Dissertation Research Assistantship Award Guidelines

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Last Updated: Oct 29, 2026, 08:30 AM

Dissertation Research Assistantships are academic awards designed for students who are in the dissertation preparation stage of their graduate education. Students should be able to complete the dissertation during the period of the award.

U.S. citizens, permanent residents/immigrants, and international students may apply.

Students holding Dissertation Research Assistantship Awards must have a 10-hour service requirement, with specific duties assigned by the chairperson of the program. These duties should be linked to the dissertation research project.

A DRA award covers full tuition (nine hours maximum in summer) and provides a monthly stipend.

A student should be enrolled for at least six (6) dissertation hours if awarded for the fall and/or spring and three (3) dissertation hours if awarded for the summer during the term of the award. Please note that 601 or audit courses do not count toward the registration requirement.

A student will be expected to resign the award at the time the dissertation is submitted to the Graduate School if this occurs three weeks before the end of the period for the award.

Recipients may not accept employment inside or outside of the University.

During special recruitment and graduate enhancement events held at SIU Carbondale, the Graduate School will solicit the assistance of the Fellows to participate in seminars, orientation, and the Assembly of Fellows programs.

Stipend and Tenure of the Award

Three types of awards may be awarded:

• Fall and Spring award (9 months)
• Semester-only award (4.5 months) – fall or spring semester.
• Summer only award (1.5 months); July 1 – August 15

The Dissertation Research Assistantship Award may begin either summer (July 1st) or fall. No awards will begin before July 1st of each fiscal year.

Eligibility for Dissertation Research Assistantship Awards

  1. An overall graduate grade point average of at least 3.25. (No minimum undergraduate grade point average is required.)
  2. The student must have prepared a dissertation proposal with tentative or final approval by at least the chairperson of the dissertation committee.
  3.  The student must be a Candidate at the time of the nomination. The Graduate School Admit to Candidacy form must be on file with the Graduate School Records office.
  4. The student must not have more than six calendar years (72 months) of internal financial support as a doctoral student, including this award for which the student is nominated unless granted an exception by the Graduate School. (Note, support limits vary among academic programs.)
  5. Students who have held or currently hold a Dissertation Research Assistantship are ineligible for the current competition. Doctoral students are limited to two years of support of any combination of doctoral fellowship or dissertation research award. (Note: The Morris Doctoral Fellows may be nominated for the Dissertation Research Assistantship Award but not for the Doctoral Fellowship.)
  6. The student cannot hold any other additional employment or awards, either from SIUC or elsewhere.
  7.  The recipient agrees to remain in the Carbondale area (except where the unique nature of the research study or availability of appropriate supervision as recommended by the program is  determined and special approval to be away from campus is granted by the Graduate School).

Criteria for Dissertation Research Assistantship Award and Review Process

Nominations will be based on the student's qualifications and the promise of excellence of the dissertation as demonstrated in the proposal or prospectus and as judged by the student's dissertation committee and program.

The Graduate School will determine the number of awards granted to each school/college annually. Each of the Deans of schools/colleges in which doctoral programs (Ph.D.) are offered will establish faculty committees to review the nominations.

After the faculty committee reviews the nominations, the Dean of the school/college will submit a rank-ordered list of students and the award period recommended for the Dissertation Research Assistantships (please do not include alternates or denials) to the Fellowship office in the Graduate School, along with the fully completed application packets for those recommended students by the deadline specified below.

The Graduate School will review each of the recommended students and will then notify recipients and their respective programs.

Alternates and denials will be notified by either the Dean of the school/college or the program.

Deadlines – Close of business

March 12, 2027: Deadline for submission of nomination to the Dean's office of the school/college in which the student's program is located.

March 26, 2027: Deadline for the Dean's office to submit a rankordered list of nominees to the Graduate School.

April 9, 2026: Graduate School will notify Recipients.

April 30, 2027: Deadline to accept the award

Submission Process

The DRA nomination packet should be submitted via email (in .pdf format) to gaoffice@siu.edu. The email Subject should be DRA Nomination– Last Name. Packets received after the above deadline will be considered ineligible.

Programs submitting multiple nomination packets should create a .pdf file for each nomination packet.

Preparation of Nominations for the Dissertation Research Assistantship Award

Packets should be submitted to the Dean's Office of the school/college in which the student's program is located. All forms should be typed.

1. PROGRAM'S RECOMMENDATIONS FORM
a. To be completed by the program.
b. Only one list of recommendations per program is needed.

2. DRA PACKET CHECKLIST
a. To be completed by the program.

3. APPLICATION FOR DRA AWARD
a. To be completed in part by the student and in part by the program.

4. BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT
a. To be completed by the student.
b. In a maximum of two pages please indicate your educational goals and professional interests. Feel free to mention any honors, honors organizations, as well as any other activities beyond the Academic Program that you feel are pertinent and may help in evaluating your application.

5. CURRICULUM VITAE
a. To be completed by the student.

6. THREE (3) LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION
a. One letter must be a letter of endorsement from the Chairperson of the student's dissertation committee evaluating the general qualifications of the student to do research and the quality of the proposed dissertation.
b. The other two letters should be from individuals who are familiar with the student's total doctoral study and who are qualified to judge the general qualification of the student to do research and the quality of the proposed dissertation.

7. DRA PROPOSAL FORM
a. To be completed by the student.