Graduate Assistantships and fellowships

Policy Details

Introduction

Graduate Assistant and Graduate Hourly Appointees fill a unique position in a university because appointees are both students and employees of Mines. Graduate Assistants are students who have been hired to provide academic and research support. Hourly Appointees provide general program support. As Graduate Assistants or Hourly Appointees, students find that successful completion of  employment activities requires significant commitment on top of the commitment to fulfill degree requirements. As such, Mines places limits on the amount and type of university employment that graduate students may accept.

Appointment Types

Graduate Assistant – Teaching Assistantships (TAs) are awarded to students who assist in the education of other students, either undergraduate or graduate, by teaching, tutoring, instructing or lecturing in laboratories or recitations under the direction of a faculty member. It is a university policy that Teaching Assistants are not assigned full responsibility for teaching courses; instead they assist faculty members in course instruction. Teaching Assistantships are supported by Mines as part of its instructional budget. Departments and Programs select Teaching Assistants on the basis of past teaching experience and academic promise within their respective field. New Teaching Assistants may be required by the Department or Program to which they report to attend teaching effectiveness workshops that may be offered by the Department, Program or Institution.

Because Teaching Assistants are employed by Mines through academic Departments or Programs, they are ultimately responsible to the Department Head or Program Director of the instructional unit responsible for delivering specific courses. As such, Teaching Assistants are subject to not only Institutional requirements, but also additional policies in effect in specific Departments or Programs. Mines establishes minimum stipends and maximum workload expectations, but teaching assignments, workloads, and compensation may vary according to policies specific to each academic unit.

Graduate Assistant – Research Assistantships (RAs) are supervised by individual faculty members to perform research that is associated with a student’s area of study. The work is technical in nature, requires significant education and experience, and is directly related toward meeting the research requirements of a student’s thesis-based degree program.  It may also include additional assignments that are peripheral to meeting degree requirements (e.g., facility management, report preparation, laboratory assistance, etc.).

Research Assistantships are often supported or fully subsidized by grants or funds received as sponsored research contracts. As grants are usually awarded with the understanding that specific milestones will be met, Research Assistantships often require students to work closely with individual faculty members responsible to the funding agency to ensure those milestones are met. Research Assistants are employed by the Institution through individual faculty members. Faculty within specific departments or research units may define policies related to the employment of Research Assistants that extend the policies defined by the Institution. Mines establishes minimum stipend rates and maximum workload expectations, but research assignments, workloads, and compensation may vary according to policies specific to each academic or research unit.

Graduate Teaching Fellow Assistantships (GTFs)

Neither Graduate Hourly Appointees nor Graduate Teaching Assistants are instructors of record for any courses in which they are involved. It may, however, be appropriate for an advanced doctoral student to be an instructor of record in a course if they meet specific criteria of experience and expertise. Graduate Teaching Fellow (GTF) Appointments acknowledge these qualified students as being instructors of record. The Dean of Graduate Studies has authority to approve Teaching Fellows on a case-by-case basis; please refer to the Faculty Procedures Manual Section 3.4 for more details.

Graduate Hourly Appointments are made to students who work part-time on campus to provide assistance in areas that are unrelated to their academic program and that do not involve teaching or research duties of the nature expected of Graduate Research and Graduate Teaching Assistants (RAs/TAs). Graduate Hourly Appointees are supervised by Mines faculty or staff and may provide clerical, administrative or technical support for academic and administrative units and individual Mines faculty and research units.

Graduate Fellowships are non-service awards that are distinguished from the above service appointments in that specific duties to the university are not required for the stipend.

Many graduate students at Mines receive funding through a variety of external and internal fellowship programs; some fellowships may be funded or managed by Mines and others may be provided directly to the student from another organization. The information provided below is for fellowship programs managed by Mines.

Mines typically distributes fellowship stipends and other fellowship allowances on a semester basis (fall, spring, summer). Fellowship payments are distributed through the student’s account after Census Day at the beginning of every semester. Depending on the source of funding, some external fellowships may alternatively be disbursed on a monthly basis.

