GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
Graduate Student Assistantship Survey
7/11/2016 – 02/10/2017
Created by Albert J. Ksinan and the Graduate Student Congress
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GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
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Table of Contents
Background ............................................................................................................................................................. 3
Sample..................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Student Income ....................................................................................................................................................... 6
Student Expenses .................................................................................................................................................. 12
Income-expenses Disparity ................................................................................................................................... 14
Attitudes about UK assistantships ........................................................................................................................ 15
Open-ended Responses ......................................................................................................................................... 17
Comparison with Peer Institutions ........................................................................................................................ 19
Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................................... 20
Appendix A ........................................................................................................................................................... 21
GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
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Background
This survey was created by the Graduate Student Congress (GSC) in order to gather as well as to disseminate
information on the size of assistantships graduate students at the University of Kentucky (UK) were receiving.
The primary goal for assessing this information was to get an insight into the levels of assistantships across the
UK campus since it is assumed that they differ but actual information on the absolute sizes and relative
differences has been severely lacking.
The secondary goal was to counter the information discrepancy that oftentimes exists with regards to monetary
rewards in institutions by providing unrestricted access to the survey results to everyone. In this way, anyone
but particularly graduate student at the UK can compare their assistantship with other students from the same
department, other students on campus, as well as other students from different universities (thanks to the
webpage phdstipends.com, which gathers information about assistantships across the US and which was a
primary inspiration for this project).
This study has been created with Google Forms, where filled-out survey answers feed into a Google
Spreadsheet form, which is then available for everyone to see. The survey is anonymous. It has been distributed
via GSC listserv, GSC Facebook page, GSC webpage and by word of mouth. The study is still live and updated
with new responses daily.
It is important to note that this survey is anonymous and self-reported. For this reason, it is nearly impossible to
verify the provided information. Although some of the obvious outliers/typos (e.g., $1 yearly income) were
removed, the remaining information was kept as provided. Given the size of the sample, few outliers are
unlikely to sway the findings in a significant way, or, in other words, we believe that the results are robust
enough that the trends and conclusions would remain the same even if there were more “objective” measures.
Nevertheless, caution is advised when interpreting the provided values, as these are more likely to be estimates
than true population values.
Sample
The total number of respondents answering the survey was 736 as of February 10, 2017. These students came
from 164 different majors/concentrations representing 80 different departments, suggesting a good
representation of graduate students. Table 1 shows the list of majors and number of respondents from each
major. Regarding the level of degree sought, majority of respondents (500 = 67.9%) were doctoral students,
while 232 students (31.5%) were master’s students, 2 students were seeking education specialist degree (.2%)
and 2 students (.2%) were seeking professional degree. This distribution is shown in Figure 1.
Regarding the background of the respondents, a total of 169 were international students (23%) while 561 of
them were not (76.2%). The proportion of international students among the respondents is shown in Figure 2.
Regarding the type of assistantship the students were receiving, 387 of them received teaching assistantship
(TA; 53%), 231 of them received research assistantship (RA; 31.6%), 58 of them a combination of both (7.9%),
33 respondents received graduate assistantship (GA; 4.5%), and 21 respondents had a different type (e.g.,
fellowship, hourly pay, grant; 2.8%). This distribution is shown in Figure 3.
GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
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Table 1
Representation of Respondents Across Majors/Concentrations
Name
20/21st Century Peninsular Studies
#
2
%
.3
Accounting
5
.7
Acoustics
1
.1
12
1.6
American History
1
American Literature
American Politics
Agricultural Economics
Name
Developmental Biology
#
1
%
.1
Developmental Psychology
1
.1
Diplomacy
1
Drug Discovery
.1
2
#
1
%
.1
Health Behavior and Society
2
.3
.1
Health Management & Policy
1
1
.1
Health Promotion
Early Modern British Literature
1
.1
.3
Ecology
1
1
.1
Ecology and Evolution
1
Analysis and PDE
1
.1
Economics
Analytical Chemistry
3
.4
Anatomy and Neurobiology
2
.3
Animal Physiology
Name
Health Administration
Name
Nutritional Sciences
#
%
6
.8
Orchestral Conducting
1
.1
.1
Organic Chemistry
3
.4
3
.4
Performance
3
.4
Higher Education
3
.4
Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy
1
.1
.1
Hispanic Studies
5
.7
Pharmaceutical Sciences
15
1.9
.1
Historic Preservation
3
.4
Pharmacology
15
2.0
History
Philosophy
15
2.0
Educational Policy and Evaluation
4
.5
Human Geography
1
.1
Physical Geography
Educational Psychology
3
.4
Immunology
1
.1
Physics
5
.7
18
2.4
1
.1
17
2.3
1
.1
Educational Sciences
2
.3
Instructional Communication
1
.1
Physiology
8
1.1
13
1.8
Electrical Engineering
8
1.1
Instructional Systems Design
1
.1
Plant and Soil Science
6
.8
Anthropology
7
1.0
English
26
3.5
Integrated Biomedical Sciences
1
.1
Plant Pathology
5
.7
Applied Behavior Analysis
1
.1
Entomology
12
1.6
Integrated Plant and Soil Science
5
.7
Plant Physiology
4
.5
Archaeology
3
.4
Environment and Policy Economics
1
.1
Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education
3
.4
Political Science
8
1.1
Architecture
6
.8
Epidemiology
6
.8
Interior Design
2
.3
Poultry Science
2
.3
Astronomy
1
.1
Equine Nutrition
1
.1
International Relations
1
.1
Precision Dairy Technology
1
.1
15
2.0
Equine Physiology
1
.1
Kinesiology and Health Promotion
2
.3
Production Economics
1
.1
8
1.1
Equine Reproductive Physiology
1
.1
Labor Economics
1
.1
Public Administration
2
.3
29
3.9
Evolutionary Biology
1
.1
Latin American Studies
1
.1
Public Health
11
1.5
1
.1
Evolutionary Ecology
1
.1
Library and Information Science
8
1.1
Public Policy
3
.4
6
.8
Linguistic Theory and Typology
3
.4
Rehabilitation Sciences
6
.8
Animal Science
Athletic Training
Biochemistry
Biology
Biomechanics
Biomedical Engineering
6
.8
Exercise Physiology
Biostatistics
3
.4
Exercise Science
3
.4
Literacy
1
.1
Ruminant Nutrition
1
.1
Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering
8
1.1
Experimental Psychology
4
.5
Literature
6
.8
School Psychology
4
.5
Business Administration
1
.1
Family Sciences
6
.8
Management
1
.1
Social Psychology
1
.1
Business Management
2
.3
Fiction Writing
1
.1
Manufacturing Systems Optimazation
1
.1
Social Work
8
1.1
Chemical Engineering
4
.5
Film
1
.1
Marketing
2
.3
Sociology
5
.7
1
.1
Soil Microbiology
1
.1
3
.4
Spanish
3
.4
29
3.9
Sport Leadership
3
.4
Statistics
14
1.9
Chemistry
Finance
2
.3
Materials Chemistry
23
3.1
Civil Engineering
4
.5
Food and Nutrition Systems
1
.1
Materials Science and Engineering
Classics
6
.8
Food Engineering
1
.1
Mathematics
Clinical and Translational Science
1
.1
Forages
1
.1
Mechanical Engineering
9
1.2
Communication
20
2.7
Forestry
6
.8
Medical Physics
2
.3
STEM Education
2
.3
Community and Leadership Development
4
.5
French
3
.4
Merchandising, Apparel, & Textiles
2
.3
Theoretical Physics
1
.1
Comparative Politics
2
.3
Gender and Women's Studies
5
.7
Microbiology
3
.4
Toxicology and Cancer Biology
4
.5
Computer Science
5
.7
Geographic Information Systems
1
.1
Mineral Processing
1
.1
Transportation
1
.1
Conducting
1
.1
Geography
8
1.1
Mining Engineering
4
.5
Veterinary Science
2
.3
11
1.5
Geological Sciences
1
.1
Molecular Biology
3
.4
Voice
3
.4
Creative Writing
6
.8
Geology
13
1.8
Music Performance
3
.4
Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies
1
.1
Crop Science
2
.3
Geophysics
1
.1
Music Therapy
1
.1
Nutritional Sciences
6
.8
Cultural Anthropology
1
.1
German
1
.1
Musicology
13
1.8
Dairy Policy
1
.1
Gerontology
4
.5
Nursing
10
1.4
.1
Guitar
4
.5
Nutrition and Food Systems
7
1.0
736
100.0
Counseling Psychology
Dairy Systems Management
1
Total
GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
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Degree sought
0.20%
0.20%
Doctorate
31.50%
Master's
Education specialist
67.90%
Professional degree
Figure 1. Degrees sought by the respondents.
