Graduate Assistantships provide students opportunities for professional experience, academic training, and financial support while pursuing graduate degrees. Assistantships are paid positions that support the teaching, research, or service mission of UNC Greensboro.
OVERVIEW
Assistantships provide relevant professional and academic experiences that may include:
- Teaching an undergraduate course
- Assisting a faculty member with an undergraduate course
- Grading for an undergraduate course
- Leading a discussion/recitation section
- Supervising/teaching labs
- Working with a faculty member as a research assistant
- Tutoring or helping with skills development
- Engaging with faculty in artistic endeavors
- Developing administrative skills and other professional development such as decision-making, judgment, analysis, and evaluation skills
To hold a graduate assistantship, a student must be:
- Admitted to a program as a master’s or doctoral student.
- Enrolled full-time, in good academic standing, and otherwise making satisfactory academic progress toward degree attainment during the period of the assistantship.
Each department or unit establishes its own documented procedures for recruitment, selection, retention, and dismissal of graduate assistants in accordance with UNCG policy and Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity guidelines.
Stipend amounts vary by position and expected number of hours per week to a maximum of 20 hours per week. If you are awarded an Assistantship, you may be eligible for some or complete tuition remission.
Most students with graduate assistantships obtain them through their academic programs.
If you are a graduate student seeking an assistantship, contact your academic program for information about open positions. Students apply for all assistantships through Spartan Talent.
Workload
Graduate Assistants are usually expected to have 10-20 hours of responsibilities per week, depending on the appointment. The workload for Teaching Associates and Instructional Assistants is factored similarly to a faculty member’s teaching assignment. For example, one three-credit hour class is considered a 10 hours/week assignment. GRAs and GOAs are contact-hour assignments. These students should expect to work on the supervising faculty member’s research or at their office assignment for the number of hours specified on their contract.
Students will receive a monthly stipend direct deposit based on the number of months of the contract and the total stipend amount.
Types of Assistantships
The GTA is a graduate student, enrolled in accordance with their plan of study, who serves as Instructor of Record for an undergraduate course in the discipline. This student has full responsibility for a course, including leading the class and assigning grades. Associates may also lead discussion sections, grade papers and exams, or supervise laboratory sections. Teaching Associates must have completed a minimum of 18 graduate credit hours in the instructional discipline. Graduate Teaching Associates may NOT teach graduate-level courses. Teaching Associates are supervised by a faculty member experienced in the teaching discipline, participate in pre-service training, and receive regular in-service training as well as planned, periodic evaluations.
The GIA is a graduate student, enrolled in accordance with their plan of study, who may assist with grading and other administrative responsibilities related to a course. GIAs may be listed in the schedule for labs, recitations, tutorials, etc. that are linked to a course with a credentialed Instructor of Record. These courses are designated with an R, L, or T and the linkage to the Lecture course is clearly noted. This may include lab assistance and set-up, serving as a lab supervisor, meeting students in office hours or group settings to provide tutorial assistance, lead recitation sections; but does not deliver new course content. GIAs serve under the direct supervision of the faculty member who is instructor of record and a member of the graduate faculty, participates in pre-service training, and receives regular in-service training as well as planned, periodic evaluations.
The GRA is a graduate student, enrolled in accordance with their plan of study and is assigned to work in a faculty member’s lab or provide fundamental support for a faculty member’s research. The supervising faculty member may or may not be the student’s main advisor. Duties of research assistants vary by discipline and lab but include all tasks needed to pursue research in a given area, such as: data collection, entry, and analysis; reviewing the literature and other library work; writing reports; copying, filing, and collating; organizing and/or cleaning the lab or office.
The GCA is a graduate student, enrolled in accordance with their plan of study and engaged in clinical teaching, research, or clinical practice under the supervision of or in collaboration with a member of the graduate faculty. These students may be assigned case-loads, group counseling, crisis intervention, outreach programming, personality assessments, maintaining clinical records, or other clinical duties as assigned.
The GOA is the title given to graduate assistants when there are no expectations of classroom teaching or grading. This individual may staff an open laboratory, studio, or workshop, where students complete assignments or work on projects; provide non-graded, individual instruction or tutoring, or help faculty prepare and manage classroom materials. The office assistant may also perform academic duties such as assisting in non-central roles of faculty research. An office assistant may also be assigned to a wide variety of other responsibilities that are not related to instructional or research processes but support the mission of the University. Graduate students who have appointments in non-academic units are always classified as office assistants.
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.
- The student is making satisfactory academic progress and is in academic good standing.
- 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 four criteria listed above have been met, the assistantship must be renewed.