Initiation of fellowship awards are made as part of the graduate contracting process.

Fellowship awards funded on sponsored research programs must follow all the rules and regulations of the program. For fellowship programs managed by Mines, awards will be reconciled each semester to ensure allowability of past and future fellowship payments. Reconciliation, at a minimum, will include a review of student enrollment status and any other eligibility requirement for each student. If all or part of a fellowship award is deemed unallowable on a sponsored program during the reconciliation review, it will be the responsibility of the student’s academic unit to cover the unallowable cost.

Please contact the Office of Research Administration for specific questions related to allowable costs on sponsored programs.

Students funded solely on fellowship awards are not typically eligible for the Office of Graduate Studies Summer Research Tuition Fellowship that covers summer enrollment costs for students on graduate Research Assistantship contracts.  Check with the Office of Graduate Studies for specific questions on eligibility.

Roles and Responsibilities

The Graduate Office: The Office of Graduate Studies provides the following services related to the employment of Graduate Assistants and Graduate Hourly Appointees. This includes

  • Acts as an advocate for graduate students at the institutional, state and national levels.
  • Disseminates information on institutional policies related to graduate student employment.
  • Monitors academic progress of graduate assistants.
  • Discusses and reviews RA/TA contract termination questions prior to any action by a Department/Program or PI.
  • Coordinates and mediates relevant activities of the Offices of Research Administration, Financial Aid and Human Resources.

Appointee Supervisors: The Appointee Supervisor is the faculty or staff member from whom the Graduate Assistant or Graduate Hourly Appointee receives their formal work assignment and who oversees the performance of this work assignment. Responsibilities of the Appointee Supervisor include

  • Meeting with the Appointee early in the semester, and providing the Appointee a clear work assignment and expectations to be used for measuring successful completion of the assignment.
  • Providing the Appointee with the Supervisor’s travel schedule and emergency contact information as appropriate.
  • Providing the Appointee with the appropriate support commensurate with the type and expectations of the appointment.
  • Meeting regularly with the Appointee to review Appointee performance.
  • Providing clear feedback and timely notification to the Appointee on necessary improvements if performance is not satisfactory.
  • Notifying the Appointee and the Institution (i.e. Department Head/Program Director, Dean, and/or Graduate Office as applicable) in a timely manner in the event of difficulties associated with a current appointment, and/or a potential termination decision.
  • For research advisors and advisees, use of the Advisor-Advisee Agreement developed by Graduate Council is strongly encouraged; see https://www.mines.edu/cpe/advisor-student-agreements/ 

Graduate Appointees: Graduate Assistant and Graduate Hourly Appointees are engaged in a wide variety of activities that support the teaching and research missions of the Colorado School of Mines. Some of the responsibilities and expectations of a Graduate Appointee are listed below. Many responsibilities and expectations of a Graduate Appointee are specific to their assignment, but all Appointments include the following responsibilities and expectations.

  • Schedule a meeting with supervisor within the first week of classes to discuss specifics of your work assignment.
  • After this meeting, provide the supervisor with contact information and a written schedule of work hours and/or agreed upon tasks at the beginning of each semester.
  • Disclose and discuss any additional or potential work commitments that may affect your availability; note that graduate students are limited to 0.5 FTE total employment (20 hrs/week) in Fall and Spring semesters to allow progress toward degree.
  • Perform tasks assigned by your supervisor professionally and promptly.
  • Contact the supervisor immediately if you cannot meet a work assignment or encounter challenges/questions.
  • The Graduate School expects supervisors to provide regular oversight of Graduate Appointees. This oversight could be in the form of written or oral performance evaluations. If an Appointee is not receiving regular performance evaluations, he/she should request them from their supervisor.
  • For students working with research advisors, use of the Advisor-Advisee Agreement developed by Graduate Council is strongly encouraged; see https://www.mines.edu/cpe/advisor-student-agreements/
  • Maintain good academic standing and meet the minimum registration requirements of your appointment.
  • Mines views Graduate Assistant and Graduate Hourly Appointees as emerging scholars and teachers. Professional deportment should be observed at all times.

