Graduate Rights and Responsibilities

These are basic rights and responsibilities common to all graduate and professional students. They form a foundation upon which faculty, administrators, and students can build a genuine scholarly community. The ideal relationship is a collegial one, in which the common goals are the completion of the student’s degree program in a reasonable period and the ongoing success of the faculty member’s research program.

The following statements are intended as a resource for advisors and students on how to build and maintain a healthy, rewarding and productive relationship. Clearly, such a list cannot be exhaustive; the following guidelines address concerns that arise in a research environment, such as a graduate course of study at Texas A&M University. For general concerns and for situations requiring immediate response, Texas A&M offers a variety of resources.

1. Faculty members and their graduate students are strongly encouraged to build their relationship by establishing common expectations on the major elements of their professional interactions, such as:
   • Requirements for achieving and maintaining an acceptable academic standing as well as degree and graduation requirements for each academic unit;
   • A regular time for meeting;
   • Lead times for feedback on work such as thesis and manuscript drafts;
   • A shared understanding of what constitutes sufficient notice and reasonable scheduling of events the student is expected to attend following a request from their advisor;
   • A shared understanding of academic integrity and responsible conduct of research.
2. Graduate students are strongly encouraged to keep their advisor apprised of their academic progress and to regularly seek their advisor’s input on the same subject.
3. Faculty members are responsible for informing graduate students of the source and amount of their financial support, as well as all expectations associated with any funded position. Faculty members should inform graduate students promptly of matters that affect their funding status.
4. Graduate students and faculty have a responsibility to inform each other as soon as they have knowledge of a possible change in their status. Graduate students should provide reasonable notice to their advisor if they intend to leave or change advisors, have a medical or personal issue that interferes with study and research, or are experiencing other academic or life issues that an advisor might reasonably need to know about. When circumstances require leaving a research project, graduate students should provide a summary of their work to minimize any delay associated with continuing the project.
5. Graduate students share with the faculty the responsibility for securing, maintaining, and protecting the integrity of grades, scholarship, and research. Upon accepting admission to the College of Engineering (COE), a student immediately assumes a commitment to uphold the Honor Code, to accept responsibility for learning, and to follow the philosophy and rules of the Honor System. Students are also responsible for being fully acquainted with and complying with the Texas A&M University Student Rules.
6. Faculty are expected to support their students’ participation in extra-academic activities and recognize the value of these activities for their students' intellectual and professional development. Depending on the discipline, these activities might include training in job interviews, information on academic and non-academic career options, and internships.
7. Faculty and graduate and professional students are strongly encouraged to attempt to resolve conflicts through direct discussion and other formal procedures.
8. Graduate and professional students have a right to confidentiality in their communication with staff, faculty, and administrators, especially for matters of a personal and/or medical nature, except when mandatory reporting rules must be followed.
9. Several resources are available to graduate students who wish to terminate their relationship with their advisor and search for a new research group. These include their departmental or program graduate director, department head, academic dean in the COE, or a COE ombudsperson.
10. Graduate students are protected by a variety of policies and procedures, as summarized in the documents Texas A&M University Compact Between Graduate Students and Their Supervising Faculty, and Texas A&M University Graduate and Professional Student Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. If informal solutions are unsuccessful, the student can seek other conflict resolution options.