JULY 15, 2022 — The University of Texas at San Antonio has established new policies for awarding graduate assistantships and funding packages to fully funded full-time doctoral students, effective fall 2022.
The new policies follow recommendations and are a direct outcome of the Graduate Student Success Task Force, which was convened in 2019 to make recommendations to advance graduate education and to enhance the support of graduate students. The task force was composed of over 100 faculty, students and staff from across the academic colleges and campus.
“Offering competitive, complete funding packages that support the costs of living will help us recruit highly-qualified doctoral candidates, and increase retention and success of our existing students by allowing them to focus and devote their efforts more fully in their doctoral program,” said Ambika Mathur, vice provost for graduate studies and dean of The UTSA Graduate School. “These efforts to support graduate students in turn support faculty excellence, as our doctoral students provide valuable intellectual capital for faculty research and teaching activities.”
The task force noted that, while there are a number of issues that impact graduate enrollment and degree completion, the primary challenge is that of funding packages when compared to the university’s peer and aspirant institutions. The new process fulfills three key task force recommendations:
The process to implement these recommendations evolved through close partnerships and collaboration of the Graduate School with members of the task force, Institutional Research, Financial Aid, Faculty Personnel Services, Business Affairs, and in particular academic college deans and associate deans for graduate studies, added Mathur.
“This is a key endeavor that was made possible through the combined effort of so many UTSA colleagues, all of whom recognized the importance of this initiative in supporting our doctoral students,” said David Silva, dean of the College of Sciences. “Furthermore, we expect these changes will make UTSA all the more attractive to prospective students as we look to grow our doctoral enrollment here in our college and across the university.”
Beginning Fall 2022, to enable students to engage fully in their degree program through predictable support for living expenses, all full-time fully funded doctoral students (enrolled for 9 semester credit hours in fall and spring semesters and 3 credit hours in summer) are expected to receive a Full Graduate Assistantship (0.475 FTE) with an expected effort of 19 hours per week.
For FY23 fiscal year, the university minimum for an assistantship stipend for full-time fully funded doctoral students is $18,000 for a 12-month appointment; each college has established standardized graduate assistantship stipend levels for each degree program, benchmarked with peers in their discipline.
In addition, as recommended by the Task Force, all full-time fully funded doctoral students will also receive full tuition and fees and will be automatically enrolled in the UT System’s UT-SHIP health insurance plan for graduate students with their annual premium paid at the Single Subscriber rate.
“Graduate education has always been key to UTSA’s mission and strategic vision, and doctoral students play a critical role in faculty scholarship and the university’s dual mission of excellence in teaching and research,” said UTSA Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Kimberly Andrews Espy. “Now—with UTSA’s designation as a Carnegie R1 institution and eligibility for the National Research University Fund—it is particularly critical that we be competitive with peer institutions in recruiting, retaining, and graduating the highest quality graduate students.”
“These new guidelines advance our broader efforts to deepen UTSA’s abilities to recruit, retain and support the best and brightest graduate students to complete their degrees and pursue meaningful careers,” Espy added.
Representatives of the Graduate School, Strategic Enrollment, Institutional Research, Faculty Personnel Services and Business Affairs now are working with the colleges to appoint continuing and newly admitted doctoral students who have been offered support through a 19-hour graduate assistantship for the 2022-2023 academic year.
Pending completion of the state audit in support of the university’s NRUF eligibility, colleges will utilize allocated institutional NRUF funding investments in support of this initiative to strengthen doctoral education.
UTSA Today is produced by University Communications and Marketing, the official news source of The University of Texas at San Antonio. Send your feedback to news@utsa.edu. Keep up-to-date on UTSA news by visiting UTSA Today. Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.
Come celebrate the doctoral students graduating this commencement season.
H-E-B Student Union Ballrooms, UTSA Main CampusCelebrate the accomplishments of the graduates of the College for Health, Community and Policy, College of Liberal and Fine Arts and College of Sciences.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St, San Antonio, TX 78203Celebrate the accomplishments of the graduates of the Carlos Alvarez College of Business, College of Education and Human Development, Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design and University College.
Alamodome, 100 Montana St, San Antonio, TX 78203First Friday Stargazing gives anyone free access to the night sky using university telescopes and teaching equipment. Weather permitting, experienced astronomers will provide a handful of telescopes of varying designs, give training on how each operates, and point to various astronomical objects that may appear in the sky for that given time of the year. If you have a telescope and do not know how to operate it, feel free to bring it and get instructions on its use.
4th Floor of Flawn Science Building, Main CampusThe University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education.
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to ending generations of discrimination and inequity. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.