 

Eligibility

Regular graduate students (i.e., those that are fully admitted into a graduate degree program at Mines) are eligible for Graduate Assistant and Graduate Hourly Appointments. To receive and maintain an appointment, candidates should meet the following additional criteria:

  1. Appointees must be making satisfactory progress toward degree completion as defined in the Graduate Catalog. Briefly, progress toward degree completion may be deemed unsatisfactory if any of the following conditions is true:
    1. Failure to maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or greater;
    2. Receipt of an “Unsatisfactory Progress” grade for research; or
    3. Receipt of an “Unsatisfactory Progress” recommendation from: 1) the head or director of the student’s home department or program, 2) the student’s thesis committee, or 3) a departmental committee charged with the responsibility of monitoring a student’s progress.
  2. Students must be appropriately registered for the term of their appointment (fall, spring, summer) and the type of appointment they have. Registration requirements may vary according to the term, the student’s residency (domestic vs. international) and whether the student is in their first term, their last term, or continuing. Details regarding contracts can be found here and registration requirements can be found here.
  3. Appointees must meet all eligibility requirements for employment in the United States. See State and Federal Compliance section below.
  4. Lastly, we expect students to devote an appropriate amount of time and energy to completing their work assignments. As Graduate Appointments require full-time enrollment in their graduate program in addition to the work assigned through the Appointment, it is unlikely that Appointees can successfully meet the expectations of each of these commitments while maintaining additional, outside employment. So that supervisors and advisors may adequately advise a potential appointee and so that they may be aware of any potential conflicts of interest in assigning a specific appointment, Appointees who are, or will be, seeking employment outside of Mines during the term of their Graduate Appointment must make their advisor and supervisor aware of the outside employment and receive permission from both to concurrently hold a Graduate Assistant or Graduate Hourly Appointment while working for an outside employer.

Workload

As defined below, Mines imposes maximum service expectations on Graduate Assistant and Graduate Hourly Appointments so that employment obligations do not conflict with student progress toward degree. Appointment limits for Assistantship and Hourly appointments are defined below.

Graduate Assistant Appointments may be made at workloads of up to 50% (0.5 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) year-round, which is equivalent to approximately 20 hours per week. This level of employment allows for graduate students’ simultaneous enrollment in advanced coursework and/or research credits, facilitating timely progress towards degree completion. Assignments at fractions of an FTE below 0.5 (e.g., 0.25, 0.3) have service expectations that are the equivalent fraction of the full-time expectation (i.e., 0.25 FTE implies a minimum service expectation of 10 hours per week).

Graduate Hourly Appointments are awarded with an explicit indication of the number of hours per week expected. Students on Graduate Hourly Appointments must submit time sheets indicating the actual hours worked and are compensated on an hourly basis for these.

During the academic year, Graduate Hourly Appointments are limited to no more than 20 hours per week. During the summer, Graduate Hourly appointments may be made up to 40 hours per week.

Students may concurrently hold multiple Graduate Assistant and Graduate Hourly appointments. In the case that a student holds multiple campus appointments, the student must make all departments, programs, campus offices and PIs/supervisors overseeing each work assignment aware of their multiple commitments. The sum of the total work commitments may not exceed the institutional limits defined above for a single appointment.

Questions regarding multiple appointments and hours should be directed to OGS (jsbriggs@mines.edu).

Terms of Appointment

SERVICE STIPENDS

Individual Graduate Assistantship (RA/TA), Graduate Teaching Fellowship (GTF), and Graduate Hourly Appointments are made for a particular term (i.e., Fall, Spring, or Summer).  Conditions, limitations, and expectations associated with each of these appointment periods are defined below.

