ÃÛÌÒµ¼º½

Graduate Student Funding Guidelines

Graduate Assistantships serve to facilitate graduate students in the prompt and successful completion of an advanced degree program and to provide work experience in a setting under the supervision of a faculty or administrative mentor.

Graduate assistantships are employment appointments that complement, but are distinct from, a student's academic program. Graduate assistants are both employees of the University and students working toward an advanced degree. Departments and supervisors should clearly communicate which expectations are associated with the graduate assistantship appointment and which are associated with satisfactory academic progress. While some activities may contribute to both a student's educational development and assistantship responsibilities, students should understand the purpose of assigned activities and the expectations associated with each role.

University policies, assistantship terms, and employment expectations should be communicated through official University communication channels. Departments may use supplemental communication platforms (e.g., Slack, Microsoft Teams, or similar tools) to facilitate day-to-day operations, but these platforms should not serve as the sole source of official policies or employment expectations.

Graduate Assistantship Levels

Full-time Graduate Assistantship

A full-time graduate assistant (GA) will work, on average, 20 hours a week (equivalent to a half-time employee). Therefore, they should not be scheduled for more than 20 hours of work each week (see work assignments below). Full-time graduate assistantships must include full tuition, fees (university service fee AND course fees),and a stipend during the fall and spring semester. Departments do not have to cover tuition and fees during the summer, although they should consider doing so if it will shorten time to graduation and result in the same amount of tuition and fees being paid, just in a shorter time period. The stipend must be, at a minimum, equivalent to $15 an hr. Full-time graduate assistants must be enrolled full-time (9 credit hrs.) unless they are at late-stage (dissertation stage), or in the last semester of their master’s program or a master’s student taking thesis hours. Enrollment is not required during the summer. Over the course of a semester, a full time GA will work at most 300 total hours. This is based on a 15-week semester. A health insurance benefit of 100% of the premium coverage will be granted to full-time GAs who have been contracted for at least 4 months. 

Part-time Graduate Assistantship

A part time graduate assistant (GA) will work, on average, 10 hours a week. Therefore, they should not be scheduled for more than 10 hours of work each week (see work assignments below). Part-time graduate assistants should receive at least half tuition, fees, and a stipend during the fall and spring semester. Departments are not obligated to cover summer tuition but should consider doing so if the cost of tuition and fees would assist the student in completing the degree sooner and the cost would be the same to the department if the student were not to pursue summer courses. Health insurance is not currently available for part-time graduate assistants.  Part-time assistantships are available to students enrolled in at least 3 hours or for those at dissertation/thesis stage who are enrolled in at least one credit hr. Enrollment is not required during the summer.Over the course of a semester, a part time GA will work at most 150 total hours. This is based on a 15-week semester. The minimum stipend must be equivalent to $15 dollars an hour. 

Summary:

• Tuition and fees (service fees and course fees) must be covered 100% for all full-time Graduate Assistants. Departments can limit the student’s enrollment to courses required for their degree. Departments are not obligated to pay for tuition and fees for courses that are not required for their program. It is the department's responsibility to monitor enrollment to ensure that the student does not enroll in courses that are not covered by the department contract.  
• Part-time GAs must receive at least 50% of their tuition and fees as part of their graduate assistantship contract.
• The health insurance premium is covered for full-time GAs only. 
• Graduate Assistants should be hired either as full-time (20hrs) or part-time (10hrs or less).
• At a minimum, all Graduate Assistants should be paid the equivalent of $15 dollars an hour. Based on this, full-time graduate assistants should be making, at a minimum, $4,500 a semester (20 hrs. a week, 15-week semester). This is a minimum only. Competitive stipends that provide the ability for a student to focus full-time on their studies and their professional development (which is the purpose of their work as a graduate assistant) are much higher. Departments should research peer institutions for benchmarks. 

Types of Graduate Assistantships

There are three types of assistantships: research, teaching, or administrative.

