Archive: Summer 2026 Student Guidance
COLA Student Employment Guidelines for Summer 2026 Term
Dates & Deadlines
Business Processes (BPs) affecting pay for Hourly Jobs:
Effective May 16-31: routed to COLA by noon on Friday, May 29.
Effective June 1-15: routed to COLA by noon on Friday, June 12.
Effective June 16-30: routed to COLA by noon on Tuesday, June 30.
Business Processes (BPs) affecting pay for Monthly Jobs:
Effective May 2026: routed to COLA by noon on Monday, May 18.
Effective June 2026: routed to COLA by noon on Wednesday, June 17.
Work-Study Processing Deadline: 7 days prior to Hire (or Reassignment) date.
Students should not begin working in their work-study job prior to the approval of their appointment in Workday.
Deadline for Mass End Employment Date Extension submissions: Tuesday, June 2.
Please submit spreadsheets for Academic Graduate Student (AGS) positions before May 27. Any AGS positions with an 5/15/2026 end date that have not been extended by June 1 will be terminated as part of the first mass end job/termination process.
Undergraduate Student Tuition Payment Deadline*: Wednesday, May 20 at 5pm.
Graduate Student Tuition Payment Deadline*: Tuesday, June 9 at 5pm.
International Graduate Student Insurance Waiver Deadline: Thursday, June 4 at 5pm.
Deadline for Onboarding and Benefits Selection for benefits-eligible 5/16 new hires: Monday, June 15.
TRB Awards are programmatically cancelled for students that don’t meet eligibility: Thursday, June 25.
Last day a department may hire a Work-Study student: August 1.
*Registration is a requirement for student enrollment. Students with a $0 tuition bill must still confirm attendance to complete their registration/avoid being dropped.
Automated Mass End Job/Termination Process Dates & Deadlines:
First Mass End Job/Termination run date for Academic Graduate Student jobs with an End Employment Date of 5/15/2026 or earlier: June 1.
Any business processes for impacted positions must be completed by noon on Thursday, May 28.
Mass End Job/Termination run date for all other jobs with an End Employment Date of 5/31/2026 or earlier: June 5.
Any business processes for impacted positions must be completed by noon on Wednesday, June 3.
Priority List for Processing
Jobs affecting benefits (Academic Graduate Student jobs)
New employees
Work-Study jobs
Current hourly employees continuing into the next summer
Current employees who will not be working in the next semester
Business Processes (BPs) to Use
Please use Change Job (Transfer) when there is no break in service. Please DO NOT use Add Job.
Effective date for the Change Job must be the day AFTER the end employment date when students transition between semesters.
When hiring a student, it is important to go to the student’s profile > Job tab > All Jobs to determine what process to use to hire your student worker. It is also important to confirm with the student whether they will have other jobs at the university.
Use these tools to help you determine which process to use: Student Business Process Matrix | COLA Student Employee BP Decision Tree |
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Scenarios | Business Process |
Creating Anchor Job (TA/AI) or Summer Hold job (non-benefits eligible student employees) | Mass End Employment Date Extension Process (Central Guidance / COLA Wiki) |
Extend end employment date for an active position with or without changes to scheduled weekly hours, business title and/or position title | Mass End Employment Date Extension Process (Central Guidance / COLA Wiki) |
Extend end employment date for an active position with changes to Job Profile or Sup Org | Start Job Change > Student: Change Job Details (WIG) |
Making any changes to active position without extending end employment date. | Start Job Change > Student: Change Job Details (WIG) |
Add a non-Work-Study student job to an employee who is continuing in their current position | Mass Transaction Submission System (MTSS) (Central Guidance / COLA Wiki) |
Add a Work-Study job for a current employee | Add Job (WIG) |
Hire/rehire a student into a non-Work-Study student job profile | Mass Transaction Submission System (MTSS) (Central Guidance / COLA Wiki) or Hire (WIG) |
Hire/rehire a student into a Work-Study job profile | Hire (WIG) |
Things to Keep in Mind
NEW “Summer Hold” Positions for Non-Benefits Eligible Student Employees
To reduce completing unnecessary I-9s in the fall, student employees may be extended through the summer at 0 scheduled weekly hours.