The start and end dates of Graduate Contracts are generally as follows:

Fall                  August 16 – December 31
Spring             January 1 – May 15
Summer         May 16 – August 15

It is Mines policy to pay graduate students on a research or teaching assistantship (RA/TA/GTF) contract on a monthly pay cycle at the end of each month for work performed in that month.  In contrast, hourly pay is paid semi-monthly, two weeks in arrears. The signed contract is the official record of the start date and end dates of the work performed. Details of schedules and responsibilities will be determined by each supervisor and student employee.

Fall and Spring Appointments constitute appointments made for any time period during the regular academic year. During the academic year, appointees may not hold Graduate Assistant or Graduate Hourly appointments with a total service expectation in excess of 0.5 FTE or 20 hours per week. Students on Assistantship and Hourly appointments must be full-time registered during the regular academic semester in which they are employed by the Assistantship or Hourly Appointment.

Summer Appointments constitute appointments made outside of the regular academic year during the summer (i.e., May 16 through August 15). These appointments may run the entire three months of the summer term or part of the term. In summer, standard graduate RA contracts are at 0.5 FTE and require students to register for 4 research credits, such that summer research represents full time effort. Students on Hourly contracts who are not enrolled in research credits or courses may work for up to 40 hours per week.

For more details  on the level of registration required in Summer for each type of appointment, see the Registration Requirements for Summer Appointments section below for details.

NON-SERVICE STIPENDS

Stipends to defray living costs are often associated with fellowship awards, such as those from the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program or those from internal funds.  Fellowship stipends are disbursed either monthly or as a lump sum, depending on the source of funds.

Base Stipends

Graduate Assistantship Appointments are required to meet the following base stipend. Stipends may, at the discretion of the Department/Program or supervising faculty member with Department/Program and OGS approval, be in excess of the base.

The base stipend rate for AY 2023-24 is $2666.67/month for a 0.5 FTE appointment (Fall, Spring or Summer).  This corresponds to a 9-month academic year base stipend of $24,000 and a 12-month annual base stipend of $32,000. 

Graduate Hourly Appointments are compensated on an hourly basis determined by the number of hours actually worked. Appointments must be at or above the minimum hourly wage set by the State of Colorado.

Tuition Remission

Graduate Assistant and Graduate Teaching Fellow appointments made at the 0.25 FTE level or above are eligible for tuition remission, i.e. the costs of some or all tuition are included in these contracts.

As 0.5 FTE is the maximum employment level for Graduate Assistants, 100% tuition remission is expected for RA/TA appointees at that level. Tuition remission may be offered in proportion to lower FTE levels, e.g. 50% remission for 0.25 FTE appointments.

For TAs approved in the AA Allocation Model, OGS will provide tuition remission.  Any exceptions should be discussed with OGS.  For GTFs, Departments must seek pre-approval, and approved GTFs will have their tuition covered by OGS. For Research Assistants, principal investigators (PIs) are expected to provide tuition remission as part of the award when such payments are allowable. For students whose Research Assistantships are funded through one or more sponsored research programs, the charges for stipend, tuition, fees, and health insurance must be allocated in a proportional manner among funding sources, including institutional sources, and must comply with the terms of the sponsored program(s). Please contact the Office of Research Administration with additional questions on proportional allocation.

The Colorado School of Mines considers tuition remission granted as part of an Assistantship award financial aid. It is awarded for the sole purpose of aiding the student in the pursuit of his or her studies and is paid independent of the stipend. As such, tuition remission is not conditioned upon the student’s provision of any services to Mines and will, therefore, not be deemed taxable compensation.

In the event of appointment termination, any payments made in the form of tuition remission prior to the termination date constitute irrevocable financial aid. The student cannot be compelled to repay such awards. In the event of appointment termination for students whose tuition remission was provided by an externally sponsored program (research or otherwise), any tuition costs not allowed by that program after termination will be the responsibility of the student’s academic unit (i.e. their department and/or interdisciplinary graduate program).

Graduate Hourly Appointments are not eligible for tuition remission as part of the Graduate Hourly Appointment.

