Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs has oversight and authority over the graduate student population and the graduate academic titles. 

• Academic Home Department: department from which the student will earn their degree
• Fee payment: payment of one or more tuition/fee charges assessed to student accounts; not earned as a benefit of academic employment
• Fee remission:  fee payment earned as a benefit of academic employment
• FSRT: Financial Support Request Tool
• GSR: Graduate Student Researcher
• GSRTF: GSR Tuition and Fee Remission
• IA: Instructional Assistant; refers to the group of instructional titles covered by the UAW Academic Student Employees Unit contract; titles include Associate-In, Associate-in-lieu-(of TA), Teaching Assistant (TA), Reader, Tutor (see also Types of Academic Student Employment) 

After obtaining pre-approval from the student's Academic Home Department and confirming eligibility to work in the proposed title, the Hiring Department should initiate the creation of Positions and the Hire or Concurrent Hire process in UCPath.  The expectation is that hiring departments will manage the appointments through the duration and life cycle of the appointment.  This includes the termination of the appointment and any subsequent funding changes that may occur once the appointment has ended.

Students with Fellowships

Many students will have multiple, and often overlapping, sources of funding during their time at UC San Diego.  While it may be appropriate to make updates to funding packages, it is NEVER appropriate to hire a student in any title if the intention is that they should be paid via a stipend.  Retroactive changes to payroll entries can have serious and irreversible impacts on students' tax liabilities and payments.

Prior to Winter 2023, GSRs hired at 50% were eligible for a vacation accrual.  This component of the payroll system has been eliminated effective January 2023. The past practice of hiring GSRs at 49.99% is no longer the best practice and GSRs should instead be hired at 50%. In place of vacation accrual, GSRs employed at 25% or more for a minimum of one full month will accrue 1 day of Personal Time Off (PTO) per eligible month. 

• Review the list of graduate academic titles to ensure the correct appointment. Refer to the table above and the details in the Graduate Student Employment Policy & Procedures manual for hiring guidelines, service periods, and the associated benefits of each title
• Summer appointment periods may vary; please refer to Summer Session and Graduate Student Employment: Summer Session Pay for full details.

Appointment Percentage

GEPA discourages appointing GSRs at 24.99% with the intention of avoiding fee remission especially in cases where the student does not have alternative financial support for fee coverage. It is especially important, in coordination with the new GSR contract, that appointment percentages be commensurate with the hours worked (effort). The difference of work between a 24.99% v 25% appointment is less than 5 minutes. Denying a graduate student a benefit of employment for less than 5 minutes of work is not in line with the tenets of the financial support models on this campus or the new contract. 

Prior to Winter 2023, GSRs hired at 50% were eligible for a vacation accrual.  This component of the payroll system has been eliminated effective January 2023. The past practice of hiring GSRs at 49.99% is no longer the best practice and GSRs should instead be hired at 50%. In place of vacation accrual, GSRs employed at 25% or more for a minimum of one full month will accrue 1 day of Personal Time Off (PTO) per eligible month. 

• Obtain pre-approval from the Academic Home Department (GSEPP, Chapter 2: Pre-Approval)
• Confirm eligibility to work in a Graduate Academic Title (GSEPP, Chapter 1: Academic Eligibility). There are minimum qualifications for graduate students to serve in graduate academic titles.
  • Full-time enrollment
  • Good academic standing
  • Language skills
  • Support Time limits

  • Percentage of effort

Complete onboarding paperwork.  The ONBOARDING tool may be used to hire graduate students, but is not requiredis the Payroll office's preferred and recommended way to receive this paperwork.

If your student will serve in an instructional role, such as Associate, Teaching Assistant, Reader, or Tutor, or a research role as a Graduate Student Researcher, submit the necessary information in the IA System.  Submit a ticket in Services & Support to request access to the IA System.

See also Graduate Student Researchers in the IA System - Process Guidance

• Refer to the UCPATH page for details on training, access, job aids, and more
• Additional information on processing graduate student hires can be found on the UCPath for Graduate Student Employment Collab page

• See Fee Remission Entry Instructions for details on requesting fee remissions

• Only the Academic Home Department can request a fee remission; you will need to coordinate with the Academic Home Department to submit the fee remission request in the Financial Support Request Tool