• Graduate Assistants for Research (GAR): perform duties in support of university research, which may or may not relate to the students’ thesis/dissertation. GARs are specific awards. The student assists with a range of duties including library research, preparation of reports, field studies and laboratory research. This opportunity provides an excellent means for students to learn new techniques and methods as well as expand their knowledge by association with research-oriented responsibilities, whether employed within the student’s academic discipline or in another department.
• Graduate Assistants for Teaching (GAT): work under the direct supervision of graduate faculty members and are assigned duties related directly to instruction, such as assisting in the preparation of lectures, leading discussion sections, conducting laboratory exercises, grading papers, and keeping class records. Advanced graduate students who have completed 18 graduate credit hours in their teaching disciplines may be given primary responsibility for teaching an undergraduate course, including student assessment and assignment of final grades. GTAs may not be assigned primary responsibilities for teaching and student assessment in courses approved for graduate credit. Departments utilizing GTAs must provide orientation and training for students who will have any type of instructional or teaching assignment noted above. All graduate students planning to serve as GTAs must participate in a departmental orientation and training program before functioning in the GTA role. Students whose native language is not English may be required to take and pass the SPEAK test if the scores they submitted for admission are not at a sufficient level for teaching (see /iei/speaktest/index.php for details).
• Graduate administrative assistants (GAO): aid faculty and staff members with administrative functions, and appointments are available in academic and non-academic units. Duties vary, depending on administrative needs of the unit making the award. Such work may be clerical, computer-based and/or editorial in nature. To allow maximum professional development, the student should be given the opportunity to apply his/her academic skills to the assigned tasks and develop new administrative skills. This an hourly paid position.

All graduate assistantship positions should have a job description describing the duties and other job-related responsibilities.

Offer Letters and Graduate Assistantship Contracts

Departments may communicate graduate assistantship funding offers through admission or funding offer letters. These letters provide students with information about anticipated funding and support; however, they are distinct from the official graduate assistantship contract.

Funding Offer Letter

The funding offer letter is intended to communicate the department’s offer of financial support to the student. Because departments may customize offer letter templates, the level of detail included may vary by program.

Departments are encouraged to state the key terms of the anticipated assistantship as clearly as possible in the offer letter, including:

• whether the assistantship is full-time (20 hours per week) or part-time (10 hours per week);
• the anticipated stipend amount;
• the period of support (e.g., fall semester, spring semester, academic year, or multi-year funding commitment);
• anticipated tuition and fee coverage, if applicable;
• health insurance premium coverage or other benefits, if applicable;
• any conditions for renewal, such as satisfactory academic progress, satisfactory performance of assistantship duties, and availability of funding; and
• the general type of assistantship anticipated (research, teaching, or administrative), if known.

Because the offer letter is issued before the semester appointment is finalized, it may not include a complete description of the student’s specific duties, work schedule, supervisor, or assignment.

Department funding offers vary in length. Departments might offer a student a full-time graduate assistantship for five years, for instance, noting that renewal depends on the availability of funding and only if the student is making progress and peforming well in their duties. Offers of funding are executed through semester contracts. 

Graduate Assistantship Contract

The semester Graduate Assistantship (GA) contract is the official employment document for the assistantship appointment.

The GA contract confirms the terms of the appointment for a specific semester and provides the official details of the student’s employment assignment.

The GA contract should specify:

• the approved workload associated with the appointment (number of hours);
• the stipend for the appointment period;
• tuition and fee coverage associated with the appointment, if applicable;
• the type of assistantship assignment (research, teaching, or administrative);
• the department or unit making the appointment; and
• the appointment dates for the semester.

The GA contract serves as the official record of the graduate assistantship appointment for that semester.

Workload and Compensation

Departments should communicate workload and compensation expectations clearly to students.

• A full-time graduate assistantship represents an average commitment of 20 hours per week over the appointment period.
• A part-time graduate assistantship represents an average commitment of 10 hours per week over the appointment period.

The offer letter should clearly state the anticipated stipend amount and any tuition, fee, health insurance, or other benefits associated with the assistantship.

