Orientation: Expectations for Graduate Study

Overview

The major goals of graduate education at Texas A&M University are to instill in each student an understanding of and a capacity for scholarship, independent judgment, academic rigor, and intellectual honesty. Faculty and graduate students have a shared obligation to work together to foster these goals through relationships that advance freedom of inquiry, demonstrate individual and professional integrity, and encourage common respect.

Graduate student progress is guided and evaluated by an advisor and a graduate committee. These individuals give direction and support for the appropriate developmental and learning goals of graduate students. The advisor and the graduate committee also have the obligation of evaluating a graduate student's academic performance. The graduate student, the advisor, and the graduate committee constitute the basic core of graduate education. It is the quality, scope, and extent of interaction in this group that determine the significance of the graduate experience.

High quality graduate education requires professional and ethical conduct of the participants. Faculty and graduate students have mutual responsibilities in ensuring academic standards and quality graduate programs. Excellence in graduate education is achieved when faculty and students are inspired, have the academic and professional backgrounds essential to function at the highest level, and are genuine in their mutual desire to see one another triumph. Any action that negatively affects this interaction-from either faculty member or student-destroys the whole relationship. Mutual respect is critical to the successful process. With these goals in mind, these imperatives are put forth.

Expectations for Graduate Students

• Exercise the utmost integrity in all facets of the graduate program.
• Behave in a professional and mature nature in all interactions with faculty, staff, and fellow students, both graduate and undergraduate.
• Accept the chief responsibility to be knowledgeable of the rules and regulations governing graduate education, including those promulgated by Texas A&M University, the respective college, and the degree program.
• Enroll in the appropriate course work to complete the degree plan.
• Maintain the appropriate standards to continue graduate studies.
• Understand that the faculty advisor and the committee members sustain the intellectual and instructional surroundings in which the student develops competencies.
• Understand that faculty members have the right to allocate their own professional time and other resources in diverse forms that are academically effective.
• Understand that the faculty advisor and the committee members are accountable for monitoring the accuracy, validity, and integrity of all facets of the student's program. A well-conceived program reflects positively on the student, the faculty advisor, the advisory committee, and the University.
• Acknowledge, as appropriate, the contributions of the faculty advisor and others in the student's publications and conference presentations.
• Maintain appropriate confidentiality concerning the creative activities and research of faculty, staff and fellow students prior to presentation or publication, in accordance with existing practices and policies of the discipline and of Texas A&M University.
• Submit documents (proposal, thesis, dissertation, etc.) that are the original work of the student. Plagiarism will not be tolerated.

Expectations for Faculty

• Exercise the utmost integrity in all facets of the graduate program.
• Provide intellectual and technical encouragement, moral support, and direction in support of a graduate student's progress toward degree completion.
• Establish a professional working environment that nurtures and encourages students to learn imaginatively both as an individual and as a team member.
• Develop a crystal-clear understanding with graduate students regarding their specific professional responsibilities, including time lines for completion of scholarly work, as well as the thesis or dissertation.
• Provide timely verbal or written assessment of each student's work.
• Initiate discussion of authorship procedure with each graduate student prior to initiating collaborative projects that may result in publication.
• Refrain from asking any student to undertake personal tasks (mowing lawns, baby-sitting, typing papers, etc.) without suitable payment or whenever conditions are such that the student would not feel free to decline the offer. A faculty member must understand that the graduate student is free to decline such invitations. Such employment should not be established when the professional relationship would be harmed by the arrangement.
• Relate mutually with graduate students in a professional and civil fashion and in conformity with Texas A&M University policies governing nondiscrimination and sexual harassment.
• Justly assess student achievement regardless of religion, race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, or other criteria that are not germane to academic performance.
• Serve on graduate student committees without regard to the student's religion, race, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, or other characteristics that are not germane to academic performance.
• Prevent any professional or personal differences with colleagues from hindering his/her obligations as a graduate advisor, committee member, or instructor.
• Decline service on graduate committees when there is an amorous, familial, or other non-academic relationship between the faculty member and the student that may result in a conflict of interest.
• Give credit in an appropriate manner to graduate student contributions to scholarly activity presented at professional meetings, in professional publications, or in applications for copyrights, patents, and grants.
• Accept the responsibility to know the rules and regulations that affect graduate students.

Mentoring and Advising: Expectations for Graduate Students

Graduate education is designed to ensure the development of the highest level of competencies. Graduate students rely on faculty advisors and advisory committee members to help them find and secure financial and/or intellectual resources to assist their graduate education.

The student's specific advisor may change during the course of the student's program. The role of an advisor also may change to become the role of a mentor. The committee chair in consultation with the student will select the members of the advisory committee.

Each graduate student is expected to:

• Dedicate the appropriate time and energy to accomplishing academic excellence and completion of the program.
• Understand the time constraints and other requests imposed on faculty members and program staff.
• Initiate inquiry to advance understanding of the academic subjects and advances in the field.
• Speak regularly with the faculty advisor and committee members, particularly with concerns associated with progression in the graduate program.

Mentoring and Advising: Expectations for Faculty

The advocacy of faculty advisors for the academic progress of the graduate students in their program is fundamental. Certain degree programs assign faculty advisors to entering graduate students to provide counsel in academic and other matters. Other degree programs allow students to choose faculty advisors in accordance with disciplinary interest or expertise. A student should consult with the head of the administrative department concerning appointment of the chair of the advisory committee. Advising is multiform in its scope and breadth and may be accomplished in many ways.

A student's academic performance and a faculty member's scholarly and professional interests may coincide during the course of instruction and research. As the faculty-graduate student relationship matures and develops, direct collaborations may evolve. This may include the sharing of authorship or rights to intellectual property created through scholarly or other creative activity. Such collaborations are encouraged and are a desired outcome of the mentoring process.

Each faculty advisor is expected to:

• Communicate clearly to each student the program requirements, including course work, research, examinations, and thesis or dissertation (if applicable), and delineate the estimated time to complete each phase.
• Evaluate student progress and performance in regular and informative ways consistent with the practice of the field.
• Assist in developing creative, interpretive, writing, verbal, technical, reasoning, and quantitative competencies, as appropriate, in accordance with the expectations of the discipline.
• Guide graduate students in developing grant-writing skills, as appropriate.
• Attempt to ensure that the graduate student, as appropriate, initiates thesis or dissertation research in a timely fashion.
• Encourage each graduate student to participate in professional meetings or perform or display their work in public forums, as appropriate.
• Counsel each student to develop the competencies and portfolio of achievements to be competitive for employment. This includes presenting a realistic view of the field and the market at any given time and making use of professional contacts for the benefit of one's students, as appropriate.
• Stimulate an appreciation of learning and teaching.
• Create an ethos of collegiality so that learning takes place within a community of scholars.
• Encourage the student to learn and conform to accepted standards in ethics and scholarly conduct. This includes both general standards and those specific to the discipline.

* This information was adapted with permission from "Guidelines for Good Practice in Graduate Education" by the University of Oregon. As such, it has benefited from the work of the Graduate School at the University of California - Davis; the Graduate College and Graduate Council at the University of Arizona; the Office of Graduate Studies at the University of Southern California; and the Graduate School at North Carolina State University. This information is intended to be constructive and instructive to faculty and graduate students. It does not constitute a contract with current or prospective students.

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