Background Checks & Form I-9s
All student employees must have a completed background check on file before they may begin working. If you are uncertain whether a student requires a new background check, please consult the Human Resources Background Check website or contact COLA HR for further guidance.
Any employee who has had a break in service (i.e., has been terminated in Workday and is being rehired) must complete a new I-9. Section 1 must be completed by the hire date, and Section 2 must be completed within 3 business days. If an offer of employment is accepted and a cleared background check is on file, an I-9 can be completed up to 6 months before the start date.
This Equifax Virtual with Equifax Agent link may be sent to students before their start date: https://hrx.talx.com/ec/#/login/21519/Template/5d9a42ea-b944-48b8-8e8f-ae0a4ccdd007?location=COLA0001
Offer Letters
Every student hire requires an offer letter or written documentation (e.g., email) that includes:
Employment dates
Weekly hours
Pay rate
Job responsibilities
For manual Workday BPs, attach the offer letter, resume, and background check results to the BP or note in the BP comments that the student offer letter has been uploaded to Box.
For appointments processed through the Mass End Date Extension Process or Mass Transaction Submission System, upload offer letters to our student offer letter submissions portal.
Offer letter templates for graduate and non-exempt student employees and non-exempt student employee offer letter templates can be found here.
Offer letter PowerForms, which are automatically uploaded to the portal:
Salary/Wage Increases
Pay rates for continuing student employees can only be increased effective August 16 unless there is a change in job duties/position.
Resignations
If student resigns prior to their original End Employment Date, use termination reason “Resignation” and attach the resignation letter.
If you are processing a termination or end job manually, the secondary reason must be “Eligible for Reemployment” unless otherwise stated by HR.
Student Employment Recruitment
While posting student jobs is encouraged, it is not a requirement for hiring a student employee. If your department chooses to recruit for student roles, all job postings must be submitted through Workday.
Job descriptions should follow the student job description template.
Please refer to the Create Job Requisition and Post Job WIG for Workday instructions.
Reminder: Recruited within JM sup orgs in Workday only. Evergreen job requisitions may be utilized for student postings only.
Set recruiting instructions to “Posting Internally & Externally (open to all applicants)” to enable posting on the UT student jobs site.
Work-Study jobs must include “Work-Study” in the advertised job title.
Once the job requisition has been final-approved, the Recruiter can post the job. There is no minimum posting timeframe for student jobs.
Work-Study Student Appointments
Appointment Dates
Between 5/16 – 8/15
Last day to hire work-study employee: 8/1
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.
Required BP Comments
Required BP Attachments:
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Undergraduate Student Appointments
Appointment Dates
Between 5/16 - 8/15
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).
Student Employee Additional and Sporadic Employment Decision Tree
Student Employee Sporadic Additional Job Form - attach to Add Job BP
Relevant Webpages
Required BP Comments
Required BP Attachments:
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Graduate Student Appointments
Appointment Dates
May Term:
International Students: 5/10 - 6/3
Non-International Students: 5/5 - 6/3 with an exception from the Grad School
All grad students can work over 20/30 hours/week beginning 5/10 without an exception (summer average of 30 hours/week still applies for summer semester).
For hourly additional sporadic jobs: Employment dates must match the actual days worked and employees are certifying that when they fill out timesheets.
First Session: 5/16 - 6/30
Second Session: 7/1 - 8/15
Nine-Week Session: 5/16 - 7/17
Whole Session: 5/16 - 8/15
May Term
May term is considered part of the spring semester and therefore follows the spring enrollment requirements. All May Term student employees will need to submit timesheets to be paid.