External Fellowship Awards may include funds allocated to cover full or partial tuition costs for students who are not eligible for full tuition remission as part of their appointment. To do so, however, the award must be an allowable expense given the source of the funds used. If the source of funds is sponsored research, please contact the Office of Research Administration for further guidance.

Internal Fellowship Awards may include tuition remission with approval from the Office of Graduate Studies.

INSTITUTIONAL TUITION FELLOWSHIPS (FROM OGS)

In an effort to encourage departments and programs to admit, and support, highly qualified students from diverse backgrounds in their graduate programs and stimulate the research enterprise at Mines by increasing the cost-competitiveness of research grants submitted, Colorado School of Mines has defined two fellowship programs available to help defray tuition costs for students serving the Institution as Graduate Assistants or Graduate Teaching Fellows.

Academic Year, Differential Tuition Fellowship Program: The Colorado School of Mines will provide Fellowship support in the amount of the difference between non-resident tuition and resident tuition for some Graduate Assistants. To be eligible for this program, awardees and assistantship contracts must meet one of the following conditions.

  • All international students who are in good academic standing and are employed by the Institution through an Assistantship (TA or RA) contract at the 0.5 FTE level and whose contract pays the resident portion of the tuition.
  • All first-year U.S. citizen or permanent resident students, who are not Colorado residents, who are in good academic standing and are employed by the Institution through an Assistantship (TA or RA) contract at the 0.5 FTE level and whose contract pays the resident portion of the tuition. Note: US resident students are not eligible for the Differential Tuition Fellowship Program after their first year; they are encouraged to establish Colorado residency by that time.

Differential Tuition Fellowship awards are made as part of the graduate contracting process defined below.

Summer Term, Research Tuition Fellowship Program: The Colorado School of Mines will provide Fellowship support in the amount of four (4) credits of resident or non-resident tuition for research credits for Graduate Research Assistants employed during the summer. To be eligible for this support, awardees and assistantship contracts must meet the following conditions: graduate students appointed during the summer as Research Assistants at 0.5 FTE or above with stipend funding typically derived from an external source that pays overhead to the institution.  Exceptions to this policy may be considered on a case-by-case basis

Summer Research Tuition Fellowship awards are made as part of the graduate contracting process defined below. As Research Assistants are  required to register for four (4) credits of research during the summer, the Summer Research Tuition Fellowship Program is used to offset the cost of this required registration. Registration associated with coursework completed during the summer is above and beyond the required research registration and is not covered by this Summer Research Tuition Fellowship Program.

If you have questions about a student’s eligibility for either of these Fellowships, please contact Assistant Dean, Jenny Briggs, at the Office of Graduate Studies jsbriggs@mines.edu.

 

Fee and Health Insurance Remission

Graduate Assistant Appointments are eligible for remission of both Mandatory and Optional fees. Mandatory fees include those associated with the Health Center, Athletics, Student Services, Technology, and Recreation Center. Optional fees include costs such as Blaster Card activation, graduation, late registration, etc. While remission of a Mandatory fee payment would automatically include payment of fees associated with all of the items listed above, remission of Optional fee payments must be explicitly listed as part of the appointment, as these are not normally included as part of the Mandatory fee payment. Students incurring fees associated with their enrollment at Mines and who are on Graduate Assistant Appointments that do not cover these fees as part of the appointment are responsible for payment of the required fees.

Additionally, Health Insurance is required of all students as a Mandatory Health Insurance fee unless a student can prove coverage through another plan. Students must either sign up for or formally waive (with proof of alternate coverage) the Mines Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) here. Graduate Assistant Appointments are eligible for remission of the required Health Insurance fee if they have demonstrated other coverage and waived SHIP. Students who incur a Health Insurance fee while on a Graduate Assistant Appointment that does not cover this fee as part of the appointment are responsible for payment of this Mandatory fee.

Graduate Hourly Appointments are not eligible for Mandatory Fee or Health Insurance remission as part of the Graduate Hourly Appointment.