The GA contract confirms the official workload, compensation, and benefits for the semester appointment.

Assistantship Duties

The offer letter may identify the general type of assistantship anticipated (research, teaching, or administrative). More detailed information about the student’s specific assignment, supervisor, and responsibilities is typically communicated through the semester GA contract and by the department or supervisor at the beginning of the appointment.

Recommended Department Practice

When issuing funding offer letters, departments are encouraged to communicate the anticipated terms of support as clearly as possible. Funding offer templates can be found here. At a minimum, departments should indicate:

• whether the assistantship is full-time (20 hours/week) or part-time (10 hours/week);
• the anticipated stipend amount;
• the anticipated tuition and fee coverage;
• any health insurance premium coverage or other benefits offered;
• the expected period of support; and
• that the official assistantship appointment is confirmed through the semester GA contract.

Communicating Expectations

Departments should discuss graduate assistantship expectations with students at the beginning of each appointment. In addition to providing a position description, supervisors should clearly communicate:

• expected work schedule and availability;
• expected work location, if applicable;
• preferred methods of communication;
• performance expectations;
• required training or certifications; and
• how assistantship responsibilities relate to the student's broader academic and research activities.

We recommend the use of this document. 

Whenever possible, expectations associated with a student's academic program—such as coursework, dissertation or thesis research, satisfactory academic progress, participation in seminars, scholarly publications, or professional development—should be communicated separately from assistantship employment responsibilities. Although some activities may appropriately serve both purposes, students should understand when activities are performed as part of their assistantship responsibilities, as part of their academic program, or both. 

Graduate Assistantships with Stipend ONLY (no tuition)

            This option should be used for summer graduate assistants only or in rare cases where the department is offering a research stipend for a short period of time. Students who are hired as a GA for the first time during the summer for 20 hrs. a week are not eligible for health insurance. If the student was on a full-time GA in the previous spring semester, the spring coverage includes the summer. Students cannot be put on a summer GA contract if they have never been enrolled.

Graduate Tuition Scholarship

Departments/unit can use graduate student funds to pay for some or all of the tuition and fees for a graduate student by using the graduate scholarship process. Note: graduate tuition scholarships are different from donor funded scholarships. Donor funded scholarships are established with donor agreements and funded by donors. Graduate tuition scholarships are funded by department/college funds allocated for graduate student support. 

Guidelines for graduate tuition scholarships

• These are merit scholarships. The student should not be asked to perform service to receive a merit scholarship. (Donor scholarships may have service requirements as the donor may have specified this in the agreement).
• Service should be tied to the program requirements rather than the scholarship and should be tracked independently of the scholarship.

Regular Student Employee (RSE): 

        /hr/directhire.php     

Additional Information:

• For information on tax implications of graduate student stipends and scholarships please see here. 
• Banner View Only Access (Fill in PDF form that needs to be completed, signed with supervisor approval then returned to the USBS office via email at usbs@memphis.edu - SUBJECT LINE: GA BANNER ACCESS REQUEST)
• Reminder: If a student is hired to perform research and teaching functions, the effort should be split accordingly in the contract, with the appropriate % split going to a research program code and an instruction program code.  If that student is receiving tuition assistance, that same % split should apply to the tuition portion.
• Students with teaching duties must have a GTA contract. Unpaid Instructional Internships for students whose program requires these placements must follow the steps listed here.

Frequently Asked Questions
	Graduate Assistantships	Graduate Scholarships	Graduate Student Workers
Considered a GA?	Yes	No	No
Award type?	Tuition & USF and Stipend	Tuition & USF (partial or full tuition & USF)	Hourly or Monthly Pay
Considered an employee?	Yes	No	Yes
Work Component?	Yes	No	Yes
Will the central pool cover the Non-Resident tuition premium?	No	No	No
Can departmental GA Pool funds be used?	Yes	Yes	Yes
Is scholarship refundable to student?	N/A	No	N/A