May Term TAs
May Term TAs should be appointed using job profile G0068 - Teaching Assistant (Hourly)
If the student was a TA in the spring and will be a May Term TA:
Add Teaching Assistant job as hourly, variable, sporadic position with 0 SWH to avoid insurance change issues. See Student Sporadic Employment Decision Tree for processing details. The Student Sporadic Additional Job form is not required since graduate students can work over 20/30 hours/week beginning 5/10/2026 without an exception from the Graduate School.
If the student is only going to be a TA for the May Term:
Hire as Teaching Assistant with 20 SWH using non-benefits eligible Employee Type.
May Term AIs
May Term AIs should be appointed using job profile G0066 - Assistant Instructor (Hourly).
If student has a 20 SWH AGS job through 5/31:
Add AI job as normal in Workday; if 10+ SWH, their insurance status would normally change to full-time, and they would automatically be enrolled into UT Select as of the start date--BUT HR Benefits manual intervention can help: email Fernando Castillo for these cases.
May Term GRAs
Students who will be GRAs during the May Term should be appointed using job profile G0067 - Graduate Research Assistant (Hourly).
Student Eligibility
Guidelines for Summer Employment details:
Students must meet the minimum enrollment requirements for student job titles.
Graduate Students must be enrolled for at least one three-hour course during any summer session to hold assignments during the summer. See Graduate School Guidelines for Summer Employment for details and exceptions to the minimum enrollment requirements.
Summer Registration Exceptions for GRAs, Academic/Graduate Assistants, Tutors, and Student Technicians:
No registration required if total compensation is less than or equal to $2,500 AND total hours worked is less than 80 for the whole summer.
Email the Graduate School at GS-Approvals@austin.utexas.edu for exception requests.
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.
Spring TAs/AIs who are expected to return to benefits-eligible employment in the fall are eligible for a summer anchor job, which will allow them to keep their insurance during the summer. If fall term employment plans are uncertain, general guidance is for the spring term employing unit to provide summer insurance via an Anchor Job. See Summer Anchor Scenarios.
Summer Job Status | 0 SWH Summer Anchor Job |
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No summer work hours* | Required; will otherwise lose benefits eligibility |
Benefits-eligible AGS job* | Not required (okay to use) |
Non-benefits eligible job* | Required; will otherwise lose benefits eligibility |
Benefits-eligible Faculty or Staff job* | No; transitions to Faculty/Staff eligibility |
*If more than one of these scenarios applies during the summer, the TA/AI Anchor job may or may not be needed for part of the summer.
Anchor Job details:
Scheduled Weekly Hours: 0
Business Title and Job Title: TA/AI Summer - Anchor
Employee Type: Regular Benefits-Eligible - Graduate Student Academic (Fixed Term)
The anchor job should be the primary job in Workday.
Costing allocation details will not be changed (keep it on the same account as spring).
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:
TA/AI Requirements
All TA/AI assignments - excluding Anchor Jobs - will be paid via the employing unit’s regular Soft Money TA/AI account (20-16xx-2004).
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. The approval and date must be referenced in the Workday BP.
Recommended Business Titles:
2026 Summer Term TA/AI [for Whole Session]
2026 Nine-Week Summer Term TA/AI
2026 Summer Session 1 TA/AI
2026 Summer Session 2 TA/AI
Graduate Academic Student Rates
| Academic Rates | SWH based on Duration of Summer Course | ||||
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| Total Stipend | Monthly Rate | 1st Session (5/16-6/30) | 2nd Session (7/1-8/15) | 9-Week Session (5/16-7/17) | Whole Session (5/16-8/15) |
TA | $5,209.73 | $4,705.56 | 30 | 30 | 21.69 | 15 |
Non-COLA TA | $4,055.15 | $3,662.72 | 30 | 30 | 21.69 | 15 |
AI | $7,694.23 | $5,212.22 | 40 | 40 | 28.93 | 20 |
Non-COLA AI | $6,054.95 | $4,101.74 | 40 | 40 | 28.93 | 20 |
GRA: Minimum $56,467 annual – 12 months at 100% FTE (40 SWH)
Non-COLA GRA: Minimum $43,952.64 annual
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.