International student?
No
38.8%
Yes
61.2%
Figure 2. Proportion of international students in the survey.
GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
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Type of assistantship
4.52% 2.88%
7.95%
Teaching assistantship (TA)
Research assistantship (RA)
Combination of both
31.64%
53.01%
Graduate assistantship (GA)
Other
Figure 3. Types of assistantships received by the respondents (valid responses)
Student Income
The students reported their income by answering the following questions:
1. What is your total yearly income from assistantship in dollars (including summer funding
if available)?
2. Do you have other income related to your position at the University (fellowships,
departmental funds, grants, advisor's funds etc.)? Yes/No
a. What type of additional income do you have?
b. What is the total yearly income from these funds?
3. Do you have other sources of income? (personal funds, family funds etc.)? Yes/No
Furthermore, respondents were asked to indicate the number of hours they work per week
(excluding classwork).
Following are the results from these answers. Regarding the first question, the average yearly
assistantship income was $16,096.68, with $16,000 as median and $15,000 as mode (11.1% of
students receiving $15,000; total sample range of $1,000 – $47,823). Figure 4 shows the
distribution of all the responses.
GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
Figure 4. Distribution of yearly assistantship values in the survey.
Regarding question 2, 606 respondents (82.3%) responded that they did not have any other
income related to their position at the UK while 130 respondents reported that they had other
income (17.7%). The types of these sources varied, as some students reported income unrelated
to the UK in any way. Most of the respondents indicated fellowship/scholarship as their
additional income (43; 33.1%), the second most common was grant funding (10; 7.7%), the
remaining 77 responses included various occupations, such as tutoring, proctoring, helping
grandparents or being a Lyft Driver. Figure 5 shows the distribution of these responses.
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GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
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Other UK sources of income
18%
No
Yes
82%
Figure 5. Distribution of answers to the question regarding additional UK-related income.
Related to question 2, the average total yearly income from these additional sources of income
was $6,788.99 with median of $4,106 and mode of $3,000 (12.1% of students receiving $3,000
additional UK-related income; total sample range of $500-$30,000). Figure 6 shows the
distribution of these responses.
Figure 6. Distribution of yearly income from other UK-related sources.
GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
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The respondents’s average number of hours worked per week was 27.87, with median and mode
both 20 (39.4% of students reported working 20 hours; total sample range 4 – 95 hours/week).
Figure 8 shows the distribution of working hours among respondents.
Figure 8. Distribution of the number of hours worked per week.
The total annual income from assistantship and total annual income from other income related to
their position at the UK was added and divided by 12 months to compute students’ income per
month. This variable was automatically computed and shown for each respondent in the
spreadsheet. The average total income per month was $1,434.58, with median of $1,333.33 and
mode of $1,250 (10.4% of students received $1,250 per month; total sample range of $83 –
$5,000). Figure 9 shows the histogram of the frequency distribution of this variable.
This number is inflated in a sense that it includes non-assistantship income as well. The monthly
income based solely on assistantship provided by UK (which is the only university-related
source of income for 78.8% of respondents) was $1,341.39 per month, with median of $1,333.33
and mode of $1,250 per month. Figure 10 shows the histogram of the frequency distribution of
this variable.
GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
Figure 9. Distribution of monthly income from all UK-related sources.
Figure 10. Distribution of monthly income from UK assistantships.
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GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
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Since students from different majors work different hours per week, USD/hour can be used as a
metric for directly comparing majors/departments. This was computed in the following way:
total yearly assistantship / (hours per week * 4 weeks * 9 months).
Because most of the assistantships are 9-month long, 9 months were used instead of 12 to
compute how much an individual is paid by assistantship per hour. The results showed that
respondents are paid $19.42/hour on average, with median of $16.67 and mode of $20.83 (5.9%
of respondents receive this much; the range in the total sample was from $1.58/hour –
$133.33/hour). Figure 11 shows the distribution of USD/hour.
Figure 11. Distribution of USD/hour frequency.
This variable was tested for mean-level differences between non-international and international
students. A statistically significant difference was found where international graduate students
showed higher rate of USD/hour ($22.73/hour) as compared to non-international ($18.37/hour),
t(705) = -4.108, p < .001.
GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
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Regarding other sources of income not mentioned in the previous two questions, 283 respondents
(38.8%) indicated that they have some additional sources of income while 445 (61.2%) said they
did not. This proportion is captured in Figure 12.
Other sources of income
No
38.8%
Yes
61.2%
Figure 12. Distribution of answers to the question regarding additional sources of income.
Student Expenses
In the next set of questions, respondents were asked to estimate their monthly expenses in the
following categories: food, housing, school, health, gasoline, car insurance, debt repayment,
entertainment and other (for anything that did not fit in the previous categories). Table 2 outlines
the average spending per month in each category. As expected, the highest spending category
was housing with average of $762.51 per month, followed by food costs with average spending
of $317.69, then repayment of debt with average monthly cost of $165.65, other expenses with
average of $129.79 (e.g., childcare, pet care, dependent), school-related expenses with $74.23
per month, car insurance with $73.95 per month on average, gasoline with $64.17, entertainment
with $61.53, and health-related expenses with $53.35. When these costs were summed, the
average respondent of this study (i.e., graduate student at UK) had monthly costs of $1,713.48,
with median of $1,505 and mode of $1,600. Figure 13 shows the distribution of total student
expenses per month. No statistical difference in average monthly spending was found for
international ($1714.59) and non-international students ($1713.16), t(683) = -0.014, p = .989.
GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
Table 2
Spending per Month
Spending
category
13
Average monthly
spending in USD
Median
Mode
Range
Food
$317.69
$300
$200
$0-$1,500
Housing
$762.51
$700
$600
$0-$12,000
School
$74.24
$50
$50
$0-$1000
Health
$53.35
$25
$0
$0-$1000
Gasoline
$64.17
$50
$50
$0-$400
Car insurance
$73.95
$75
$0
$0-$850
$165.65
$40
$0
$0-$1,5000
$61.53
$50
$50
$0-$2000
$129.79
$1,695.89
$35
$0
$0-$2,600
$1,600
$200-$16,750
Debt
Entertainment
Other
Total
$1,492
Figure 13. The distribution of total monthly expenses.
GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
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Income-expenses Disparity
As outlined in the Student income section, the average total income for respondents of this study
was $1,434.58, including additional sources such as grant funding or fellowships. Since the
average monthly expenses for respondents were $1,695.89, this means that at the end of the
month, the average respondent owes $261.31, which translates into a debt of -$3,135.72 per one
year. If the average respondents had assistantships as their sole income (average of $1,341.39 per
month), the monthly debt would be -$354.60, or -$4,255.20 in debt per year. The number of
respondents with negative income per month is 412, or 57.5% of the sample. About 78% of
respondents in the sample end up with less than $300 per month. Figure 14 shows a distribution
of net income in a month for assistantship only. In this way, majority of students are not be able
to cover emergency expenses (e.g., dental emergency, unexpected home repairs, car repair etc.)
if they were to occur, or save for retirement.
Figure 14. The distribution of net income (assistantship per month minus monthly expenses).
GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
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Attitudes about UK Assistantships
The respondents were asked two questions regarding their attitudes towards assistantships at UK:
1. How satisfied are you with the current financial aid provide by the UK?
2. How adequate do you consider this financial aid to be?
The first question was rated on a 1-5 scale, ranging from very dissatisfied (1) to very satisfied
(5). The second question was too rated on a 1-5 scale, ranging from very inadequate (1) to very
adequate (5).
The average score of respondents’ satisfaction with the financial aid was 2.76 (SD = 1.13,
median = 3, mode = 3). A total of 107 (14.7%) respondents rated their satisfaction as very
dissatisfied, 197 (27%) as dissatisfied, 247 (33.8%) as neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, 125
(17.1%) as satisfied, and 54 (7.4%) as very satisfied. In this way, 41.7% of respondents were
very dissatisfied or dissatisfied with the financial aid provided by the UK, while 24.5% were
satisfied or very satisfied with the financial aid.
Regarding adequateness, the average score of financial aid adequateness was 2.58 (SD = 1.13,
median = 2, mode = 2). A total of 137 (18.8%) respondents rated the financial aid as very
inadequate, 229 (31.4%) as inadequate, 209 (28.6%) as neither adequate nor inadequate, 113
(15.5%) as adequate, and 42 (5.8%) as very satisfied. In this way, 50.2% of respondents consider
the financial aid provided by the UK to be very inadequate or inadequate, while 21.3% consider
the financial aid to be adequate or very adequate.
