Policy for Appointing Students to Graduate Assistantships Policy

Applies to: Pittsburg State University graduate students and departments wishing to appoint graduate students to assistantships.

Policy:

Graduate students hired as graduate teaching, research, or administrative assistants must be admitted to the Graduate School, a graduate degree program and have earned a bachelor’s degree. For academic year appointments, students must be enrolled in at least six hours of graduate credit course work at the 700 or 800 level that are required for the degree and will be on the student’s candidacy. Students with summer assistantship appointments must either be enrolled in at least three hours of required graduate course work during the summer or pre-enrolled for the required hours of enrollment for the fall semester.

Students appointed to an assistantship may be enrolled in no more than 12 hours of course work during the fall or spring semesters. Individual departments may have a policy that reduces the maximum number of hours the student can be enrolled in for a semester. Departments may submit a request to the Graduate School to allow a student to exceed the maximum number of allowed credit hours of enrollment. Students with academic year full-time teaching assistant appointments will receive summer tuition waivers for up to six hours of required graduate course work.

International students are required to be enrolled in a minimum of nine credit hours with at least six hours of graduate credit course work at the 700 or 800 level that are required for the degree and will be on the student’s candidacy. Students whose first language is not English or are classified as an International Student must meet the Kansas Board of Regents and the Pittsburg State University policies on Spoken English Language Competency of Graduate Teaching Assistants.

During the academic year, students hired as full time graduate teaching assistants cannot work additional hours or be employed in other campus positions. Appointments as a student worker can be allowed for one-time special events that do not go beyond a maximum of two-days and 12 hours with permission of the Graduate Office. Students on assistantships can work as student workers for up to 40 hours a week during the time between semesters or during the summer.