Required BP Comments
Required BP Attachments:
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Situations requiring COLA Associate Dean of Graduate Education Pre-Approval:
IMPORTANT: Will need to reference in BP comments and attach approval email to BP. Email the Associate Dean and cc: the Asst. Director.
Requests for TA/AI assignments beyond 6th year of graduate school.
TAs or AIs assigned to more than one course during Fall or Spring.
TA, AI, or GRA appointments with non-standard dates or SWH.
Graduate student sporadic employment.
Please note that these some of these scenarios require additional pre-approval from Graduate Advisors or the Graduate School. See Process for more details.
COLA Associate Dean for Graduate Education: Jason Abrevaya
Assistant Director for Graduate Education: Jessica Luhn
Relevant Webpages
Student Eligibility to Work: Enrollment Requirements, Limits on Work Hours
Graduate Student Employee Offer Letter PowerForms
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
First Session: 5/16 - 6/30
Second Session: 7/1 - 8/15
Nine-Week Session: 5/16 - 7/15
Whole Session: 5/16 - 8/15
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.
Required BP Comments
Required BP Attachments:
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Relevant Webpages
Mass End Employment Date Extension Process
Important Things to Remember
Prioritize the AGS population since the first Mass End Additional Job/Termination process will run for the AGS population on June 1.
Deadline for Mass End Employment Date Extension submissions: Tuesday, June 2.
It is required to have an offer letter or other written documentation (ex: an email) to the student that includes their employment information (employment dates, weekly hours, pay rate). Offer letters for appointments being extended through the Mass End Date Extension Process should be uploaded to our student offer letter submissions portal.
Students moving between job profiles or moving between Supervisory Organizations must be processed manually (Ex: TA to AI, TA/AI to GRA, etc.).
Current End Employment Date: The current end employment date for a job must be on or between 5/1 and 5/31.
Proposed End Employment Date: The proposed end employment date must be on or after 5/16.
Proposed Monthly Amount (NOT Prorated by FTE): This field is used to change the compensation amount for the extended job. It is available for any job being extended, including the transition of a summer anchor job to paid status in the fall semester. Enter the non-prorated amount using the same frequency as the current compensation on the job (hourly, monthly, or annual). Workday will automatically prorate the amount when the mass extension process runs.
REMINDER: Pay rates for continuing student employees can only be increased effective August 16 unless there is a change in job duties/position.
Units can still participate in the Mass Extend process if they have fewer than 10 student appointments to extend; COLA HR will combine spreadsheets weekly before submitting to eBITS.
Important Things to Remember
The MTSS is for student new hires, rehires, and additional jobs.
It is required to have an offer letter or other written documentation (ex: an email) to the student that includes their employment information (employment dates, weekly hours, pay rate). Offer letters for appointments processed through the Mass Transaction Submission System should be uploaded to our student offer letter submissions portal.
MTSS requires at least 5 rows of jobs per batch; if you have fewer than 5 jobs, you can submit the spreadsheet to COLA HR to be combined with another unit’s batch.
MTSS bypasses some Student Eligibility Audits (SEE) and will allow student employees to go over 100% FTS across all of their jobs, so units must be diligent in monitoring the Student Eligibility Reports that are sent to Managers and HR Partners/Associates/Assistants.
Actions you can take on a batch:
Validate: Check for errors
Submit for Approval: Route batch to the approver
Reupload Spreadsheet: Re-upload and re-validate a batch after correcting issues
Delete Batch: Deletes batch in order to start over from scratch
Recall from Approver: Moves batch from the Approver to the Creator
Please remember to send MTSS batches to approver sy5777 (Stephanie Reyes).
Additional Resources
https://hr.utexas.edu/manager/hiring/form-I-9-employment-eligibility-process
HUMAN RESOURCES/GRADUATE SCHOOL/TEXAS GLOBAL
MASS PROCESSES
Mass Transaction Submission System (MTSS) (COLA Wiki)
MTSS Spreadsheet Template (will automatically save as a download)
WORKDAY
Workday QUAL (Workday test environment)