Registration Requirements for Summer Appointments

ALL Graduate Assistant and Graduate Hourly Appointees WORKING TOWARD DEGREE REQUIREMENTS (i.e., doing research or completing coursework) during the Summer (i.e., May through August) ARE REQUIRED TO REGISTER. There are no exceptions to this registration requirement. However, the number of credits required varies according to a student’s situation.

Research Assistant Appointments: By definition Research Assistants are presumed to be working toward their degrees and, therefore, MUST REGISTER during the full summer semester. The required minimum registration for a Research Assistant appointed during the summer is four (4) credits of research. To insure research appointees have full access to the appropriate campus services including building access, Health Center, Recreation Center, etc., all Research Appointees are assessed tuition and mandatory fees at the normal rates.

If a student on a Research Assistant Appointment is also completing coursework during summer term, the Appointee MUST REGISTER FOR THESE COURSES IN ADDITION to the required four credits of research in the full summer term.  Tuition and fees are assessed for both the required research and coursework credit hours at the normal rates.

Teaching Assistant and Hourly Appointments: If a Graduate Teaching Assistant or Graduate Hourly Appointee is not working toward degree requirements at any time during the summer sessions (i.e., May through August), REGISTRATION during the summer terms IS NOT REQUIRED. Such appointees will, however, be subject to the TIAA payroll deductions as defined below.

Summer fees are not automatically assessed for students who do not register. So, unless students proactively indicate they want fees assessed, students working on Teaching Assistant or Hourly Appointments during the summer will not have access to university-provided services (e.g., Health Center, Recreation Center, etc.) unless arranged with their contract submitter in advance.

If a Teaching Assistant or Hourly Appointee is also working toward degree requirements during the Summer I or II terms (i.e., May through August), these appointees must register as appropriate.

  • Appointees conducting thesis research during the summer while a TA/Hourly Appointee must register for at least one (1) credit hour of research.
  • Students completing coursework must register for the appropriate courses by the appropriate summer registration deadline. Tuition and fees are assessed for all credits in which a student is registered at the normal rates.
  • Teaching Assistants or Hourly Appointees working toward their degree during the summer by completing both research and coursework during the summer (i.e., May through August) are required to register for both research credit hours and course credit hours as defined above by the deadlines defined above. Tuition and fees are assessed for both the required research and coursework credit hours at the normal summer term rates.

Students required to register during the Summer semester are responsible for all mandatory fees incurred during the Summer semester. These fees may, or may not be remitted as part of a Graduate Assistant Appointment. Students for whom registration is not required during the Summer semester but who are working on campus may choose to pay Mandatory Fees. Payment of these fees provides students access to campus facilities including the Library, Health Center, Recreation Center, etc. during the entire summer (i.e., May through August). Requests for prorating of this voluntary fee payment will not be considered.

Contracting Process

Graduate contracts are submitted via OnBase, the university’s document management system. See the Graduate Contracts website for details. 

State and Federal Compliance

Assistantship and hourly appointments are conditioned upon the appointee’s compliance with any pertinent State and Federal, immigration, visa, lawful presence and identification rules and regulations including, but not limited to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which requires the appointee to complete and submit an I-9 Form and provide evidence of citizenship or appropriate documentation of eligibility and permission to receive the stipend associated with graduate assistant appointments. Additionally, the appointee is required to complete and provide to Mines’s HR Office a W-4 Form, indicating the number of tax withholding exemptions to which he or she is entitled, and provide all other forms and information required by Mines’s HR Office prior to the commencement of his or her appointment.

These required forms MUST be submitted to the HR Office before the start date to ensure Federal and State compliance laws.

Federal regulations require automatic payroll deduction for retirement from all university employees. Normally, this deduction is in the form of a Social Security deduction. At Mines, however, the retirement payroll deduction is in the form of a personal TIAA retirement account contribution. The only exception to this payroll deduction requirement allowed by federal regulations is for student employees who are registered at half-time or more during the semester in which they are contracted.