Not surprisingly, both variables (satisfaction and adequateness) were highly positively
correlated, with Pearson’s r = .85, p < .001, suggesting that satisfaction with assistantship and
sense of adequateness are strongly tied for the students. No statistically significant difference
was found between international and non-international students for any of these variables.
Figures 15 and 16 show the distribution of both variables.
GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
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Figure 15. Frequency of responses on item asking about the satisfaction with UK assistantship.
Figure 16. Frequency of responses on item asking about the adequateness of UK assistantship.
GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
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Open-ended Responses
At the end of the questionnaire, the respondents were asked to provide comments or feedback if
they had any. A total of 207 respondents (28.1%) provided the feedback. All the open-ended
responses are listed in Appendix A. What is clear from these responses is the dissatisfaction and
frustration of students with the amount of assistantship provided by the UK, as it is deemed
inadequate for covering expenses, especially related to family (“Graduate students are in dire
need of a raise.” “Functioning in red.” “We live below the poverty line. You know this.” “I
depend upon student loans to get me through each semester on top of having two additional
outside jobs.” “Not enough to live comfortably, draining my savings substantially and may need
to take additional loans prior to completion of degree at this rate.”)
They generally asked to have their assistantship that would resemble a living wage, which the
UK-provided assistantship does not seem to be (“This is not a living wage. Please take better
care of your graduate students.” “I love the idea of this survey. I’d like every graduate student to
be assured a living wage. 18,000-20,000 would be a nice goal. “Grad stipend is not a living
wage. It is unrealistic to expect someone to live on 14k a year.” “If the graduate school does not
want their graduate students taking outside jobs/gigs they must pay their graduate students a
living wage.”).
Several respondents mentioned that other comparable universities seem to provide higher
assistantships (“I transferred here from the University of Kansas, where the math department TA
stipend was over $500 a month higher. Worse, the cost of living in Lexington is substantially
higher than the cost of living in Lawrence, KS.” “Difficult to save money with my current
assistantship stipend; other R1 public universities offer closer to $20k for a 9-month
assistantship as opposed to $14428 for a 9-month assistantship in my department.” “I have done
research on the stipends and teaching loads English TAs at other state universities and
benchmark institutions. UK's English TAs earn less, work more, and have fewer established
fellowships than *all* of the schools UK compares itself to. Even when adjusting calculations for
cost of living - which is thankfully relatively low in Lexington - UK's TAs still earn far less than
their peers doing less work at any other school. UK will continue to struggle in recruiting
students and in improving time to degree if they continue refusing to offer them less work or
more money.” “Speaking with PhD students from other institutions at conferences, UK students
work more for a smaller stipend and less travel money than nearly all of our benchmark
institutions. You may also want to have prospective recruits who didn't come to UK say why they
chose other institutions over UK. For our department, it almost always comes down to teaching
load/stipend.” “This University provides the lowest amount of funding of ANY that I looked at.”
“When I tell professors at other institutions the nature and quantity of the work I do and what
I'm paid for it, an adjective I frequently hear is "criminal." I teach the same course load--a 2-2--
GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
18
as the professors in my department, and I have more students” […] “I have considered going to
a different grad program because the stipend is so uncompetitive here.”)
Some students reported that if it was not for other sources of income (significant other, second
job), they would not have been able to make their ends meet (“My husband’s income
complements my own so we live fairly comfortably, but if I were single and living alone, like
many other students in my department, it would be a much different story.” “If it was not for my
husband's job and support, I would be on food stamps and would probably have to live in
government subsidized housing. And, if it were not for his job, I would not have had my two
children because I know that I could not support them on my own being a grad student. Plus, per
University policy, I am not allowed to work outside of my assistantship, even though I have been
offered career-relevant work, so there is very little way to supplement the meager assistantship.
But at least the University is making money off of me since I work for much less than an
instructor or professor.” “I took this position because of the tuition waiver and stipend, but I
also have to keep a second part time job in order to pay for living expenses.” “My income from
UK is sufficient for me because I have a spouse who works full time. If I were living on my own,
the income would hardly be sufficient.”).
GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
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Comparison with Peer Institutions
As per University Review Committee Report, UK has identified 11 institutions of higher education to be used as “benchmarks to assess UK’s
strengths, progress, and strategic opportunities” (p. 2). These institutions are: University of Michigan Ann Arbor, University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, University of California Davis, University of Wisconsin Madison, University of Florida, The Ohio State University, University of
Minnesota, University of Iowa, Michigan State University, University of Missouri, and University of Arizona.
Since the information on the amount of assistantship is not generally available, we have used the phdstipends.com survey to find the sizes of
assistantships in these schools. Since phdstipends.com is voluntary anonymous survey, many of colleges or majors are not covered. For this reason,
we have decided to select those majors that were reported by respondents from at least four institutions for comparison. We have selected a total of
nine majors. Assistantships for these majors awarded in the peer institutions were then compared with the assistantships as awarded by UK. We have
only selected doctoral level assistantships. The green cells refer to institutions where the yearly assistantships are lower as compared to UK, while the
red cells show institutions where yearly assistantships are higher as compared to UK for the selected majors. From a total of 50 comparisons, the
assistantships at UK are lower for 42 of them (84%). Table 3 provides an overview of these comparisons.
Table 3
Comparison of UK assistantships for selected majors with peer institutions
Major
Biology
Chemistry
Electrical engineering
English
Microbiology
Physics
Political Science
UMich
$16,807
UCD
$27,550
$15,700
$28,500
UW
$26,000
$24,500
$22,000
$25,000
$20,200
$22,350
Psychology
Sociology
UNC
$23,634
$24,850
$29,900
$18,692
$21,667
$22,600
$20,400
$17,155
$21,413
UF
$11,925
$23,000
$21,600
$23,050
$17,671
OSU
$27,828
$26,040
$24,000
$15,588
UMin
MSU
$25,014
$24,440
$29,980
UK
$21,929
$21,917
$14,762
$15,096
$25,000
$19,981
$24,839
$24,790
$20,000
$17,112
$25,500
$42,500
$15,000
UMiss
$23,700
$20,250
$16,200
$26,000
$14,100
$16,750
UI
$26,395
$23,000
$25,000
23,000
$15,657
$12,999
UA
$22,520
$13,741
$16,456
Note. UMich = University of Michigan Ann Arbor, UNC = University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, UCD = University of California Davis, UW = University of Wisconsin
Madison, UF = University of Florida, OSU = Ohio State University, UMin = University of Minnesota, MSU = Michigan State University, UI = University of Iowa, UM =
University of Missouri, UA = University of Arizona.
GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
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Conclusions
The present report analyzed and summarized data from a survey conducted by GSC and distributed among UK
graduate students. The total number of respondents as of February 10, 2017 was 736, representing 80 different
departments.
In October 2015, University of Kentucky has approved a Strategic Plan for the years 2015 – 2020. Among the
five strategic objectives identified, one of them is Graduate Education and is defined in the following way:
“Strengthen the quality and distinctiveness of our graduate programs to transform our students into
accomplished scholars and professionals who contribute to the Commonwealth, the nation, and the world
through their research and discovery, creative endeavors, teaching, and service.”
Given the importance of having adequate living conditions in individuals’ lives, this report provides a robust
argument suggesting that UK does not meet one of its own objectives, i.e., strengthening the quality of graduate
programs. There are several clear indications of this issue:
1. The assistantship amount as received by graduate students at UK is too low as 58% of them have a
negative net monthly income and 78% of them are left with less than $300 per month.
2. The graduate students themselves are dissatisfied with their assistantships (41.7% are very dissatisfied
or dissatisfied) and consider it inadequate (50.2% consider it very inadequate or inadequate). This
dissatisfaction was also expressed in open-ended responses, with students asking for an assistantship
that would resemble a living wage.
3. Among UK-defined peer institutions, majority of them (84%) offer higher assistantships.
These points emphasize the problematic state of graduate education at the UK. It seems unlikely that UK will be
truly able to meet the Graduate Education objective from the Strategic Plan with the current approach, as the
current graduate students are disheartened, and the prospective high-quality graduate students are very likely to
prioritize different institutions for their postgraduate studies, creating a vicious cycle of subpar research
resulting in lower funding, resulting in lower attractiveness of UK for the best prospective students.
GRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTSHIP SURVEY
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Appendix A
Open-ended Responses from the Survey
TA's in STEM fields are typically paid higher than those in the humanities or social sciences, so keep that in mind during negotiations.
