Graduate Assistanships
The Benefits of a Graduate Assistantship
Exceptionally qualified full-time students may be offered graduate assistantships. The assistantship provides a stipend (salary), currently $18,000 per year for a 12-month position with a work commitment of 20 hours per week (excluding university holiday periods). Students with assistantships will assist faculty with research, teaching, and/or service. The HSR PhD program strives to match student research interests with those of the faculty with whom they are assigned for the graduate assistantship, although this cannot be guaranteed in every instance.
For students with assistantships, the University’s Graduate Assistance Support Plan (GASP) provides a highly competitive multi-year support package, used to attract and retain top tier graduate students to UNC Charlotte. The award package covers both resident and non-resident tuition (as relevant), and provides coverage under the University’s student health insurance program. For NC residents the total award is approximately $3600 for the academic year. For non-residents it is approximately $13,800, which is in addition to assistantships and/or fellowship stipends. Other student fees totaling about $900 each semester are not covered by this award.
The College of Health and Human Services will in most instances provide 3 years of assistantship support. Students with assistantships must maintain good academic standing.
Professional Responsibilities of Students with Graduate Assistantships
Graduate assistantships are intended to serve as an extension of the teaching and research mission of HSR PhD program and the College of Health and Human Services, by giving students experience in research and teaching in a mentorship relationship with faculty. Students with assistantships will also gain experience with fulfilling academic service needs, and in this way will learn more about becoming a productive and successful member of an academic community. While serving in on- or off-campus graduate assistantships, students are representatives of UNC Charlotte. As such, they will act with total professionalism at all times.
Graduate assistants are also expected to provide service to the HSR PhD program, the College, the University, and the community. Such service can include attending orientation for 1st year HSR PhD students (for 2nd year students and above), mentoring 1st year doctoral students, attending faculty candidate research presentations, meeting with faculty candidates during times scheduled for students, service as an officer or active member of the HSR PhD student organization, membership on departmental, College, or University committees, assisting the Program Director with occasional information gathering required by the HSR PhD program and the College, performing service in the community as a representative of the HSR PhD program, and so forth. Although success in the HSR PhD program is primarily judged by scholarship, the HSR PhD program takes the student’s record of service into consideration when recommending students for fellowships and grants, including travel grants, tuition support, and competitive dissertation-year fellowships at the university.
All graduate assistants are required to provide monthly reports of their work schedules and productivity as a requirement of retaining the graduate assistantship.
Graduate assistantships are typically arranged for 12 months annual commitment. Graduate Assistants receive University holidays and vacation periods, but are otherwise expected to work on their normal schedule throughout the 12 month period.
A graduate assistant must register for at least six graduate level semester hours during each semester in which an assistantship is awarded. Graduate assistants enrolled in the Graduate Assistance Support Plan must register for a minimum of 9 graduate credit hours each term.
Students with support from the Graduate Assistance Support Plan must maintain at least a 3.0 average to be eligible for continued support.
If a student does not have an assistantship, the Graduate School does not impose any limitations on either part-time or full time employment. Students with assistantships are limited to no more than 20 hours of total weekly employment. Thus, students with assistantships of 20 hours per week are not permitted to have additional employment. Students with assistantships who consider taking part-time teaching positions at the University must consult with the Program Director, as in this situation the number of hours devoted to the assistantship must be reduced to limit total weekly work hours to 20.