Employing Graduate Students on Campus

If you represent an on-campus office looking to hire current graduate students for part-time roles, please post your position on the GRAD Gargoyle job board. Register as an “Employer” to post the opportunity. Please make sure to select the JOB TYPE: STUDENT EMPLOYMENT so that students can find your listing when searching for campus opportunities. Your job may qualify as a Higher Education Administration (HEA) internship opportunity. More information on this program can be found below.

Higher Ed Admin (HEA) Interns

Is your UChicago office interested in hosting a graduate student intern?  Higher Education Administration (HEA) internships offer hosts opportunities to collaborate with highly trained students who are looking to build skills and explore careers in higher education administration. It also provides hosts with unique mentorship opportunities, as staff members hosting interns offer guidance and specialized training to the next generation of talented administrators. HEA internships enable students to take on projects in your campus office while also benefiting from tailored professional development programming offered by UChicagoGRAD. HEA interns have the option of participating in UChicagoGRAD’s Credential in Higher Education Administration, a co-curricular program that helps them prepare for careers in colleges and universities.

(If you are a student looking for an internship, please search the current listings in GRAD Gargoyle and click here to learn more about the Credential in Higher Education Administration.)

How It Works

To be classified as an HEA Internship, an opportunity must be project-based, make use of a student’s graduate-level skillset, and offer mentorship to the student. In other words, most of an intern’s responsibilities should be in service of specific, long-term projects, whereas roles where students are engaged solely in day-to-day clerical duties are not appropriate for the Credential. Examples of past internship projects include: writing a long-term strategic plan for a division, compiling procedural manuals, organizing and publicizing major events, revising the content and structure of websites, and devising methods for engaging students in outreach initiatives.

Both graduate student interns and graduate student workers can participate in HEA Credential programming and earn the badge. If your office already has graduate interns or graduate student workers, we invite you to encourage them to earn the Credential.

HEA Internship HOST Requirements

  • Funding for HEA internships comes from the host offices, and HEA internships can be funded through work-study. HEA internships must have an hourly rate of at least $15 an hour.
  • An HEA internship must be at least 100 hours, but no more than 300 hours, in total.
  • HEA interns should spend the majority of their internship hours engaged in making substantive, project-based contributions to their host offices.
  • Supervisors of HEA internships are expected to avail themselves to interns in a mentoring capacity.
  • An HEA internship cannot exceed 20 hours per week during the Autumn, Winter, and Spring quarters, nor can it exceed 20 hours per week in Summer for students who are registered in that quarter. For students not registered in Summer quarter, it cannot exceed 37.5 hours per week during the summer. Students registered in Summer quarter should check in with their Dean of Students.
  • If a student participating in an HEA internship also holds a job, research assistantship, or teaching position on campus, the total number of hours contributed to these activities may not exceed the totals listed above. For more information on this and other relevant policies, please click here­.

Questions?

If you have questions about hosting an HEA intern, please contact Kathrin Kranz (kranz@uchicago.edu).