I am beyond grateful for the financial aid provided by UK. It is a miracle to be a full time research assistant for my department. Not only am I having my tuition paid for and
receiving a stipend, but it has also given me the opportunity to get to know my faculty better. I enjoy getting to work daily with my professors, it only helps me to learn more
from them!
I am so thankful for the opportunity to have an assistantship, without it I would not be able to afford to be a full time graduate student. The experience has been invaluable.
The amount of Financial Aid I receive in awards is definitely enough, but I am not trying to take out loans to cover my costs of living. It is very difficult to juggle a GA, fulltime master's classes, and additional jobs to make ends meet. Quality of life is not the best of the term of my GA, but I am just praying it will all be worth it in the end, and that
I can pay back the student loans that I DO have, which is currently around $45,000 with undergrad, a master's program, and starting the 2nd semester of my 2nd master's
program.
If my assistantship were my only source of income and I had a family to take care of or something it might be more difficult, but I look at it like this - I essentially work a part
time job, in which I get $15,000 a year. If you add in my tuition waiver, it comes out to about $26,000 a year, plus I have my health plan paid for, which if I were paying for
insurance in the private market would probably be another $1,500 or $2,000 per year. So basically I'm making $28,000 per year to work 20 hours a week. I mean, I'm not saying
that I'd complain if I were getting paid more, but I don't know too many people that would (although $15,000 keeps me in a lower tax bracket, so maybe?). But if I were working
40 hours a week at my same pay rate plus the value of my stipend and health plan, I would close to the median income for the state. Nonetheless, I appreciate your efforts.
My biggest concern is the lack of a clear policy for time off. It seems like this is where the greatest disparity among individuals lies. Some advisers allow for as much time off as
a student wants (which can be excessive) while others won't allow more than a week the entire year (including winter break, spring break, and all holidays such as Memeorial
day, MLK day etc.) It is frustrating when two students are given the same annual stipend and yet one is allowed (and takes) an excessive amount of time off while the other is
stressed about being able to have even a few days. A clear policy stating what is permissible, and what the graduate student is entitled to would eliminate any disparity among
students.
I would like to know if grad students will be subject to new overtime laws. We always work more than 40 hrs (usually 50-55 a week).
My situation is unique in that I receive this trainingship, which is competitive and by no means is received by every master's student. The amount received by other students, I
would propose, is much less.
The amount of TAship is more than adequate. We don't really need to work so much here...
No one forced me to become a PhD student and make $15,000 per year. I chose it. If you try to force the university to pay PhD students more then they will simply admit fewer.
Please do not assume that just because PhD stipends are small means that they should be increased. No one forces anyone to become a PhD student.
All grad students should be student ticket eligible even after class hours drop below 9 while working on research. Put in a good word.
The stipend has been more than enough to support myself with living expenses, with entertainment, and even enough to put away extra money as savings/budgets. Thank you so
much!
The stipend provided is crucial to living here in Lexington.
My college recently offered an increase in assistantships, which I truly appreciate. I work hard for the university, and I expect a living wage.
I have no pets and only support myself, I couldn't afford supporting a pet or anyone else on what I make. It is enough for just me and I keep a tight budget and limit my Fun
expenses
I think another thing that needs to be taken into account is the amount of revenue each department or college brings in, which I think is reflected in stipend level decisions.
I am married so my husband has additional income from his employment
Mine is the sole income for a family of four (myself, my wife, and our two children)
It is difficult to be a good teaching assistant and do well in three graduate courses at the same time.
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High costs bc of kids. Husband income helps
I took this position because of the tuition waiver and stipend, but I also have to keep a second part time job in order to pay for living expenses.
Monthly costs fluctuate significantly dependent on illness, car/home maintenance, and special occasions for family
I receive 7500 from a fellowship and 7500 from my department. So it's 15000 per year plus health insurance coverage. I'm very pleased with it now, as I'm married. Before
when I was living alone, it was really rough. I work an additional 10 hrs a week as a tutor through UK. I am full-time in a PhD program that is intense. Again, I am very, very
grateful for the funds. I think it would be fantastic though if there were funding that, even if it did not provide a stipend, would just pay for tuition as I would not be able to
afford this. It's very stressful not knowing if I will have funding my fourth year. Three years of paid tuition and a stipend in a PhD program has been really, really nice.
The current amount I receive is enough to cover my expenses. It doesn't allow for anything past a very basic living in a small studio apartment.
Some of these questions were hard to answer, as its hard to estimate food, gas, and entertainment costs.
The website for assistantships can be unclear about responsibilities. Coming into the first semester I didn't have a solid idea about what my duties would be.
TA's in the Forestry Department have a livable stipend for one person. RA's do not.
on my current stipend, I'm not able to save any money for emergencies or the future. It would be nice to have a cushion in case something happened
I work a couple weekends a month as a Physical Therapist to off set my bills. I have mass student loan debt from PT school that I am trying to pay instead of placing on
deferment. My wife has a good job and we are managing financially.
The stipend from Transformative Learning has made a doctoral degree possible. Stipends from other departments are not even close to being able to allow me to do this.
When we have FICA taken out during the summer I don't really have enough money to pay my rent and other bills. I have to set back money during the school year to get
through May, June, July, and early August. I understand that since my pay is coming from a TA assistantship it makes sense to not pay as much during the summer, but summer
is actually my busiest time for my primary job of being a researcher in the lab. If there was a way to supplement my income during the summer months that would be great.
Athletic GAs get paid a lot more than "regular" GA's and I don't really see the fairness in that when others are working just as hard, if not harder.
A Graduate assistantship stipend does not afford the luxury of living alone. You must have a roommate, or spouse that has an income, or be independently wealthy.
Pay Me My Money
I would like my Department to supply students with payment over the summer. We are paid 10 months and left to fend for ourselves during the summer months. I would
appreciate it if we could have our salaries reduced monthly but cover the entire year. I saved for the summer, but unforeseen circumstances lead to a VERY close call, $4 in my
account at my first pay check of the year.
Other than that I like the way Biology does it! Much better than other Departments that I have heard about.
I own my house and rent out the extra room, allows extra income of $650 per month
Your survey doesn't account for travel expenses to see friends/family.
I love having a graduate assistantship because I do not have to pay for tuition, I get the biweekly stipend, and I have been able to learn so much from my position. But it is hard
to live on the stipend alone. I have to work a second job outside UK just to maintain living expenses and take out student loans to cover the fees that my tuition scholarship did
not cover and to pay for textbooks for all of my classes.
The pay is enough to live decently in Lexington if budgeted well
While the benefits of not having to pay tuition offset the lower pay (hourly the assistantship works out to $12.50 an hour) and I don't have too many issues with the
compensation during the semester, I was offered a job teaching part-time over the summer with UK. This may likely be the case for many with teaching assistantships. I had to
turn it down because hourly it worked out to $13.50 an hour (less than $2000 for the entire summer). So rather than using my years and experience and knowledge in a field I've
studied and specialized in through my entire life, I worked for UK through a temp agency at a job that required no background or skills making $15 an hour. That, to me, is
extremely unacceptable.
My survey results are rather skewed as my wife works and that is not reflected in the survey. What makes our schedule tough is we can't afford daycare (and we prefer not to
have daycare), so we trade off taking care of our kids. This means that my day involves taking care of my kids anywhere from 3-8 hours a day, in addition to 4 hours a day for
my assistantship, and whatever time I have left towards my studies. My wife typically has 5-9 hours of work and takes care of kids 6-8 hours a day. This schedule obviously
take its toll. I can't tell you how many times I wish that the assistantship was enough to provide for my family so I could actually focus on my studies and do much more
meaningful work towards my doctorate and further advancing my career.
My income from UK is sufficient for me because I have a spouse who works full time. If I were living on my own, the income would hardly be sufficient.
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The support to graduate and teaching assistant by the University of Kentucky is certainly of great assistance to PhD or graduate students However, the burden of PhD research
work does not permit for the distraction of extra earnings and a PhD student especially with family who has no other source of support will be greatly challenged. It would be
great to have upgraded income or some forms of reward systems such as grant writing bonus, publication assistance, as well as excellence in teaching and research rewards
which can be spread out across the year.
Of course I'd like to be paid more. In my first GRA position I was paid about 1.5x what I am being paid now. I get that this is due to grant funding, but with a department
scholarship, my GRA, help from my mother, help from my fiance, and a second job it is still really tight. I even qualified for Medicaid due to my lack of income.
I'm very thankful for the opportunities that UK has provided for me to achieve, and compared to the compensation I will receive from my next school UK does well for their
students. However, it's still super tough out their.
I do think stipends are incredibly low for graduate students based on the amount of work they are doing. I recognize that I personally have a very different situation where I am
married to someone with a vary stable income, so my financial situation is very different from others within my department.
