Policies & Frequently Asked Questions

Exceptions to this policy can be approved as follows:

• With written approval from the student’s GPD (Grad Program Director) and the Graduate Dean’s office, a GA may work up to 28 hours per week on average, making this number slightly flexible. Approvals must be renewed each semester. Some international students may not be eligible for the exception; check with the Center for Global Engagement to confirm.
• With written approval from the student’s GPD (Grad Program Director) and the Graduate Dean’s office, a GA may work from 30 to 40 hours per week in total (full-time level) as long as this full-time level work does not extend for any longer than three months. Some international students may not be eligible for the exception; check with the Center for Global Engagement to confirm.
• Full-time work lasting longer than three months is strongly discouraged since it calls into question the “student” status of the individual and requires that the university offer the employee health insurance benefit to the student, which must be paid for by the hiring department.
   

Exceptions to this policy can be approved as follows:

• With written approval from the student’s GPD (Grad Program Director) and the Graduate Dean’s office, a non-GA may work from 30 to 40 hours per week in total (full-time level) as long as this full-time level work does not extend for any longer than three months. 
• Full-time work lasting longer than three months is strongly discouraged since it calls into question the “student” status of the individual and requires that the university offer the employee health insurance benefit to the student, which must be paid for by the hiring department.
   

Some international students may not be eligible to work at all or they may not be eligible to work more than 20 hours per week, regardless of whether they are classified as GAs or GSEMs. Always check with the Center for Global Engagement to confirm work eligibility when an international student is involved.

An appeal to keep funding while on probation can be submitted to the Graduate Dean. For information on how to submit such an appeal, please email Anna Henderson, Administrative Director for Graduate Budgets & Payroll.

For details, please visit the Graduate School’s TOR Information Page.

Fully funded PhD student GAs should all earn the same, standard amount for a 20-hour base assignment, depending on whether the degree program pays at the STEM or non-STEM level. The policy for paying more than the base level is that there can only be “increased pay for increased effort.” In other words, the student must work more hours (with appropriate approvals in place) in order to earn more than the standard stipend amount. Exceptions to this rule may include:

• The work the student is doing is significantly more difficult (over and beyond) than the work performed by the student’s peers earning the base stipend level.
• The student’s stipend is being paid by a grant and the URA has approved a higher pay rate for the student.
• Some international students may not be eligible to work more hours; check with the Center for Global Engagement to confirm.
   

The Graduate School provides some of the funding for grad student stipends and grad student wages across the university. This Graduate School-funded money will be identified in your budget by designation code 1091065 (starting June 1, 2025). Money using this designation code has restrictions regarding its use:

• These funds are not to be used by academic departments to pay students above the standard, 20 hour per week, base assignment pay level. 
• These funds are not to be used to pay students enrolled in the following programs that do not fall under the purview of the Graduate School: Law School, Truett master’s programs, and Social Work master’s programs. 
• Unless otherwise approved by the Graduate Dean, these funds are not to be used to pay GAs who are beyond their guaranteed funding years, as specified in their admissions offer letter.
   

A graduate student should be paid monthly if the following criteria are met:

• Either the student is a fully funded GA or
• The student is working as a Teacher of Record (TOR) or 
• The student is working as a Research Assistant (RA) often funded by a grant (this is less common).
   

Any graduate student meeting one of the criteria above should be hired as a monthly employee using the Graduate Student Payroll Forms. Any graduate student not meeting one of the criteria above must be hired as a biweekly student employee by contacting the Student Employment office.
 

• If you are hiring a fully funded GA or another type of grad student who is already on the monthly payroll cycle, use the Add Extra Assignment or Additional Pay (ICP) form to add the payment for the new work to their existing monthly payout.
• If you need to hire or pay a grad student in a biweekly/hourly role, contact Student_Employment@baylor.edu for assistance or consult this Quick Reference Guide.
• If you are not certain whether you will be hiring a monthly or a biweekly paid student, you may go ahead and set up the position in Ignite via the Student Employment process and have it posted on the job board to attract applicants. If the student you wish to hire turns out to not be on the monthly payroll cycle already, you may proceed with hiring that student via the usual Ignite process. However, if the student you wish to hire already has an existing monthly position, you will need to close the position that you created in Ignite and proceed with submitting the Add Extra Assignment or Additional Pay (ICP) form to add the payment for the new work to the grad student’s existing monthly payout.
   

• During the admissions process, the stipend amount should be entered in Slate and communicated to the student in the admission offer letter. 
• New semester process: Four to six weeks before the start of each semester, the Director for Graduate Payroll will reach out to the Graduate Program Director for each academic department to confirm a list of new students and the amount of their stipend payments. Once confirmed, the hiring process will be initiated, and the stipends will be entered into Ignite and added to payroll.
• If you have students who are admitted late, after the “new semester process” is completed, stipends/payroll will not be set up automatically for these students. In this case, the department will need to submit a New Base Stipend form to initiate the hiring process. The form needs to be submitted at least 3 weeks prior to the first pay date in order to be processed in time for the student to be paid on time.
   

