The Graduate School
Student Employment: Conditions for Employment
To be employed as a Teaching Assistant (TA), Assistant Instructor (AI), Graduate Research Assistant, Tutor (Graduate), Academic Assistant, or Assistant (Graduate), a nominee must:
- be a degree-seeking graduate student who is making satisfactory progress toward a graduate degree without existing conditional admission requirements imposed by the Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies,
- remain registered for at least nine semester hours of course work in the long semesters (enrollment in three semester hours of course work is required for students holding summer appointments). This does not include enrollment in University Extension courses, and
- maintain at least a 3.0 graduate grade-point average.
In addition, students seeking an appointment as an Assistant Instructor (AI) must also meet the following requirements:
- He/she must have a master's degree or an equivalent level of achievement in graduate study (30 hours including 18 hours of credit in the subject to be taught) and professional accomplishment.
- He/she must have credit for 398T plus one semester
of employment as a Teaching Assistant OR
Have one year of teaching experience at an accredited college or school. (A letter of verification from the former employer must be submitted to the Graduate School.)
Note: AIs are employed to meet the instructional needs at the undergraduate level, primarily in the lower-division areas. Approval for an AI to teach an upper-division course may be requested through a petition to the Graduate Dean and must be approved before the AI is assigned to the upper-division course.
Graduate students may be employed in the above titles for up to 14 long semesters only.
In addition, the nominee must not have more than
- two grades of X (temporary incomplete), or
- one grade of X and one grade of I (permanent incomplete).
International students must have
- English language certification and
- attended the International TA/AI Orientation if appointed as a TA or AI with student contact.
Please contact your department if you do not meet all of the above requirements. Exception requests for any appointments not meeting employment criteria should be submitted by your program's graduate adviser, individually and in writing to the Graduate School. Exceptions may be granted in extenuating circumstances, but note that no exceptions are allowed for some policies, such as the 3.0 GPA requirement for TAs and the registration requirement for a minimum of 9 hours in the long semesters.
Inquiries regarding exceptions should be directed to Shannon Harris in the Graduate School.