I wasn't sure if tuition waivers and student loans should be counted as income, so I didn't include them. But, my tuition was waived as part of my TA and I have received about
8000 in Student Loans per semester. Due to the way my stipend was processed this semester I am ineligible for a loan in Spring, which will make funds very limited.
Workload is too much. To meet monthly expenses, stipend should be at least 25000$
Payment during the entire year would be very helpful. If that means lower monthly payments in order to offer paychecks during the summer that would be much appreciated.
I worked full-time prior to coming to UK, so it is difficult to still have full-time expenses on a part-time salary. While it was my choice to attend UK, it would be nice it the
institution considered our financial needs when assigning aid.
It's tempting to take out a private loan just to be able to ensure that rent will be paid over the summer months.
It wasn't an option but I am receiving 10,000 in student loans for this school year to help cover my expenses because 14,000 cannot meet my budget.
There is no way without family financial assistance that I could live off of my stipend of $7,600 a year. It is almost impossible. Coming into a program not knowing anyone to
live with or anyone in the state of Kentucky. Graduate students who did their undergraduate at UK had a better chance of living with multiple people making the monthly cost of
living less, but the stipend is not possible to live off of.
The funding is more than enough for myself but with dependent to make more convenient we need more funding
Sometimes graduate TAs don't have funding during summer if their advisers don't have funding available. I strongly believe that the graduate school and all departments should
make sure that all funded graduate students have funding throughout the year which helps in research productivity and improves the time to graduate.
I wish I received a larger stipend, but from what I can tell that is unrealistic.
I think the availability of grants and finding for non traditional students is lacking. For example, I'm a single mother. Aside from the incredibly generous childcare assistance
grant provided by the graduate student association, there aren't any available sources of grants for people in my situation. Two years of raising a child without government
assistance or child support is finally beginning to take a toll on me. Additionally, international students don't seem to have grants available either. This is unfortunate because
they don't qualify for summer work-study (we operate on a 9 month stipend) or many government fellowships. The department simply tells them to save accordingly, but that's
impossible.
I am on food stamps because the stipend amount is so low.
I split household expenses so I tried to include only my portion of the expenses where possible.
I wish I got some kind of overtime or a little more benefit such as retirement plan
Some of the questions seemed ambiguous, especially the one about hours worked.
Graduate school would be entirely un-affordable for me except my spouse's income and my prior savings from 20 years of professional employment.
A little more stipend money would be greatly appreciated if at all possible.
My income (25,000, 12 months, all research, no teaching, minimal coursework) is pretty well matched to my cost of living here in Lexington. More would always be helpful in
saving and paying down student loan debt, but I can't really complain given how much less some students are paid. I feel like this would be a good benchmark to advocate for
other colleges to follow when possible.
It would be great to see the assistantship amount increased by a couple bucks!
Graduate students live per month, this means that all the money they earn by month, it is gone every month. The reason why I do not write any stipend for car, it is because I
cannot afford to have a car.
it would be a lot easier for everybody if TAships were year-round instead of just covering the school year
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I'm very grateful to have had my education all but paid for and to have been given great teaching opportunities while a funded TA. However, I think it's egregious the disparity
among departments (I lived with other graduate students from various departments throughout the university) as far as stipends, years of guaranteed funding, and hours worked.
We're given three years of funding - enough to cover our two years of coursework and our exam year - with no option for additional years. This makes it incredibly difficult to
make it through the dissertation phase of the degree when you're trying to juggle various part-time jobs (because nobody is hiring ABD) or, in my case, a year of living at less
than half the poverty level in order to write as much as I could while draining my savings, and now trying to finish up the final stages while working as a post-graduate fellow at
a prestigious conservatory. I have nothing but great things to say for the teaching experience I got while at UK, the mentoring, and the support of my faculty, DGSs, and deans.
But I do think that the disparity among workloads, stipends, and length of funding is something that needs to be addressed if only so the university can have more students finish
their doctoral degrees in a timely manner (as I know of at least two students in my program who have decided to withdraw because they were unable to write and make enough
money to support themselves and their families and the burden became too much).
I hope this is helpful. I have a family of three, and total costs are reflective of that.
I do not think it is fair that in the athletic training department we are all certified licensed athletic trainers but we do not have the same stipend. Everyone is different depending
on what site they are at.
My wife does not work. Gas costs include traveling to MI for holidays
I take out loans to help pay for things in hope that I can repay them fast after graduation and landing a job. I have a lot of debt, and a lot of bills. Our stipends start at 15000 for
a master's and 18000 for a PhD. It is enough to cover barely getting by. However, there is no way to save money with a savings...you spend what you make. Thankfully, I am
married now and have my wife's help.
It is enough money to live on, but not enough to begin saving for retirement. Now is the time for me to start putting away at least a little for retirement, but I haven't been able
to yet
I have enough money to pay my rent and food and for some social things like department happy hours, but absolutely not enough to save anything at all. It's stressful knowing I
can't ever put anything away like a lot of my friends not in grad programs are able to.
It's really hard to save any money by being paid what some professors got paid in grad school over 30 years ago. So if healthcare is taken away most graduate students will go
bankrupt. You stated you would increase our stipend to pay for it, but I believe you would quote the cheapest and worst insurance going and we would essentially make less
money trying to pay for required things.
I am able to keep my costs low only because I am lucky enough to have no student loan debt.
I am paid enough so that I may live without fear of not being able to pay for rent or for food, but I find it hard to spend money on anything outside of those bills.
I do believe that the stipend that is provided is not enough to adequately support GAs. Luckily I am able to split bills with my significant other, but I am not able to provide
equal support due to lack of funds provided through the stipend. $600 a month is not enough to provide support for Graduate students.
I feel that the assistantship should be increased as I imagine it is based on working a 20 hour week. As you are likely aware, completing a degree requires a greater amount of
time than this and longer hours working on research etc are required. I feel the assistantship does not allow for this and can be quite demotivating for students to put in a lot of
extra hours and not be paid for it. Ofcourse being paid to complete a degree is fantastic and those who are awarded funding such as myself are very fortunate. Money however
causes a lot of stress for many people and is something most students struggle with. Whilst the assistantship is generous, extra stress caused by financial issues could be
alleviated by increasing the amount. Students after all are the most important factor in education and money should not be a barrier in one of the wealthiest countries in the
world.
Graduate students do a lot for this university (I.e. teaching scores of undergrads and furthering the university's image), we deserve to be better supported both financially and
emotionally. We aren't slave labor.
Difficult to save money with my current assistantship stipend; other R1 public universities offer closer to $20k for a 9-month assistantship as opposed to $14428 for a 9-month
assistantship in my department.
I am one of the lucky ones. My parents pay my cell phone bill (my constant birthday + holiday gift request). I have no student debt and no loans. At the same time, I cannot
afford a car at this time, so travel costs (I take the greyhound bus when travelling home to PA) are an additional cost (tickets range from 100-150 round trip). Over the summer, I
had to purchase a new laptop for school (650) and I frequently pay for printing (about 25 dollars/semester). With all of this in mind, I get by--but a medical incident or other life
emergency would upset the balance.
It's frustrating to know that TAs in other fields (STEM) make more than I do as a History TA, (based on TAs in other fields telling me this). It is especially frustrating that
Morris Grubbs at TA orientation told all the TAs that most of us make around $18,000-20,000. That is nearly 35% more than my salary. I'm not sure if his estimate was
incorrect, or if History is really that undervalued at this university, but I definitely don't make that much and that extra $5,000 would help make ends meet much more easily.
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Honestly, I am lucky that I am still young enough to be on my parents insurance. If I was not on that, I would not be able to afford all my other monthly expenses. So, more or
less, I am very lucky in that aspect.
Thanks for giving this space to the students.
I really think UK would raise student assistantship aid for a little more - It is hard to save some money if I want to make a holiday trip as an international students.
The stipends should not be considered enough if the student can live off that. The income is enough if you are getting paid the amount you deserve.
Access to a credit union would be phenomenal
If it weren't for my assistantship, I would not be able to pursue graduate level education. The financial aid department at U.K. Has been both disappointing and unwilling to ever
communicate any help or assistance for further financial aid. Graduate students in assistantship positions can be an invaluable asset to professors and departments, which in turn
can bring expediated and monumental success to the university. As grateful as I am for the position, funding for more would be in the best interest of the university.
I think the university should pay more for TA and RA. 15%-30% more, I would say.
I live with a partner. If I did not live with a partner (combined with significant financial support from family that has allowed me to be debt free), I would be forced to take out
significant loans.
