As part of a funded program of study, students may be required to accept a teaching assistantship (TA) appointment for at least one year, and for many students TA work will be the primary source of funding. This requirement may be waived in individual cases by petitioning the Graduate Group Main Adviser. Students are not required to accept teaching appointments if they are not receiving commensurate support in the form of a teaching assistantship or other funding. The University offers several courses to train Teaching Assistants. Students have to take one of these courses during the first term of their first year, and are encouraged to take on further training sessions throughout their PhD program. Should students be formally offered teaching assistantships at lower than 50%, they are required to add any TA work that is offered later in the year, up to 50%. This may require the rescinding of any block grant allocation. Petition may be made to the Graduate Group Main Adviser should the student feel that undue hardship will result.

Teaching Policy

Graduate students are normally limited by University policy to 15 quarters of contracted employment.
In order to be appointed or reappointed, graduate students must be in good academic standing and must be progressing satisfactorily toward the doctorate. Good academic standing includes maintaining a grade point average of at least 3.0 on the 4.0 scale. The Graduate Studies Division restricts graduate student employment at the University to 50% time.