COLA Student Employment Guidelines for Spring 2026 Term 

Work-Study Student Appointments

Appointment Dates

• Between 1/1 – 5/31

  • Last day to hire work-study employee: 5/1

  • Begin hiring process in Workday no more than a month prior to employment start date

Student Eligibility

• Be awarded Federal Work-Study on the Work-Study Verification (WSV).

• Meet Satisfactory Academic Progress Policy standards as set by the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid.

• Must be enrolled in appropriate credit hours as required by the student’s academic or non-academic title. Additional rules may apply in cases where stricter enrollment is required for Work-Study funds.

Processing Info

• Students may be hired for the academic year (August 16-May 15) if the student was awarded Work-Study for the included terms.

• Attach Work-Study Verification Form to the BP. If hiring for the academic year, attach the Work-Study Award for all terms.

• When changing from a non-Work-Study job to a Work-Study job, must process as an Add Job if the student is staying with the same manager. If changing managers, can process as Change Job.

• In the Costing Allocation step, only enter the departmental account numbers. The Work-Study team will enter their accounts once the BP routes to them.

• Questions regarding Work-Study should be directed to work.study@austin.utexas.edu.

Relevant Webpages

• Work-Study Dates & Policies

• Job Profile Conversion Chart for Work-Study and Student Employment

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Undergraduate Student Appointments  

Appointment Dates

• Between 1/1 - 5/15

Student Eligibility

• Students must meet the minimum enrollment requirements for student job titles.

  • Email Student Employee Excellence & Development (SEED)(SEED@austin.utexas.edu), for exception requests.

Undergraduate Student Sporadic Jobs

Sporadic employment is temporary work that will be performed inside or outside an employee's department for a limited time period (≤ 31 days), when the student is already assigned to their maximum allowable scheduled weekly hours. (see Student Eligibility to Work: Enrollment Requirements, Limits on Work Hours)

Undergraduate student sporadic employment must be approved before the student can be hired for any type of sporadic employment. Any request for sporadic employment should be sent to COLA HR (COLA_HR@austin.utexas.edu).

• Sporadic Employment Overview for Students

• Student Employee Additional and Sporadic Employment Decision Tree

• Student Employee Sporadic Additional Job Form - attach to Add Job BP

Relavent Webpages

• Student Eligibility to Work: Enrollment Requirements, Limits on Work Hours

• Student Non-Academic Employment

• Student Academic Employment

• Student Employee Compensation

• Non-Exempt Student Employee Offer Letter Template

• Non-Exempt Student Employee Offer Letter PowerForm

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Graduate Student Appointments  

Appointment Dates

• Standard Academic Graduate Student (AGS) positions for Spring: 1/1 – 5/15

• Non-academic positions: between 1/1 – 5/15

Student Eligibility

• Students must meet the minimum enrollment requirements for student job titles.

  • An exception to the 6-hour enrollment requirement for non-academic titles is available for students who are on track to graduate at the end of the current term and who need fewer than 6 hours to graduate.

  • The only exceptions allowed for the 9-hour enrollment requirement for academic titles are accommodations by the D&A office, Dual-degree, or taking the CPA exam.

  • Email the Graduate School at GS-Approvals@austin.utexas.edu for exception requests.

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Academic Graduate Student Employee Insurance

An Academic Graduate Student (AGS) employee is benefits-eligible if expected to work in one or a combination of AGS titles for at least 20 SWH and for at least 4.5 months (135 calendar days). It is critical to review all jobs for AGS employees to correctly determine their eligibility and ensure AGS jobs have the correct employee type in Workday. Graduate academic student titles cannot be combined with non-academic student titles, staff titles, faculty titles, or non-employee titles towards eligibility for insurance benefits.

New AGS employees have 31 calendar days from the hire date to make additional insurance elections.

Part-Time (PT) & Full-Time (FT) Insurance Status is based on total SWH (Scheduled Weekly Hours) in Workday

• Additional jobs, even if non-benefits eligible, impact PT/FT insurance status:

  • PT AGS employees are scheduled for 20-29 total SWH, with at least 20 SWH in AGS job titles.

