As part of an ongoing effort to improve the experience of graduate students at GW, the Office of Graduate Student Assistantships and Fellowships (OGSAF) has announced new minimum compensation amounts and position titles for graduate assistants, effective in the fall 2024 semester, that will better reflect what their actual responsibilities are.
“We’ve increased the minimum wage for assistantships and fellowships,” said Suresh Subramaniam, vice provost for graduate and postdoctoral affairs and professor of electrical and communications engineering in SEAS, “and I think it’s going to make a big difference.”
A new title, grad student lecturer, has been created for grad students who teach their own class, Subramaniam said.
“We have created an additional training course that will, in effect, teach them how to teach, and we’ll continue to offer that class every year,” Subramaniam added.
The Graduate Assistant Roles and Funding Policies for Academic Year 2024–25 elaborate on the new structure. Job titles, followed by a brief description, are as follows:
- Graduate Instructional Assistant (GIA): The GIAship is a basic assistantship given to a master’s or doctoral student that assists an instructor in a teaching-related capacity. A GIA is not the instructor of record (IOR), but they assist the IOR as needed including but not limited to: grading assignments, leading lab, recitation or discussion sections and holding office hours.
- Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA): The GTAship is GW’s most competitive and largest funding package for a graduate student serving in an instruction-related role. A GTA is a doctoral student that assists an instructor in a teaching-related capacity.
- Graduate Student Lecturer (GSL): The GSLship is intended to provide doctoral students with classroom teaching experience. A GSL is a doctoral student who serves as the instructor of record (IOR) for a course and is expected to teach the course with minimal direction from faculty. A GSL may also be assigned additional responsibilities. GSLs must have served as a GIA or GTA for at least one semester prior to their appointment as a GSL.
- Graduate Research Assistant (GRA): This is the typical role for a graduate student helping faculty in a long-term research project. A GRA is a master’s or doctoral student who helps faculty members on a specific project and performs research-related duties.
- Graduate Research Fellow (GRF): This is a master’s or doctoral student who participates in a research project as a trainee to further their individual educational development. There is no service requirement for a GRF.
Since its founding in 2022, the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs (OGPA), which includes OGSAF, has made it a priority to enhance the graduate, professional and postdoctoral experience at GW by offering more student appreciation and professional development opportunities. Previously, for example, health insurance subsidies for fully funded graduate assistants were increased to 80% of the premium. The baseline package value for fellowships funded through OGSAF has also been increased.
The effort to improve the grad student experience recognizes the important role played by graduate students and postdocs at GW in terms of the university’s growing recognition as a research institution. In May 2023, GW received membership in the elite Association of American Universities, recognizing its research excellence.
The new funding policy will give guidance to schools and departments across campus as they hire graduate assistants, according to Autumn Anthony, supervisor of the Office of Graduate Student Assistantships and Fellowships.
“Formerly, there were only two categories of assistantships,” Anthony said, “and now we’re breaking them into more precise titles with more specific funding designations.”
The changes are intended to benefit everybody, not only from a compensation standpoint, but also in terms of the tailored preparation a graduate student receives before beginning their role in the classroom. Previously, OGSAF’s free Graduate Training Assistantship Program, or GTAP, encompassed every type of role you could have as a graduate assistant without distinguishing between the specific job duties that one role versus another might be assigned.
“The new GSL role recognizes a higher level of responsibility that some graduate students are given to teach their own course,” Anthony said. “With the creation of Advanced GTAP, now GSLs are better resourced in preparation for their role as instructors of record.”
