Faculty Forms and Information for Supporting Graduate Students
Graduate Stipends and Contract Forms
Overview
Graduate assistantships in the form of RA/TA/GA are contracts created to compensate
graduate students for their efforts within the department on academic activities or
on tasks related to research projects. Student involvement in these research and academic
activities provide an invaluable educational experience towards their professional
careers. Students will gain research, teaching, and/or administrative skills under
the direct supervision or mentoring of an NMT Faculty or Staff.
The student efforts on these contracts are allocated based on a full time equivalent
(FTE) of a 40 hour work week. Student involvement in these activities can be at 0.25
FTE (10hrs), 0.33 FTE (14hrs) or 0.5 FTE (20hrs) level per week during the academic
year. There are minimums that must be met and are prorated based on the fraction of
an FTE. A maximum of 0.5 FTE (20 hours per week) is allowed during the academic year.
Compensable component, i.e. hours listed on the contract represent the average level
of effort spent on the contract and should be representative of the amount work expected
to complete specific tasks required by the funding source. Students are not required
to work during Academic holidays and hours may be averaged over several weeks to allow
flexibility to take extra time off around the holidays with approval of their supervisor.
In the case of research assistantships the contracted work may be related to the student’s
thesis or dissertation, it is expected that the completion of the work for the thesis
or dissertation will consume far more time than is allocated in the graduate assistantship
contract. This additional time is considered as part of their education. The research
assistantship covers the compensable component of the project to be performed by the
student. The non-compensable components of the student’s research which are required
for the successful completion of thesis or dissertation will require additional time on the part of the student.
Graduate assistantships are awarded at a minimum of 0.25 FTE (10 hours/week).
Please use the excel sheet as your worksheet to compute the amounts that will go into
the contract. Once done email the completed excel sheet to graduate.dept@nmt.edu and
we will initiate the electronic documents for signatures.
Visit the payroll website to start contracts on the first day of a pay period and preferably end them on the
last day of a pay period. Contracts must be approved and fully processed before the
start date.
2022 - 2023 Academic Year Stipends
All students on contracts must be registered as full time students. For fall and spring
full time is 12 credits and for the summer it is 3 credits.
All graduate students and advisors should read the graduate student guide in the Student
Handbook and refer to this for processes to support degree progress and completion.