  • FT AGS employees are scheduled for 30+ total SWH, with at least 20 SWH in AGS job titles.

• Supervisors and/or administrative personnel should check the All Jobs tab in Workday to be aware of possible insurance changes.

• PT/FT changes that occur on the first of the month impact insurance enrollment effective that date.

• PT/FT changes that occur mid-month (after the first), impact insurance enrollment effective the first of the following month.

• Please let the student know that their insurance will be changing if you are adding a job that will cause them to have 30+ total scheduled weekly hours (SWH).

For more information:

• Academic Graduate Student Employee Insurance Options

TA/AI Requirements

• College policy prohibits funding beyond a student’s sixth year, whether or not the student is from the employing department or another department. Requests for TA/AI assignments for students beyond the 6th year must be submitted by the student’s home department to the Associate Dean for Graduate Education. Hiring units will need to attach the approval from the Associate Dean’s office in the Workday BP or attach it to the TA/AI offer letter.

• TA/AIs should be assigned to a maximum of one course per long session. Prior approval is required from the Liberal Arts Office of the Associate Dean for Graduate Education for a TA or AI to be assigned to multiple courses

• NEW TA job profiles:

  • G0093 - Teaching Assistant Masters Student (Salary)

  • G0094 - Teaching Assistant Doctoral Student (Salary)

Graduate Academic Student Rates

The rates in bold are the amounts to be input into Workday so that the student receives the intended stipend.

***Please note that these rates will prorate based on the entered scheduled weekly hours.

Effective Fall 2025, units must use the TA, AI, and GRA rates listed below for COLA graduate academic student positions. For any Non-COLA graduate student hiring, units MUST use the Non-COLA TA, AI, or GRA rates.

• TA: $4,705.56 monthly ($42,350 annual) - $10,643.53 total stipend

  o   Non-COLA TA: $3,662.72 monthly ($32,964.40 annual) - $8,284.72 total stipend

• AI: $5,212.22 monthly ($46,910 annual) - $11,789.55 total stipend

  o   Non-COLA AI: $4,101.70 monthly ($36,915.30 annual) - $9,277.40 total stipend

• GRA: Minimum $56,467 annual – 12 months at 100% FTE (40 SWH)

  Non-COLA GRA: Minimum $43,952.64 annual

Atypical/Non-Standard Graduate Student Appointment Requests

• Any Graduate Student Employment that is not the standard 20 hrs/week for the entire semester or term must include approval information from the Liberal Arts Office of the Associate Dean for Graduate Education. An approval email must be attached to the Workday BP or attached to the offer letter. The purpose of this is to ensure that students are not being put in a status that denies them health insurance/benefits and that they are not being overworked. 

• Online Request process for COLA Graduate Student Atypical or Nonstandard Appointments: COLA graduate student’s home department would submit an online request for any atypical and/or non-standard requests for COLA graduate student appointments (academic or non-academic) within the College would be for any atypical or non-standard graduate student appointment that is outside of the standard 20 hrs/week position (e.g., 5 hrs/week GRA, 10 hrs/week TA, 10 hrs/week Graduate Academic Assistant, 5 hrs/week graduate student technician, etc.), and the hiring departments must attach the College level approval to the Workday BP hiring process or attach it to the offer letter.  Please submit these requests through this online form: COLA Graduate Student – Atypical Appointment Request.

• Non-COLA Graduate Student Atypical or Nonstandard Appointment Requests should be emailed to the Assistant Director for Graduate Education, Jessica Luhn, at jluhn@austin.utexas.edu. The Hiring Unit will email the request to include include the student’s EID, student’s home department, justification of the need for a non-standard appointment, and include any other support or funding (work appointments or fellowship, etc.) the student is receiving. Please confirm that student’s graduate advisor and/or their home department has approved this request as well.