During the academic year, as all Graduate Assistant and Graduate Hourly Appointees must be registered full time, TIAA payroll deductions are not withheld from student appointees. During the summer, however, TIAA payroll deductions may be withheld for some student appointees. To remain in compliance with federal regulations, Mines deducts TIAA contributions from student pay for students on TA, RA and Hourly contracts during the summer semester who are registered for less than 1.5 credit hours. Therefore, any student who qualifies for the summer registration exception defined above will have TIAA contributions deducted from their pay during the summer semester.

The TIAA deduction amount is 7.5% of your pre-tax pay. Deductions are placed in your personal TIAA account. You may request a withdrawal of your fund balance from TIAA, subject to taxes and withdrawal penalties, once you are no longer a student or employee at Mines. For questions regarding TIAA go to the TIAA website or call 800-842-2252.

Intellectual Property

While not exclusive to students employed by Mines as Research Assistants, students working closely on sponsored research projects often are involved in the development of innovative technologies, processes and procedures for which Mines has an interest in establishing clear intellectual property rights. In this regard, all students employed by Mines, either as Graduate Assistants or Graduate Hourly Appointees, are subject to the terms and conditions of the Mines Intellectual Property Policy (Section 10.1, Mines Faculty Handbook).

Termination

Graduate Assistantship and Graduate Hourly Appointments may be terminated by either party at any time for any reason. For Graduate Assistantships, terminations should be discussed by all affected parties and disclosed to the Office of Graduate Studies before action is taken; terminations of Assistantships may affect academic progress or standing.

Any payments made prior to termination that constitute irrevocable financial aid awards (e.g., tuition, fees, and health insurance subsidies) will not be revoked, nor will the appointee be required to repay such awards. In the event of appointment termination, tuition and fees remission and insurance coverage not allowed by an externally sponsored program (research or otherwise) will be the responsibility of the student’s academic unit. Please check with the Office of Graduate Studies about contract terminations.

Glossary of Terms Related to Graduate Appointments

  • Stipend: Total salary received by a student appointee as compensation for services rendered to the institution. Graduate stipends are paid every month during the term of the appointee’s contract.
  • Tuition Remission: Departments, Programs s or PIs may choose to pay, as part of the appointment, the full-time tuition of the appointee. This payment is referred to as tuition remission.
  • Insurance Remission: Departments, Programs or PIs may choose to pay, as part of the appointment, the mandatory health insurance of the appointee. This payment is referred to as insurance remission.
  • Mandatory Fee Remission: Departments, Programs or PIs may choose to pay, as part of the appointment, the mandatory fees of the appointee. This payment is referred to as mandatory fee remission.
  • FTE or Full-Time-Equivalent: A measure of the work effort expected for the specific appointment. One full-time-equivalent, or 1.0 FTE, is a workload approximately equivalent to 40 hours per week. Fractions of an FTE have workload expectations in hours that are approximately fractional to this 1.0 FTE level.  An appointment at the level of 0.5 FTE has an expected workload of approximately 20 hours per week.
  • Reduced Registration: Normally, to maintain full-time status, appointees must register for 9 credit hours per semester. Upon completion of certain requirements and submission of the appropriate paperwork, appointees may be eligible for full-time registration at a reduced number of credit hours. This is referred to as reduced registration. Please see the Graduate Catalog for specifics on the requirements of eligibility for reduced registration.
  • Differential Tuition Award: Differential tuition is the difference in dollars between non-resident and resident tuition. The differential tuition award is an institutional fellowship program that provides this tuition difference as part of the graduate appointment. If a student is eligible for a differential tuition award, the difference between non-resident and resident tuition is provided by Mines and, therefore, does not have to be provided by the Department, Program or faculty member. The differential tuition award is intended to remove any financial disincentive for researchers to provide support to non-resident graduate students.

Contact

Office of Graduate Studies

Alderson 451

grad.services@mines.edu

 

All new-hire graduate students must complete new-hire paperwork and background check prior to beginning work. See more details in the student section of the new employee information website.