Supporting a child, another child is on the way. Not possible on assistanship income. Must supplement.
I just felt the assistantship in department of education is too low compared to other department. I only make 15,000 annually for 12 months. I know in other department, my
friends make 22,000 or 25,000 for just 9 months. I am so desperate! Every year I have to apply for fellowship so I can unload my financial burden a little bit. Besides food, rent,
and daycare expense, I have a rigid control over my budget so I don't overspend my salary. Actually I cannot afford any entertainment or software or books. My hope is that the
University can provide daycare aid or hopefully make the salary across department balanced. Thanks for the survey so I can have a chance to tell my true thoughts! Merry
Christmas!
increasing the teaching assistantship stipend will improve the quality of life for graduate students. It makes a difference, even in school and research performance, when one is
less worried about their financial situation.
The stipend students get paid is certainly not enough, specially when ther are so many expenses related to one's degree
I would like to feel like I am not living paycheck to paycheck. I would like to be able to plan for thing (ie car trouble, emergencies, house repairs) but its hard to save money
when I need all of it to live.
Additionally, I am only being payed for 20hrs a week, even though most weeks I work way more than that. I would like to pick up a second job on the weekends or nights and
not put my RA in jeopardy.
Paying the $250 health fee at the beginning of the semester is incredibly burdensome. Everything else is paid for by my department, but not that. I actually had to wait a month
before I could rent a required textbook because I could not afford it, and it affected my grades. When my computer breaks (needed for my research), I have to pay to fix it $170 in the last two months. When my cellphone breaks (also required for my lab meetings), I also have to pay to fix that.
UK insurance only pays 2/3 of X-ray costs, and won't allow you to use Immediate Care. I have it easy because my dad pays for my car repairs and medical bills, but things
would be really bad if not. Also, I have it good because my grandparents let me bundle my cellphone with theirs, so I only pay $40/month.
Parking passes and tickets are too expensive for graduate students. I lose $36 out of every paycheck for my parking pass; I need that for groceries. So, I just walk 2.2 miles
each way to school, or sometimes catch the extremely inconvenient bus.
I want to be able to put money into savings and create an emergency fund and start to have some financial stability, but I just can't maintain it. It took me five months, but I got
a $500 emergency fund, and had to blow all of it this month. Now I won't have ANY emergency money until late January. I don't know what I'll do if anything else
breaks/anything happens.
Also, I could not maintain rent by myself. My first year, my boyfriend left me stuck with his half of rent, and it financially devastated me. I had to pay $700 a month - literally
half of my income. I spent 3 months living on frozen Totinos pizzas. Your rent/mortgage should be no more than 25% of your monthly income. I have a roommate now and
can cope, but if he ever leaves, I have no idea what I'll do. I don't even have the money to take my ex to small claims court for what he owes me.
I literally cannot pay for dog food for my pet sometimes, and had to feed him people food that I was going to eat once, much less get him vaccinated and checked up in a timely
fashion. I can't imagine what I would do if I had a child.
I want to stress that I have no debt, maintain a very very strict planned-months-in-advance monthly budget, and follow the Dave Ramsey method, but still am struggling. I'm 23;
I want some financial stability. I want to save up to pay for my wedding, but right now I can't even feed my dog.
Please increase assistantship funding, difficult to get by on current salary.
My husband works, but has a low paying hourly temp job (just out of graduate school; I make more than he does). When he was in graduate school at UK, his department only
offered a 3 or 4 GA's but admitted over 20 students per year. My department is more stable, only offering admittance to those they can fund. Currently, I am expecting my first
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child and going further in debt every month just to support our daily needs. On top of this, my husband's student loans are coming due this month, and the baby bills have
already started. As a post-quals fifth-year student, I am considering leaving the program simply because I know how much more I can make outside of graduate school, even
without the degree.
One general note is that I worry that if a mandatory minimum stipend is passed university-wide, some departments will offer funding to fewer students, while maintaining their
admission rate. Essentially forcing more students to go into debt. I'm not sure how to address this as the admission rate is how the university makes money in the first place.
I think that stipends need to take into account that most students live within Lexington city limits and with that has a higher cost of living that, if they lived in the surrounding
counties.
Don't forget when you analyze your data that financial figures are prone to rounding error! :)
The stipend is not enough to comfortably live alone, which is a problem when deciding where to live.
My husband's income complements my own so we live fairly comfortably, but if I were single and living alone, like many other students in my department, it would be a much
different story.
I feel that with the amount of work/hours expected of a TA and how little they make is a major issue at UK. Other schools offer either a larger stipend or other assistance
packages. Personally my wife and I barely live off of my wage and I find that disgraceful especially since a majority of TAs are older. It should be uniform across departments. I
have been told that medical TAs get the same stipend and then some get additional money from other departments. I don't have access to those funds at the music school and
don't feel that it is appropriate for other schools to offer more money to TAs.
I have a roommate, and we share grocery/utility costs, which makes my expenses more manageable. I also took out loans my first two years to make ends meet and to have
access to extra money in case of an emergency. These loans are on top of my undergraduate loans sadly. I have had funding for three years and am extremely worried for next
year when I have been told that I will not be funded. I have considered dropping out of the program if I do not have funding for Fall 2017 and Spring 2018 to cut my losses since
at some point my student loan debt will greatly impact my future quality of life.
We should get hike in stipend. It is very much needed. Plus, compared to othet universites we get less stipend.
At least give us a living wage. Really.
We're not lazy millennials who don't know how to manage money; in fact, we're incredibly careful and savvy. But you simply can't live on the stipend without taking on an
outside job or taking out a loan. I want to be able to be financially independent, not dependent on spouse's income. All I ask is for enough to live in a modest but safe space, and
to be able to buy cheese to go with my beans and rice.
Not enough to live comfortably, draining my savings substantially and may need to take additional loans prior to completion of degree at this rate
I think the transportation in Lexington is so bad if we don't have a car. But if we want a car, there is more for us to spend..Can't choose
I wish this funding will be higher than this limit to support my family too.
Please consider increasing stipends for graduate assistants.
If you can provide health coverage for dependents (spouse, children, etc.) that would make our life more comfortable and increase productivity.
We need a living wage, especially considering we are told we are not allowed to work outside of an assistantship
I am married with two kids and my wife works
Current stipend does not appear competitive when compared to similar positions at similar institutions.
Reduce Capiluto's salary!
I almost considered going to a different university based upon the how much more money they had offered (a difference of $15,000 per year) in TAship. Luckily for UK, they
won out because the program was enough better for me to turn down that money, but for those who are more income elastic this may not be the case.
The question itself is difficult to answer accurately, so I gave the approximation. Overall, my income won't be enough to cover all the expenses.
Recently I found myself sitting at table in a conference/seminar type classroom in the new Jacobs Science Building, and there were LEATHER COASTERS on the table. I live
in poverty and the university buys leather drink coasters for its classrooms.
I think the TA stipends should be more generous.
I provide more than 10 hours/week on my TA. It should be considered full time of 20 hours.
Hard to make ends meet even on a strict budget in a cheap apartment. Wouldn't be able to survive without savings.
Improve the on campus facilities for grad students, instead of building dorms for undergrads by demolishing grad housing buildings.
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If the graduate school does not want their graduate students taking outside jobs/gigs they must pay their graduate students a living wage.
My stipend is not enough to cover all the expenses associated to my studies. I would like to have more funding to pay for books, software, strings and accessories for my
instruments, music scores, recordings, laptop, etc.
This year has been the first year in a very long time that I've had to request additional student loans because the funding from my TA/RA from last year has decreased
significantly.
Thanks for doing this. Like most of the other graduate students I work more than 40 hrs per week, and most of us are living pay check by pay check with no saving what so
ever! This is not healthy! and affects our productivity significantly.
Science people have higher stipends than nonscince people
While the Stipend that I receive is enough to get by, it is just barely enough. It would be nice to just receive a little more so that I wouldn't be as worried about expenses each
month. Additionally, many other schools of similar ranking to UK's Entomology dept. provide their students with higher stipends than what we receive.
I could really use another $300 per month to help make ends meet.
The amount of the TAship is to be considered not absolutely, but in exchange of the merits: some TAs do more than others and better than others, therefore there should be a
minimum for everyone (and the present stipend is more than what some of them should deserve...), with premium increments for the better ones.
The assistantship is way too low for students to live, especially for international students.
Increasing the stipend amount would provide peace of mind in one area of my life so that i may focus more of my energy on my degree rather than trying to make ends meet
Functioning in the red
How effective will this survey provide the assistantship improvement in terms of the financial support for graduate students? I hope the opinion and survey counts!
