The Faculty Council approved changes to graduate student financial aid awards that would make Harvard's financial aid offers more competitive with those of peer institutions.

Currently Harvard's standard full stipend of $11,590 places it in the middle of the pack, but the two-year duration of its full fellowship offer lags behind all but one surveyed school, Brown University. By comparison, the University of Pennsylvania awards graduate students $13,000 for up to five years.

The council based its discussion on a report drafted by the Faculty Committee on Graduate School Financial Support, chaired by Peter T. Ellison, associate dean of the Faculty and professor of anthropology.

According to the report, departments in the humanities and social sciences are concerned that Harvard is losing its competitive edge.

"We are far behind the competition; our standard offer extends for only two years while most [other university offers] are for four years," Ellison said.

The changes agreed to by the council will be enacted pending the full Faculty's approval at its May 19 meeting.

The committee's report outlined seven goals for graduate student financial aid including providing support for students at "competitive levels"; improving the incorporation of teaching into graduate programs and financial aid offers; and ensuring more effective fund-raising strategies.

The Ellison report says two principles guided them in their decisions: the financial aid system should not under mine merit-based admissions, and departmental flexibility should be maintained.

The impending changes are also designed to alleviate the concerns of students who have to "cope with financial uncertainty from term to term," the report reads.

Secretary of the Faculty John B. Fox '59attributed the attention the council has paid tothe issue of teaching fellows to the incredibleimpact that teaching fellows have on theundergraduate experience at Harvard.

"Every [teaching fellow] I had as anundergraduate at Harvard College is now aworld-renowned figure," Fox said "That's why thisis such a deliberate process."

In reaching an agreement Wednesday the Councildealt with the concerns of Professor of Historyand East Asian Languages and Civilization PhilipA. Kuhn '54 who said he feared the committee'sproposed changes would infringe upon the freedomprofessors currently have to choose teachingfellows for their classes.

Kuhn said changes to the implementation of therecommendations have left him "satisfied that thiswill no longer be a problem.