Graduate Assistantships
Refine your advanced degree with a graduate research, service or teaching assistantship.
Research Assistantships Service Assistantships Teaching Assistantships Complete Your ApplicationRefine your advanced degree with a graduate research, service or teaching assistantship.
Research Assistantships Service Assistantships Teaching Assistantships Complete Your ApplicationWest Virginia University awards approximately 1,700 graduate assistantships annually to incoming and continuing graduate students. These graduate assistantships are supported by state appropriations, federal funds and private grants and contracts. Information about available graduate assistantships is available from students’ programs, assistantship supervisors, the WVU Career Services Center and other sources.
The College of Applied Human Sciences offers a range of graduate assistantship opportunities that affords students valuable practical experiences working in a higher education setting. A graduate assistantship is an ideal way to finance your continuing education, while building your resume at the same time. We strongly encourage all prospective students to apply for a graduate assistantship at the time they submit their application for program admission. Within the college, priority consideration will be given to those applications for graduate assistantships received prior to February 1. Graduate assistant positions are awarded on a competitive basis and demand usually exceeds supply.
While CAHS provides a variety of graduate assistantships, the University offers additional opportunities in areas such as Campus Recreation, the Center for Learning Advising and Student Success, Office of Accessibility Services, WellWVU and Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Once admitted to the University, students can view available graduate assistantships in Handshake. Graduate assistantships are posted on a rolling basis throughout the academic year and summer, so please check back for new assistantship postings periodically.
Regular graduate assistants work an average of 20 hours per week and receive a full University tuition waiver (9 credit hours or more) during fall, spring and summer. Partial graduate assistants work an average of 10 hours per week and receive a half University tuition waiver (5 credit hours) during fall and spring only. Both regular and partial graduate assistants must be enrolled full-time and can work as as teaching, research or service assistants.
Please review the detailed policies, procedures, and guidelines for graduate assistantships at West Virginia University before applying. Students enrolled in our online programs are not eligible for graduate assistantships.
Complete Your ApplicationGraduate research assistants help faculty members with their research activities.
Having achieved Carnegie R1 (Highest Activity) Research status, WVU graduate students enjoy the opportunity to collaborate with the faculty who are recognized as international leaders in their disciplines. The responsibilities associated with these assistantships are varied, but typically include program design and management, data collection, quantitative and qualitative data analysis and dissemination of results. Several research assistantships in the college are funded through grants and other third-party sources. Depending on the source of funding, some research assistantships may not be available to non-US residents.
Graduate service assistants typically work in one of the administrative or service offices of WVU.
WVU is recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for Advancement and Teaching as one of 75 institutions receiving its higher recognition in community engagement. Accordingly, service to the college and university, local community, state and region remain top priorities in alignment with our land-grant mission. Graduate service assistants within the college provide a range of academic and student supports related to recruitment, retention, degree completion and post-college success.
Graduate teaching assistants teach courses, laboratory sections, and recitation sections, or provide other forms of instructional assistance.
Teaching and learning represent our core institutional priority. Teaching assistants make a valuable contribution in this area and gain important instructional experiences delivering disciplinary content across a range of formats including lecture and discussion, laboratory, field placements, internships, hybrid and online. Their responsibilities relate to preparation of course syllabi, lesson planning, instruction, classroom management and assessment of student learning.