There are little to no opportunities to get assistantships in my department. UK is the only university I know that doesn't guarantee some level of funding for graduate students.
As much as I would love to stay here for my PhD, not having guaranteed funding could be a deal breaker. Doc studies are difficult enough without wondering how you'll pay
your tuition each semester, let alone living expenses.
I think we should be provided with more assistance-ship, I have to spend more than what I get every month.
While the $10,000 assistantship that I received until last year is on par with or better than assistantships at other music schools, it is barely enough money to live on. With the
grad student health insurance and the health fee, it is possible to make ends meet, although I also taught privately and as an adjunct at Georgetown College, in addition to
earning money through performing. Waiting to receive my degree, and having paid the approximately $1,200 residency credit last semester, I have gone without health
insurance since my assistantship ended, and am attempting to apply for medicaid. I continue to teach as an adjunct at GC, and am teaching a 1-credit course at UK. I also receive
a monthly check from my mother. The current situation is unsustainable, and I am looking for a more stable full-time job elsewhere. I strongly support a higher stipend for
teaching assistants. A deeply indebted graduate student population that lives below the poverty line does not seem like a good foundation for a well-educated society.
I don't have enough money to save for retirement and that stresses me out. I also do not feel comfortable having a child at my current pay rate because I would be worried about
having enough money to pay for the child's living expenses. I also recognize that I can only live at my current level because I am subsidized by a partner with whom I live who
also works full time. Graduate students shouldn't have to have a partner support them to be able to live without stress.
I don't spend any on a car because I can't afford one! Also, expenses that aren't monthly but still cost me significantly are hard to cover on a grad student stipend. For example, I
have no dental insurance but need 3500 in dental work over the next year.
I have considered going to a different grad program because the stipend is so uncompetitive here.
Compared to the standard of living in Lexington, the pay isn't great at all. You also have to pay car permits (333/year), the other fees associated to the tuition (375/ semester),
after paying all this you barely have enough to eat not to talk of save
Summer funding is crucial. I cannot pay rent in the summer without pulling from meager savings or taking out loans.
Thanks for doing this!
It was hard to calculate monthly spendings on school-related materials (like printing and books) because I buy most of my books at the beginning of the semester. I think it
would make more sense to make this category "per semester." Also, I would add a category "international status related spendings" for international students because visa and
plane tickets defiantly cost a lot of money.
Not a living wage and sadly this survey won't change anything.
Moving expenses for relocating, purchasing a car, and travel to professional conferences are all addition expenses that are not reflected in the monthly expenses outlined earlier.
The stipend is woefully inadequate, especially for international students with spouses and children since spouses are not allowed to work in the US
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The stipend paid by the Department of Agricultural Economics is very low but he graduate housing prices are sky-rocking every year... How are graduate students supposed to
focus on school when they can barely eat and afford a decent housing?
I am currently an international PhD student on RA. I arrived here after doing my masters in another university. I was on an assistantship during my masters program there too.
The cost of living in these two states are exactly same (a state in the midwest). The minimum stipend there for a grad student was $1900 dollars (masters) but I used to make
$2400. The PhD assistanship stipend that is granted to me here is even lower than the widely practised standard minimum stipend of $1900 in most colleges with the same cost
of living. I have had to make some major lifestyle changes to accommodate my budget within these means.
My department does not have enough funding for all doctoral students. It is incredibly stressful and I believe prevents students from deciding to attend UK.
The stipends in our department are terrible and far below a living wage.
my department is in the top ten in the field and has one of the lowest stipends in our field. It's embarrassing
Based on how many hours the average mentor expects a graduate research student to work, and how much we get paid, I am a very educated adult that holds a bachelors degree
(almost doctorate), and I make less than 7 dollars an hour. But the expectations and responsibilities placed on us is exponentially higher than a minimum wage job.
Due to inadequacy of stipend, I have had to find external work as well. It is very hard to juggle this job and my assistantship, but I must In order to make ends meet and have
some ability to put back money for emergencies. I find it would actually hurt me at this point to graduate and lose my assistantship because I am making more money now than I
will when I graduate.
Thank you for taking this survey. I work hard and even with my stipend I cannot afford to live on my own. I am currently having to live with my parents because of how
expensive it is to live on my own.
If it was not for my husband's job and support, I would be on food stamps and would probably have to live in government subsidized housing. And, if it were not for his job, I
would not have had my two children because I know that I could not support them on my own being a grad student. Plus, per University policy, I am not allowed to work
outside of my assistantship, even though I have been offered career-relevant work, so there is very little way to supplement the meager assistantship. But at least the University
is making money off of me since I work for much less than an instructor or professor.
I depend upon student loans to get me through each semester on top of having two additional outside jobs.
When working towards a PhD work is expected with minimal financial return, this is ok as it is expected and what I signed up for. However I do not understand how some
departments pay their assistantship students $24k+ and teach no classes where as I am aiding to teach 5-6 classes per semester and do research for only $8k. I understand the
faculty/department grant differences but the University should shift things a little towards more of a balance. Not saying everyone should be paid the same, just a better balance
between them.
Well, graduate students are adult human being with a degree ... although still students for some part of our job, the other parts are research and teaching ... that means they
deserve to be paid way more than they are paid actually! With the actual salaries, the university is basically exploiting us as cheap labor to collect undergraduate students fees ...
that is not tolerable and I won't tolerate it anymore.
Stipends are inadequate as a norm for graduate students anyways, it tends to be understood that graduate students will be poor. This is a problem and UK can be different in
providing living wage stipends, which will also attract students to our graduate programs as well.
My advisor often states that UK stipend levels are the same as in 1996, when our program was founded.
Pay does not match hours worked
I have done research on the stipends and teaching loads English TAs at other state universities and benchmark institutions. UK's English TAs earn less, work more, and have
fewer established fellowships than *all* of the schools UK compares itself to. Even when adjusting calculations for cost of living - which is thankfully relatively low in
Lexington - UK's TAs still earn far less than their peers doing less work at any other school. UK will continue to struggle in recruiting students and in improving time to degree
if they continue refusing to offer them less work or more money.
The income box did not allow me to include my summer RAship. The whole summer, I was paid $4100 total (I worked from the last week of the spring semester to the first
week of the fall semester). Note that, if you calculate my bills vs. my pay, I'm quite short. Last year, I had to take out a $16k student loan to pay medical bills and other bills I'd
accrued as a TA (my tuition is covered and I get the stipend and student health insurance) at UK. Usually I try to find outside funding to support my stipend, and this year an
additional $5k from an outside source helped, though most years I am not so lucky (hence needing the student loan). Most years I have to rely on credit cards for additional
funding.
As a "TA" for WRD, I am instructor of record. I am not just grading, running a recitation, or assisting a professor do something. I teach my class, soup-to-nuts. The stipend for a
2/2 instructor of record should be livable, which in this case means at least 33% higher. ($20,000/yr instead of $15,000/yr).
We live below the poverty line. You know this.
We need more money and we need to be paid all year round.
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I transferred here from the University of Kansas, where the math department TA stipend was over $500 a month higher. Worse, the cost of living in Lexington is substantially
higher than the cost of living in Lawrence, KS.
Moreover, the stipend for math graduate students is about $6,000 less than the national median of $21,000 (for a 9 month period).
I love the idea of this survey. I'd like every graduate student to be assured a living wage. 18,000-20,000 would be a nice goal.
I wish the University at least help international graduate students with affordable housing. We are allowed to only work 20 hours a week and the income does not help us to
make basic living. Put yourself in our shoes and see how it feels.
Doc student funding is less than other major research institutions, and it does not reflect the cost of living in Lexington. In addition, arbitrary rules do not allow students to pick
up funding for more than 20 hours per semester. The financial burden placed on doc students at this university puts them at a disadvantage throughout there time here and when
going up for positions after graduation.
Asking about per month expenditures isn't as helpful for some things (such as books, etc.) because those are one time expenses per semester.
Nothing less than 20000 is sufficient in 2016. UK's funding is shameful.
The income (stipend) has kept constant while expenses (incl. university housing) have increased considerably over the years.
Work load for the TAs can be varying largely dependent on the professor. Sometimes large number of hours spent on grading and doing other related (mostly repetitive) work.
This results in a very small amount of time that's available to carry out our own research extending the graduation time. (During which the expenses keeps on growing while
income stays the same!)
Amount of repetitive work, uncertainty of funding and graduation date, and balancing the living with the limited income lead to a very mentally depressing state.
As for the survey it self, I found the email in the 'Spam' folder (in the university email), so it could be a reason for a less number of responses.
