The Future Educators Academy: An Educational Development Program for Graduate Teaching Assistants is a collaborative initiative between Academic Affairs, the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (FCTL), and UMB schools, supporting teaching-focused student assistantships across the University.  

A GTA is a graduate student whose focus is assisting in teaching within a course or program. The specific duties of a GTA vary from one program to another, but for the majority of GTAs assignments and responsibilities fall into the following categories:

1. Administration of community programs or workshops.
2. Assisting a faculty member in the grading, advising, proctoring, and administrative duties associated with a course or courses.
3. Teaching responsibility for a laboratory or discussion session of a course.
4. Teaching responsibility for a classroom section of a multi-sectional course, under the close supervision of the course director.

PhD and MS degree levels are eligible to be a GTA. A graduate assistant must be a registered graduate student, enrolled full-time in a degree program, who is making satisfactory progress toward a degree. All graduate students are expected to maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better. The appointee should hold an appropriate baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution. Appointments are normally given to those students who have shown superior aptitude in their field of study and who appear likely to render a high quality of service to the university by their teaching and research activities. (See page 5 of the Graduate Assistant Guide)

Graduate assistantships are awarded appointments with the intent of both providing financial support and contributing to the recipient’s professional development. In all instances, it is understood that the graduate student’s priority should be his or her studies and research and that 100 percent of effort will be devoted to this endeavor. Graduate assistants whose terms of appointment include a work component are not, therefore, expected to work more than 20 hours per week on any project or set of projects not directly related to their dissertation research. Other graduate assistants are not permitted to take on any work beyond their studies or research within or outside the university. Therefore, graduate assistants are ineligible for additional awards that include a work component. (See page 14 of the Graduate Assistant Guide).

As GTAs are student employees of the University, they qualify for tuition remission. Graduate teaching assistantship appointment status determines tuition remission benefits. Full-time graduate assistants (20 hours per week) receive 10 credit hours of tuition remission in the fall and spring semesters. Half-time graduate assistants (10 hours per week) receive 5 credit hours tuition remission and one-half student health in the fall and spring semesters, or 10 credits of tuition remission in the fall or spring only. The Graduate School does not offer tuition remission for winter or summer sessions.

GTAs must enroll in ABGA 901 (7 cr.) Graduate Teaching Assistant in each term they are employed in the position:

Fall Term – Section 01: CRN=90003
Spring Term – Section 01: CRN=20003
Summer Term – Section 01: CRN=60003

Source: GA_Guide2022-2023

Please refer to the UMB Graduate School Graduate Assistantships for the most recent guidance.

Applications are assessed on a semi-annual basis. Appointments start either on Sept. 1 (fall) or Jan. 1 (spring) and run through Aug. 31 (summer).

GTAs will meet biweekly with program coordinators, Erin Hagar, MA, MFA, and Eric Belt, EdD. The first synchronous meeting of the month is a topic-based discussion or short presentation by the coordinators or an invited guest(s) that is open to all participants and faculty mentors. In these meetings, participants share observations from their assignments and receive advice, support, and ideas on their teaching and instructional responsibilities. These meetings serve to build a community of student and teacher colleagues who are interested in learning more about teaching in higher, professional education contexts. The second synchronous meeting of the month is a workshop between the program coordinators and the GTAs. In these meetings, program coordinators review supplemental asynchronous online learning activities in Blackboard with the GTAs, answer questions, and take a deep dive into relevant instructional tasks (e.g., writing learning objectives, crafting assignment prompts, curating resources, and developing assessments).