Research Assistantship (R.A.s):
A research assistantship is an award to a student in which the support is
provided by an extramural research grant and or contract. Generally, a faculty
member that has been awarded a research grant or contract may hire a graduate
student as a research assistant. The award is structured similar to a teaching
assistantship where assistantship includes a tuition waiver and the student
agrees to work 10 to 20 hours per week. The faculty supervising the research
project provides direct supervision of the research assistant. Research
Assistantships are limited to the duration of the research project from which
the student was funded. The salary is similar to a teaching assistantship, but
it is not unusual for the salary to be higher.
Teaching Assistantship (T.A.s):
First time applicants and current Ph.D. graduate students may be awarded a teaching
assistantship on a competitive basis. This mechanism of funding will be
available to graduate students when a Ph.D. program is developed. A teaching assistantship is an award in
which the student agrees to provide the PEP division 15 hours of work per week.
The activities required of a teaching assistant may include but are not limited
to: providing lectures to undergraduate students, supervising undergraduate
laboratory instruction, offering recitation sessions for undergraduate students,
providing departmental computer support, grading course exercises and exams,
library searches and retrieval, and special research projects. Funding is
renewable and these awards are based on student academic performance, scholarly
productivity, and the ability to satisfactorily complete assigned tasks. A
tuition waiver is included and the annual salary for a teaching assistant is
generally around $18,000. Teaching Assistantships are limited to a maximum of 2
years of support for M.S. students.
