Graduate Assistantships

Graduate assistant teaching (GAT), graduate assistant research (GAR), and graduate assistant non-teaching (GANT) assistantships at Texas A&M University-Commerce offer financial support for graduate education. Assistantships may be awarded to qualified graduate students who have full or conditional admission to a master’s or specialist program or full admission to a doctoral program. Assistantships are available in academic and non-academic departments. In addition to funding graduate education, assistantships provide students with opportunities for professional growth.

The University awards three types of assistantships:

Graduate Assistant Teaching (GAT) assistantships must be under the direct supervision of a faculty member and be an instructor of record for undergraduate courses or be assigned to activities such as assisting with courses or teaching labs, grading assignments and exams, or assisting professors with large lectures and/or online courses. The duties must be attached to a specific course or courses in order for a graduate student to be hired as a GAT.

• GATs who are instructors of record have primary responsibility for teaching a course for credit or noncredit and/or for assigning final grades for the course. In order to qualify to be an instructor of record as a GAT, the graduate student must have earned a minimum of 18 graduate semester hours in the field in which she or he will be teaching. Although instructor of record, the GAT must work under the direct supervision of a faculty member experienced in the teaching field, receive regular in-service training, and be regularly evaluated.

• GATs who assist the instructor of record with a zero-credit lab associated with a classroom course must have completed twelve hours of graduate or upper-level undergraduate coursework directly related to the undergraduate course being taught. GATs assisting with a zero-credit lab must work under the direct supervision of the instructor of record, complete lab safety, supervision training, and be evaluated on a semester basis by faculty.

• Graduate students whose native language is other than English must demonstrate a sufficient level of oral and written proficiency before they may be awarded a teaching assistantship.

Graduate Assistant Research (GAR) assistantships require recipients to aid in the research with the department/professor to which they are assigned. Work may also include tasks such as assisting with labs, offering teaching support, assisting faculty with research, preparing reports, entering data or other responsibilities as assigned.

Graduate Assistant Non-teaching (GANT) assistantships are not assigned to a specific course but work in a variety of settings across campus. Responsibilities may be administrative in nature or consist of other activities that do not generally fit within the GAT or GAR job responsibilities.