Please keep me anonymous as much as you can.
my stipend is enough to cover rent and some of my bills. The majority of the time I have to spend my own money to cover the rest. It is difficult because I am currently running
low on my own money and it is hard for me to earn money on the side due to the amount of hours I work as a grad assistant. I have had to borrow money from friends and
parents, as well as use my credit card to pay bills that I cant afford to pay off on my credit card.
This is not a living wage. Please take better care of your graduate students.
As a student of the Counseling Psychology Master's program, I had to seek paid assistantships outside of the department. The psychology department took care of me when they
had the resources however the lack of assistantships offered to the counseling psychology masters students is embarrassing. It appeared that as soon as we accepted and they
received our tuition, they didn't care what happened to us afterward. This forced us to seek positions elsewhere, then our department is angry that we are not spending enough
time participating in their unpaid activities.
Our department is the lowest amongst other departments is paying for their TAs or RAs
I'm not an extravagant spender by any means, but the assistantship really is not livable. I skipped nearly two weeks of school last semester to make trips to the DC area where I
have connections and was hired to play concerts. Without these trips, I couldn't have paid rent.
I have a second job in order to make ends meet. It is highly stressful to not have my TA stipend be a living wage that meets my financial needs. I live in campus housing since
it is the cheapest option, even though there are many drawbacks. I an exhausted from the constant stress of almost continually looking for a second job. In the 4 years I have
been at UK I have worked five different part time jobs varying in length. They have all been on-campus jobs which is part of the issue. They last only a semester or two and
then funding for the position was cut. Or I could only work 9 hours so that in combination with my TA position I do not work more than 30 hours - which has some connection
to health insurance. I am continually in the position of looking for a new part time job - including right now. If I do not find a part time job within the next 6 weeks, I will have
to job back home because I cannot afford to live on my TA stipend alone.
EES department is severely unfunded for stipends. It's a joke. It absolutely prevents people from coming to the department for MS and PhD
I have a degree from another institution as well, and received assistantship there. My experience at UK was very different given that I have performed well in my Graduate
Studies and received very little something to support those efforts
I believe the amount that is paid to instructors of record is extremely low and strains the individuals acting as instructors of record. I recognize that the College of Education is
providing one of the lowest stipends across the university and believe this does injustice to the preservice teachers we are training.
The topics discussed in this survey have been topics my classmates have discussed very often. Many of the athletic training GAs are on food stamps and still not making it work.
We are expected to pay for a summer class, a requirement for the program that is nearly 2,000$ out of pocket but we work far beyond our "20 hour a week limit" and have no
other options for income. Many of us are too scared to speak up in that the repercussions could affect us when we look for work after graduating.
The stipend amount in UK is 3 to 4 times less than the national average. It's high time to revise the 25yrs old scheme
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When I tell professors at other institutions the nature and quantity of the work I do and what I'm paid for it, an adjective I frequently hear is "criminal." I teach the same course
load--a 2-2--as the professors in my department, and I have more students. For this I am paid $10,000 a year. When I mentioned the inequity of this to my department chair,
she said, "Yes, but we're covering your tuition, too." But that DOES NOT PUT FOOD ON MY TABLE! I have students come to me for letters of recommendation because the
faculty can't be troubled to do them. I do all the same work as the faculty--while generating more conference presentations and publications--but I am paid 1/10 what some of
them make and I'm not even treated as a member of the instructional staff. I have never been invited to a faculty meeting, even when they're discussing the course I'M
TEACHING. The disconnect between the TAs and the faculty is stunning, but the TAs are the only ones who notice it.
Our departmental stipends are barely enough to live on.
STEM stipends are given priority, because they are flashy and exciting, but only the humanities provide the necessary context, ethics, etc. required to prevent horrible outcomes.
You underfund us to all of our deficit.
I am a graduate student who teaches two courses a semester of 45 students each. This is 90 students I'm responsible for a semester. I do not assist a professor. I create the
syllabus, instruct the course, etc...yet I make below the poverty line. I think it is absolutely horrific graduate instructors are doing this much work for such little pay. This makes
me feel my course and its students, my work, and my division/field is completely disrespected by the university.
I found employment elsewhere because the stipend I was offered was not a livable stipend. For the hours I was putting in and the conditions of the work place I decided it was
worth taking the chance that working as an adjunct elsewhere would extend my time to degree. (And it did.) I have friends in similar programs at various other institutions who
work significantly less hours for significantly more money. Given the choice again I would not choose UK and I cannot in good conscience recommend UK to those seeking a
degree program like mine.
The stipend is not enough mainly because of apartment rental (INCREASING EVERY YEAR ANYWHERE!!!)
This University provides the lowest amount of funding of ANY that I looked at.
$1000 a month is no where near adequate for the amount of time I worked and to live off of after paying my bills!
Please pay us more.
Graduate students are in dire need of a raise.
I highly dislike my assitantship. I was demoted down to a half assistant ship and its caused a lot of financial hardships. I am on Medicaid and would get food stamps and section
8 if the process did not take so long. It is hard for me to keep up with bills without the help of others. I think it is unfair and hard to focus on school when I have to focus on
money. I think that I should at least receive a 20K per year salary included living expenses over the summer. This is at minimum. Basically, I don't get paid enough AT ALL!
When I was full time and worked my butt off still struggling. Now, since my department has basically screwed me over, I am struggling to make ends meet. I love my
department, but I think that how they have done me is very shameful. They don't know the extra stress they have caused me. At minimum, I believe graduate students should
receive enough pay to live decently.
Grad stipend is not a living wage. It is unrealistic to expect someone to live on 14k a year.
Speaking with PhD students from other institutions at conferences, UK students work more for a smaller stipend and less travel money than nearly all of our benchmark
institutions. You may also want to have prospective recruits who didn't come to UK say why they chose other institutions over UK. For our department, it almost always comes
down to teaching load/stipend.
Not sure how much the situation will change regarding an increase in assistantships.
I am forced to work outside the academy to make ends meet. This has a huge impact on my ability to finish my degree.
Please do some survey that indicates unfair funding distribution among students
TAs of the Musicology Department receive only $6,000 maximum per semester for teaching loads--as primary instructors AND sole course designers--for 90-100 students. This
is entirely out of pace not only with our teaching loads, which consistently exceed those of salaried instructors in the department, but also with the cost of living in Lexington. (I
spent my first two years in Lexington living in a neighborhood where I was physically unsafe, subject to multiple physical assaults and repeated death threats, because I could
not afford to live anywhere else on my teaching stipend--at that point was only $3,000/semester. I was able to move somewhere safer only because of kind support from
relatives, all of whom also live well below the poverty line.) An assignment of 90-100 students is still counted as part-time when there is no way for classroom time, class prep,
and grading to come in at under twenty hours if we are putting in an honest effort to teach well, which we do. Despite sympathetic faculty, we receive minimal support from
both the department, school, and graduate school administration, down to having to pay out of our own pocket to print class materials for our students. I work two jobs in
addition to my TAship and am considering taking on yet another because it is the only way to pay for rent in a safe apartment and keep some manner of food on the table. Our
teaching load has actually increased (from 45 students per section to 50) this semester, still with no increase in pay. There is no way to conceive of this inequitable situation as
anything but exploitative of our labor on the part of UK administration.
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I wish it was easier to get assistantships, or there was someone who could help connect you to them. Its always who you know, and when you do not know anyone it makes it
harder. The emails don't always provide information about them from Public Health.
Please give more money to graduate students. The amount of money spent on education vs the amount of money spent on sports perfectly illustrates where the priorities of this
University lie. At least stop raping graduate students with fees every semester.
Though our monthly stipend is still on the low side, of far greater issue is the length of funding our program offers. Unlike other doctoral majors in music, the musicology
program requires three years of coursework (and a minimum five years to completion, often more) and only offers three years of funding. This means that candidates are left to
find their own funding just as the dissertation process begins and as we are required to pay $1,250 in-state to the University per semester just to register for our dissertation
residency "course." Other majors require only two years of coursework and, because of a much less rigorous research/writing requirement, can fairly easily complete their entire
program in three years. It does not seem right nor fair that the three-year funding timeline is applied across the board to all majors when the program requirements and rigor are
quite unequal. The School justifies this to us by saying that it is a "motivational tool" for us to get the dissertation written quickly. I would rather be funded throughout the entire
course of the program—as it is in similar institutions—and rely on my own work ethic and drive for motivation. In the meantime, our program faculty encourages us to "take
our time and explore" during the dissertation phase.
My position is a signed contract to work 20 hours a week and I consistently work 65. We are extremely under paid and have little opportunity to work other jobs, we are
required to pay for a $2000 summer class but barely make enough to pay for rent utilities and eat.