Postdoctoral Education

What is a Postdoctoral Fellow?

The purpose of a postdoctoral appointment is to provide recent recipients (normally within the past eight years) of PhDs or equivalent doctorates with additional research and scholarly training for careers in research or higher education.

The role and status of a postdoctoral fellow should be clearly differentiated from those of a graduate student, full-time technical staff member or faculty employee. The title “postdoctoral fellow” generically refers to all doctoral-level scholars engaged in advanced education and training that is of limited duration (typically five years or fewer) and designed to prepare them for academic and/or research careers. For postdoctoral fellows whose responsibilities are primarily teaching (i.e., teaching 2 3-credit classes each semester), they will hold the title of “postdoctoral fellow – teaching.” These titles apply regardless of whether the postdoctoral trainee is a salaried employee of the university or a stipend-supported fellow receiving funding directly from a granting agency or through a Mizzou account.