Funding Source for TA/AI Assignments

All COLA PhD students with a standard 20 hours/week TA/AI position should be paid via the student’s home department with a cohort specific Graduate Cohort TA/AI account (14-16XX-24XX). COLA PhD departments now have multiple Graduate Cohort TA/AI accounts, so if hiring a COLA PhD student, make sure to use the account that matches that student’s cohort. *Unless the student is employed outside COLA or assigned to a Signature Course.

• Anything approved over the standard 20 hours/week must be paid using a non-Graduate Cohort TA/AI account.

• All non-COLA students, MA students, PhDs beyond the 6th year, and Signature Course TAs, must be paid via the employing unit’s regular Soft Money TA/AI account (20-16XX-2002)

Converting Stipends to 12-month Rates for GRAs: 

• Use the all-in-one JCT to calculate stipends.

Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) Requirements

• GRA assignments can be processed for full academic year assuming funds are available. At a minimum, GRA assignments are expected to be for the full term.

• GRAs appointed for at least 20 Scheduled Weekly Hours (either the GRA appointment itself, or in combination with other AGS positions) for a long term (4.5 months or longer) are considered benefits-eligible and should be appointed with the Employee Type: Regular Benefits Eligible – Graduate Student Academic (Fixed Term).

• It is required that departments hiring benefits-eligible GRAs will cover the cost of the graduate student’s tuition, or the relevant proportion of the tuition when a student has simultaneous benefits-eligible TA/AI and GRA employment. GRAs appointed on 26-accounts may receive annual rate increases effective August 16 as allowable by the terms of those project(s). Graduate student rates must remain consistent within the same job throughout the academic year.

• A non-instructional account must be used to hire any GRAs.

Graduate Student Sporadic Jobs

Student employees who will have an additional job for 31 days or less should be appointed with the Variable employee type at 0 SWH. This will help any AGS/benefits-eligible student employees from having their insurance PT/FT status change for these short-term sporadic jobs.

If the additional employment will last more than 31 days (32 days or more), use the relevant employee type and average number of Scheduled Weekly Hours (e.g. non-benefits eligible fixed term, 10 SWH).

Graduate student sporadic employment must be approved by the Graduate School (GS-Approvals@austin.utexas.edu) and from the College of Liberal Arts Associate Dean for Graduate Education (for COLA Graduate Student sporadic employment, submit the COLA Graduate Student – Atypical Appointment Request form; for non-COLA Graduate Student sporadic employment, please email the Assistant Director for Graduate Education, Jessica Luhn, at jluhn@ausint.utexas) before the student can be hired for any type of sporadic employment.

• Sporadic Employment Overview for Students

• Student Employee Additional and Sporadic Employment Decision Tree

• Student Employee Sporadic Additional Job Form

Relevant Webpages

• Student Eligibility to Work: Enrollment Requirements, Limits on Work Hours

• Graduate Student Academic Employment

• Tuition Reduction Benefit

• Student Non-Academic Employment

• Student Academic Employment

• Student Employee Compensation

• Graduate Student Employee Offer Letter Templates

• Graduate Student Employee Offer Letter PowerForms

  • Graduate Assistant

  • Hourly Graduate Student

  • Teaching Assistant/Assistant Instructor

  • Graduate Research Assistant

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Professional Student Appointments  

The Professional Student – Academic and Professional Student – Non-Academic job families were created for students who are seeking a JD, MD, or PharmD. These students are not eligible to be appointed to a graduate student job profile, including the TA and AI job profiles, unless they are a dual degree student where one of their degree programs is a graduate degree.

Appointment Dates

• Professional student academic assignments: 1/1-5/15

• Non-academic assignments: 1/1-5/15

Student Eligibility

• Students must meet the minimum enrollment requirements for student job titles.

• To request an exception for a student in a Professional Student Academic job profile to work over the 20-hour limit:

  • Email Student Employee Excellence & Development (SEED)(SEED@austin.utexas.edu) with justification for the work hours and an email from their academic advisor supporting the work hours.

Relevant Webpages

• Student Eligibility to Work: Enrollment Requirements, Limits on Work Hours

• Professional Student Job Profiles

• Student Non-Academic Employment

• Student Academic Employment

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