Assistantships

Types of Graduate Assistantships

Teaching Assistantships

A teaching assistantship in an academic program provides a stipend to a student who assists in teaching duties during the academic year.

Duties and Responsibilities

All graduate students with teaching assistantships are required to:

• Participate in the graduate assistant teaching orientation (GATO).
• Continue working toward an advanced degree throughout the assistantship.

Requirements for International Students

Graduate students with teaching assistantships whose native language is not English are required to:

• Participate in the Orientation for New International Teaching Assistants.
• Complete an evaluation by the International Teaching Assistant Program.
• Procure a recommendation for teaching at the level of instruction required for the assignment.

Academic Freedom

The academic freedom of graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) is not necessarily coextensive with that of faculty. GTAs are engaged in supervised teaching or instruction activities. Supervisors are responsible for defining the nature, scope, and manner of instruction for each course.

Supervisors should communicate the extent to which GTAs have discretion to introduce additional material, and GTAs should follow supervisors’ instructions. GTAs should not be penalized for expressing their own views on matters within the scope of the course if they represent those views as their own.

In interpreting teaching evaluations, supervisors make every effort to distinguish legitimate critiques of the course from negative evaluations related to:

• Prejudice against the GTA on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, disability, status as a qualified protected veteran, or other protected status.
• Disagreement with viewpoints expressed by the GTA or by students in the class.

Financial Support

Any assignment of responsibilities, such as teaching a course, must be associated with a fair and reasonable stipend. This precludes a graduate student from “volunteering” for extensive service commitments to the academic programs without an appropriate stipend.

Academic programs may differentiate graduate teaching assistantship stipends by graduate student status (e.g., master’s or doctoral, first-year or experienced). Within academic programs and within each level of differentiation, stipends should be equivalent. The academic program should provide accessible guidelines used to determine stipend levels to students.

Research Assistantships

Research assistantships are intended to support students to graduate with the knowledge and skills to become independent scholars.

A student may be granted a research assistantship through a faculty member’s grant or other University funds, enabling the student to progress toward an advanced degree while performing research activities related to the grant or fund requirements.

Academic programs decide whether the research activities required as part of the graduate research assistantship is directly related to the student’s academic program. For example, in some academic programs, research conducted in the context of the assistantship is expected to directly inform the topic of student’s dissertation or thesis research. In other programs, the assistantship responsibilities are designed to help students gain expertise in research skills that can be applied to another project.

Obtaining a Graduate Assistantship

Most students with graduate assistantships obtain them through their academic programs.

An assistantship might be offered as part of an admissions package or developed through a professional relationship with faculty or administrative staff. A small number of assistantships that do not require program-specific expertise may be posted at HireMizzouTigers.com.

If you are a graduate student seeking an assistantship, contact your academic program for information about open positions.

Eligibility

To hold a graduate assistantship, a student must be:

• Admitted to a department or area with a specific graduate-degree objective.
• Enrolled in a program and making satisfactory progress toward degree attainment during the period of the assistantship. If a unit wishes to employ a student after graduation, they must transfer the graduate into a non-student title.

Note: Certificate students who are not also enrolled in a graduate degree program are not eligible for a graduate assistantship.

Each department or unit establishes its own documented procedures for recruitment, selection, retention, and dismissal of students with graduate assistantships in accordance with MU policy and Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity guidelines.

Performance & Renewal Evaluation Criteria for Graduate Assistantships

Graduate Assistantship Evaluation Methods

The responsibilities of the graduate assistantships and the performance evaluation methods should be provided in writing to the student by the immediate supervisor at the beginning of the assistantship.

Conducting Evaluations

The faculty or staff member who supervises the assistantship must conduct a written evaluation of the student’s performance for at least once a year and provide a copy to the student and to the chair/director of the program or department for placement in the student’s file.

This evaluation is separate from the annual review of student academic progress and should take the following criteria into account:

• Prompt, efficient, and accurate completion of assigned tasks.
• Independent work.
• Analysis and problem-solving.
• Adequate evaluations by students for instructional and tutoring assignments in courses, laboratory, and clinical settings.
• Cooperation with a mentor, director, and other students and staff.
• Professional and ethical behavior in all assigned tasks and duties.

Opportunities for improving performance should be outlined. An appeal process is available for those with graduate assistantships who assert they have not been fairly evaluated.

Equal Treatment

The University of Missouri is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution.

Evaluation of graduate assistant performance must not be influenced by race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, genetic information, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

Discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions is also prohibited.

In addition, evaluations must not be influenced by a student’s exercise of First Amendment freedoms of expression and association.

Renewing Assistantships

An assistantship without a fixed term specified in the initial letter of offer may, at the discretion of the academic program, be renewed if the following criteria are met:

• Funding is available.
• Academic program guidelines for the funding duration or limited semesters of support of a student are met.
• The student is making satisfactory academic progress, with a GPA not less than 3.0.
• The student’s assistantship performance is evaluated in writing by their supervisor to be satisfactory.
• The student’s professional and ethical behavior in all tasks and duties — including in courses in which they are enrolled and in research and creative work — is judged by the academic program to be satisfactory.

If the renewal falls within the number of years of funding specified in the initial letter of offer and the five criteria listed above have been met, the assistantship must be renewed.