Hiring Graduate Assistants

This information is for faculty who wish to hire graduate assistants. To read the official UA Little Rock Graduate Assistantship policy, click here.

Allocations of Graduate Assistants

  • Academic Departments will be allocated budget to fund one or more GA positions by their dean’s office.
  • Non-Academic Departments allocation is awarded annually by the Dean of the Graduate School. All requests for positions for the next academic year should be made directly to the Dean by email no later than February 1st.

Finding Assistants

  • New graduate students with regular admission and continuing students with regular admission and a GPA of 3.0 are eligible for Graduate Assistantship positions. (Please note the students need to be regularly admitted to a Master’s program or higher to be eligible.)
  • If a student does not meet the above criteria they could still become eligible in the future. Grade changes, ‘I’ grades posting, or other circumstances can change the eligibility of a student.
  • If a student does not have the required number of hours before the 11th day of classes, the student is not eligible for a GA position. Full-time positions require students enroll in a minimum of 9 hours of graduate courses and half-time positions require students enroll in a minimum of 4.5 hours of graduate courses (Note: Typically, courses are 3 hours each so students would be enrolled in 6 hours.)
  • If a department is allocated a position but does not have a student in mind, they should follow the Workday process to Create a Position and then the Workday process to Create a Job Requisition. The position will be posted on the Human Resources Job Site at https://ualr.edu/humanresources/jobs/.

Hiring Assistants

  • Once a student is selected for the position, the department must complete an Workday New Hire action for the student.
  • As part of the New Hire process, the department will be required to submit an offer letter to the student.
  • Students will be directed to Workday new hire tasks and required training via messages posted to their Workday inbox.

Managing Assistantships

  • Graduate Assistants should not be allowed to work until the New Hire process is completed.
  • Please have a short meeting at the beginning of each semester with the Graduate Assistant with your expectations and requirements.
  • Graduate Assistants are expected to work 20 hours per week for full time assistants and 10 hours per week for half time assistants.
  • If a Graduate Assistant drops below the required number of enrolled hours without consent from the Graduate School, the GA appointment can be revoked and the student may be required to pay back in full the amount paid to them.
  • If a Graduate Assistant will take reduced hours during their final semester prior to graduation, the student’s program advisor should email this information to Deletta J. Epperson at djbrowning@ualr.edu and copy Dr. Brian C. Berry at bcberry@ualr.edu