Scholarships and Tuition Awards for PhD Students

For PhD Students:

In addition to student loans, PhD students may have access to three kinds of financial support: scholarships and fellowships, Graduate Instructorships, and tuition waivers.

Scholarships and fellowships: The English Department has access to a limited amount of scholarship money, for which PhD students will be considered. In the future we expect to develop some research fellowships that will be available to PhD students.

Graduate Instructorships: All students are encouraged to apply for a paid Graduate Instructorship. The assignment will be 50 percent time, or approximately 20 hours of work per week. The normal teaching load is two sections of writing classes (e.g., composition). Guarantee of continued support is contingent upon three factors: 1) acceptable teaching performance; 2) acceptable academic performance and progress towards the degree; and 3) sufficient funding from the university allowing the department to continue hiring GIs. Although we anticipate that students will complete the degree in four years, support may be available for a fifth year if necessary.

Graduate Instructorship duties begin in August with a week-long, in-service training workshop prior to the semester, conducted by the Director of Writing. GIs are also expected to attend departmental meetings as they are scheduled before classes begin and to enroll in Engl 6820: Practicum in Teaching English during fall semester if they have not done so already.

If PhD students have passed Engl 7860: Teaching Technical Writing or demonstrated equivalent formal preparation, they may be given the opportunity to teach certain upper-division technical communication courses, notably Engl 3080: Introduction to Technical Communication, Engl 3400: Professional Writing, and Engl 3410: Professional Writing Technology.

Tuition waivers: PhD students are eligible for remission of the resident (instate) portion of their tuition costs, but if they are not Utah residents they would normally have to pay the nonresident (out-of-state) portion of their tuition. However, if nonresident students are employed as Graduate Instructors they are eligible for a waiver of out-of-state tuition for any courses that will count towards their degree (i.e. lower-division undergraduate classes or recreational classes would not be eligible for tuition remission).