The types of grad student positions are GA, GSEM, GSEB, and TOR. For more information on these terms, see the definitions section.

• If your grad student is a fully funded GA* serving as a TOR as a part of the duties fulfilled to earn the base stipend (within the 20 hour per week base assignment), then there is no further step to take regarding payroll. Do, however, be sure to visit the Graduate School’s TOR Information Page to ensure that all requirements for working as a TOR are met.
• If your grad student already has an existing fully funded GA* position, and the TOR work will be on top of the 20 hour per week base assignment as a teaching “overload,” you will need to use the Add Extra Assignment or Additional Pay (ICP) form to add the teaching overload to the monthly pay. Be sure to obtain the necessary approvals for the student to work over 20 hours per week (see Policies section).
• If your grad student is not a fully funded GA, the TOR work must be set up as a GSEM assignment. Any existing bi-weekly jobs must be converted to a monthly salary so that the student is not on two different payroll cycles. Contact the Director for Graduate Payroll to determine which form to use to accomplish this.

*A fully funded GA is a graduate student (either doctoral or master’s) who was admitted to Baylor with a guaranteed, multi-year stipend and 80% student health insurance subsidy as part of the admissions offer.
 

The deadline for payroll changes each month will depend on the type of change you wish to make. The dates listed below are the absolute latest dates that the changes should be completely processed, including routing through the various Ignite approval levels. Thus, we strongly encourage you to submit your changes as soon as you can, well before these deadlines. If you miss the deadline, your student may not be paid on time.

• 12th of each month for new hires and new base stipends; it is recommended that you submit these updates by the 7th of each month to ensure that the changes are made and approved in time to get the student paid on time.
• 15th of each month for changes to current stipends, pay rates, pay dates, suspending pay, terminating assignments, or for adding ICPs (extra pay for extra work); it is recommended that you submit these changes by the 9th of each month to ensure that the changes are made and approved in time to get the student paid on time.
   

A handy through-the-year calendar outlining grad student payroll tasks is available here. Please print a copy for your office.

The grad student payroll tasks are as follows:

• Weekly or Monthly – Check your Labor Distribution and Additional Comp reports for correctness. 
  - Verify that monthly payment amounts are correct
  - Confirm that all of your students who should be receiving payment are listed
  - Confirm that there are no students are listed who should not be receiving payment
  - Verify that the costing account numbers are correct
   
• Weekly or Monthly – Submit the correct grad student payroll form to implement any student salary changes needed. Examples of salary changes that may be needed: 
  - edit the existing monthly payment amount
  - suspend payment on the base assignment
  - terminate an assignment
  - stop an ICP
  - change the supervisor
  - initiate a one-time payment
  - hire a student to do additional work for additional monthly pay
  - add a grant-funded assignment
  - set up a new base assignment
   
• Start and End of Each Term – Using the most recent LD report or Additional Comp report as a guide, determine which of your graduate students need to have their payment information updated or assignment ended. The Director of Graduate Payroll will reach out to each department to assist with this task. The following issues will be reviewed and changes implemented either by submitting a form or by responding to the communication sent to you by the Graduate Payroll representative:
  - Continuing students will be verified
  - graduating students will be removed from payroll
  - planned pay increases may be implemented
  - students who are staying on beyond their guaranteed funding years may need to have payments suspended, decreased, or have the costing account updated
  - ICPs may need to be ended or renewed
  - incoming students will be hired according to the “new semester process” 
   
• New semester process: Four to six weeks before the start of each semester, the Director for Graduate Payroll will reach out to the Graduate Program Director for each academic department to confirm a list of new students and the amount of their stipend payments. Once confirmed, the hiring process will be initiated, and the stipends will be entered into Ignite and added to payroll.
   

Send an email to Anna Henderson, Administrative Director for Graduate Budgets & Payroll, to request to be added.

Send an email specifying which department(s) you need the reports for to Anna Henderson, Administrative Director for Graduate Budgets & Payroll, and request to be added to the list of recipients.

If you have students who are admitted late, after the “new semester process” is completed, stipends/payroll will not be set up automatically for these students. In this case, the department will need to submit a New Base Stipend form to initiate the hiring process. The form needs to be submitted at least 3 weeks prior to the first pay date in order to be processed in time for the student to be paid on time.

Although we do run a graduation list and try to end assignments for those who have graduated, the process is not fool proof. It is always best practice to submit the Update or Change Existing Stipend/Assignment form when monthly payments need to be stopped, whether a student is graduating or has quit the job, or has left the university for any other reason.

