:
      1. Winning best poster in a poster presentation.
      2. Best teaching awards.
  2. All academic appointees are eligible for this category.
  3. Vice Provost of Academic Personnel is the approving authority.
  4. No state general funds can be used for this category.
  5. There is no maximum award amount.
  6. Details for how to process one-time payments can be found here.