Assistantships are to support a student's academic and professional development. Graduate Assistants must be in active, full-time, good standing within a degree program for the semesters of a funded assistantship. Post-comprehensive-exam doctoral candidates who are assistants or fellows must be registered for the appropriate research or dissertation credits or maintaining continuous registration. Students awarded funded assistantships, whether by tuition scholarships and/or stipends, must continue to make timely progress toward their degrees.
Assigned work for funded assistantships and student employment in any other capacity at the University may not exceed 20 hours per week. A school may require that a full-time student with an assistantship and/or other University employment of 15-20 hours per week have departmental permission to add off-campus employment.
Appointments to funded assistantships are based upon the availability of the positions and requirements determined by schools or departments. They may be one-term or one-year appointments. Reappointment is not guaranteed, but is based upon the quality of the student's academic and assistant work, credit and time limits, and departmental needs. Departments evaluate assistants before renewing contracts.
Assistantships may be renewed to cover a total of two academic years for students earning master's degrees. Renewable assistantships may be awarded for up to four years for doctoral students. In limited cases, especially if there are extra departmental or external resources, there may be the possibility of up to two years of additional competitive assistantships or funding at the doctoral level.
Under defined conditions, a school or department may establish temporal "equivalencies" for partial assistantships. Departments and/or faculty researchers may also establish requirements and evaluate students for other assistantships that are funded out of their own resources and grants.