Graduate student monthly assignments, just like regular employee assignments, are set up as “ongoing” and do not have end dates. You will need to need to initiate the termination process by submitting the Update or Change Existing Stipend/Assignment form when monthly payments need to be stopped, whether because a student is graduating, has quit the job, or has left the university for any other reason; otherwise, the payments will continue.

• For academic departments funding base stipends for GAs working a standard 20 hours per week:
  2025-26 STEM PhD student GAs: $32,000 per year ($2666.67/month over 12 months).
  2025-26 Non-STEM PhD student GAs: $30,000 per year ($2500/month over 12 months)*
  2025-26 master’s student GAs: please consult with the GPD.
  Non-PhD GA base stipend (such as Clinical Psychology) please consult with the GPD.
  *Truett and School of Music PhD stipends may vary.
• For GSEB work, the Graduate School’s current guidelines are:
  »$15/hour for master’s students and doctoral students performing work not requiring a PhD student’s expertise. This hourly wage will need to be converted to a monthly rate depending on the number of hours per week worked.
  »$25/hour for PhD students doing work requiring the expertise of a PhD student. This hourly wage will need to be converted to a monthly rate depending on the number of hours per week worked.
• Teacher of Record (TOR) overload work should be paid by the College/School’s 91055 account at same rate as an adjunct/PT lecturer would be paid. Consult with your Business Officer for more information.
   

Additional hours* worked on a grant must be paid at the same rate at the base pay. For example:

• Base = $32K for 20 hours = $2666.67/month
• Additional 5 hours per week (25% of base) = $666.67
• Total pay = $3333.34/month = $40,000/year

* Some international students may not be eligible to work more than 20 hours/week; check with the Center for Global Engagement to confirm.

Fully funded PhD student GAs should all earn the same, standard amount for a 20-hour base assignment, depending on whether the degree program pays at the STEM or non-STEM level. The policy for paying more than the base level is that there can only be “increased pay for increased effort.” In other words, the student must work more hours (with appropriate approvals in place) in order to earn more than the standard stipend amount.* To increase pay rate along with the corresponding number of hours per week, the Update or Change Existing Stipend/Assignment form should be submitted.

Exceptions to this rule may include:

• The work the student is doing is significantly more difficult (over and beyond) than the work performed by the student’s peers earning the base stipend level. If this is the case, you may use the form linked above, keeping in mind that Graduate School funds (with the 1091065 designation code) cannot be used to fund the pay increase.
• The student’s stipend is being paid by a grant and the URA has approved a higher pay rate for the student. If this is the case, you may use the form linked above to initiate the pay change, noting in the comments that the URA has approved the increase.

* Some international students may not be eligible to work more hours; check with the Center for Global Engagement to confirm.
 

If a grad student has exceeded their guaranteed funding years, the amount of monthly pay should be updated to align with the standardized rates (based on $15/hour for master’s students; $25/hour for doctoral students).

Exceptions to this rule may include:

• The Graduate Dean has approved paying a higher rate
• The student’s stipend is being paid by a grant and the URA has approved a higher pay rate for the student.

• Academic Departments can check what account string the student’s salary is being charged to by reviewing the weekly Labor Distribution report.
• Non-Academic Units will need to check with their Business Officer or Financial Manager to find out if the student’s salary is being charged to the correct account.
• If you need to change the funding source (COA/POETAF) for a grad student’s salary, do not use the grad student payroll forms. Instead, you will need to contact your Financial Manager or Business Officer.

• 92150 – only to be used for PhD student base stipends (GA1 position code)
• 92160 – used for all other grad student base assignments (GA, GSEM, and GSEB position codes)
• 92155 – used for grad student supplemental work (non-TOR ICPs) and one-time payments; intended for use whenever a grad student is performing additional work beyond the base assignment.
• 91055 – used for grad student supplemental TOR work; also used when a grad student has a base assignment as a TOR with no other GA responsibilities, serving in the role of an adjunct/PT lecturer
• 92170 – used only for undergrad student wages

If you need to change the funding source (COA/POETAF) for a grad student’s salary, do not use the grad student payroll forms. Instead, you will need to contact your Financial Manager or Business Officer.

The Graduate School provides some of the funding for grad student stipends and grad student wages across the university. This Graduate School-funded money will be identified in your budget by designation code 1091065 (starting June 1, 2025). Your department will get a email from the Graduate School during the spring term each year notifying you of how much the Graduate School-funded stipend budget will be for the upcoming fiscal year.

Money using the 1091065 designation code has restrictions regarding its use:

• These funds are not to be used to pay students enrolled in the following programs that do not fall under the purview of the Graduate School: Law School, Truett master’s programs, and Social Work master’s programs. 
• Unless otherwise approved by the Graduate Dean, these funds are not to be used to pay GAs who are beyond their guaranteed funding years, as specified in their admissions offer letter.