COLUMBIA, Mo. ― The University of Missouri plans to raise its minimum stipend for some graduate doctoral students on July 1.
Chancellor Hank Foley said Wednesday during his State of the University address that the stipend for those with 20-hour assistantships will go to $15,000 by July 1 and increase to $18,000 next year.
The Columbia Daily Tribune reports an increase in stipends was one of several recommendations made by a graduate student experience task force earlier this month. The task force had suggested the increase be implemented by the 2019-20 school year.
Foley said the university must stay competitive with compensation for its doctoral graduate students.
Foley said during his speech, addressing graduate students, “We want to make sure that we’re treating you in a way you deserve to be treated.”
The Graduate Professional Council issued a statement after Foley’s announcement praising the interim chancellor for implementing the task force’s recommendation.
“Achievements such as this one are the result of graduate and professional students who step outside of their classrooms and labs to advocate for themselves, faculty who stand by our side, and administrators who listen to our needs and act,” the group said.
Stipends were part of a larger discussion about graduate student benefits that has sparked an effort to form a graduate student union.
The Forum on Graduate Rights, which is collecting signatures to hold a vote to unionize, formed in August after the university announced that it could no longer subsidize health insurance premiums for graduate students. The university later reversed its decision.
