Guidelines for Summer Employment

Guidelines for Summer Employment

1. Students must be enrolled for at least one three-hour course during any summer session to hold assignments during the summer.

The only exception is if the student qualifies to work under guideline 2 below. Three hours is considered full time status for graduate students in summer.

2. Students performing academic research should be assigned as a Graduate Research Assistant and be enrolled for three hours.

Students performing other academic work should also be assigned in an academic position and be enrolled for three hours. The only exception to this rule: If the student is not engaged in academic work of any kind, he/she may be eligible for assignment in a classified title, without three hours of registration. 

Note that assignment in the classified titles or the student non-academic titles listed below require the following:

A petition stating the nature of the job

The petition must come from the employing instructor or head of hiring unit.

The petition should also have the approval of the student's graduate adviser, unless the graduate adviser is the employer.

The following classified titles are audited in summer, along with graduate academic titles and require a petition written to the Graduate School per instructions above: 4005-4009, 4029-4031, 4204-4205, 4207-4211, 4222, 4479-4482. One Student non-academic position is subject to the petitioning process (0077 Student Technician).

3. If a student is not registering until second session, but the assignment begins in the first session:

The student's graduate coordinator may send the Graduate School a petition or email stating student will register in second session. An audit is performed the first day of the second session to check registration status for those students.

4. Graduate Students registered for one three-hour course at any time during the summer:

May work an average of 30 hours a week for the 12 weeks of summer.

This means that the student will be limited to an average of 30 hours a week for the 12-week period (June 1 - August 31).

For example, if a grad student is employed 40 hours for the first summer session, and 20 for the second, this will total 60 hours divided by 2 (for two sessions), for an average of 30, which is acceptable. This will allow compliance with the Handbook of Operating Procedures (HOP) which does not allow the student to work more than the average of 30 hours.

5. For a nine-week session, a student may be employed 40 hours from June 1 to July 31.

The limit for assignments to the entire 12-week term will be 30 hours.

6. A combination of assignments is acceptable as long as:

They do not exceed an average of 75% time or 30 hours a week for the 12-week period.

7. Enrollment in UT Extension does not count toward hours required for eligibility for assignments.

8. ESL courses may not be used to fill the required three hours of registration in summer.

9. TAs and AIs are entitled to receive tuition reduction benefits from the Provost's Office.

Rates are posted on the Graduate School's Tuition Reduction Benefits page that is linked above.

10. The fourteen-semester rule does not apply to summer assignments.

11. Spring/Summer Position Petitioning Procedure

If a student is assigned in a classified position during the spring, will continue in that position for the summer, and the classified position is one audited by the Graduate School in the summer, the procedure of petitioning is the same as number two above.