Financial Aid and Assistantships

Assistantships are available on a semester by semester basis for a maximum of four semesters. Assistants spend approximately 20 hours per week assisting faculty members with classroom research and other related tasks. The assistant must consult with assigned faculty on a regular basis and complete tasks on a timely basis. The majority of our assistantships are teaching assistantships (TAs will be mentored in the semester prior to their beginning to teach their classes. As a TA, you are required to have a minimum 2 hours of office hours a week.)

Recipients are given stipends and most fees are remitted. Successful applicants are required to maintain at least a 3.00 grade point average and avoid an incomplete. Admission to the graduate program is necessary before a student can be considered for an assistantship. Applications for assistantships typically outnumber awards by a large margin.

As a graduate assistant you are eligible for health insurance through Graduate Student Benfits.

Please contact Dr. Geoboo Song for more details. For our formal application, select our Graduate Assistantship Application.

Note: To comply with Fayetteville Policies and Procedures 402.1, all persons hired as employees must submit to a criminal background and sex offender registry check. Further, all graduate students appointed as graduate assistants and volunteers who perform responsibilities similar to paid employees will require a check.

Background checks will be conducted once a candidate becomes a finalist for a position. Unless prior completion of the check is required by law for the position, hiring units may make an offer of employment that is expressly conditioned on completion of a criminal background check, financial history check, substance abuse test, or a combination of these checks that is fully satisfactory in the sole discretion of the University.

Graduate assistants are not allowed to begin their assigned duties until the applicable background checks are complete.

MEST

The Middle East Studies program also provides separate graduate assistantships for students interested in studying this region as part of their M.A. program. Application deadline for assistantships is typically around February 1 of each year.

Hugh T. Henry Award and Scholarship

In 1989 the M.P.A. Program instituted a yearly scholarship in honor of the former M.P.A. Director, Hugh T. Henry. This scholarship is based on a generous contribution from Mrs. Hugh T. Henry and friends of the M.P.A. Program. This scholarship carries a cash award and a special recognition at the annual University Honors Ceremony.

The M.P.A. Program also grants, on a yearly basis, the Hugh T. Henry outstanding M.P.A. Student Award. This award carries a cash prize and special recognition at the annual University Honors Ceremony.

ACMA Scholarship

During the Arkansas City Management Association's fall meeting, a generous stipend award of $1,000 goes to a deserving student pursuing a career in local government.

Pi Sigma Alpha

The Howard Penniman Scholarships for Graduate Study are awarded annually to up to five members entering graduate school in political science in the upcoming academic year. Nominations must come from the chapter advisors, accompanied by an official application and supporting documents as specified in the program announcement. Nominations are due by May 1, and the winners are announced by June 15. Each scholarship is $2,000.

Minority Fellowships

The University offers the Benjamin Franklin Lever Graduate Tuition Fellowship to new or continuing minority graduate students who show potential. For further information contact the Graduate School.

Other Forms of Financial Assistance

From time to time, other forms of financial assistance may be available to students in the M.A. and M.P.A. programs. These might include grants that faculty members have received that require the assistance of a graduate student. Other job opportunities are often available on campus. Some student loan programs are also open to graduate students. Students should inquire at the Graduate School about these sources of assistance.

Travel Funds

Students may apply for a travel grant as early as the first year of their graduate program. you must be presenting your own research as the sole student presenter at the meeting/conference, and be enrolled during the semester the travel occurs (summer excepted unless the student is in a 12-month GA position.) The full policy may be found at: https://graduate-and-international.uark.edu/graduate/costs-and-funding/travel-grants.php. Please contact Vicky Hartwell (hartwell@uark.edu, 5-4327) with questions.

If you're looking for additional sources of funding, check out Pivot, a searchable funding opportunities and expertise database. To search for graduate student travel awards in particular, you may find it helpful to: Click on the "Advanced Search" link. Leave "All Fields" selected and enter "travel" into the search box. Click on "Applicant Type" and select "Graduate Student." Click the blue "Search" button in the upper right corner of the page. Additional information and tips about using Pivot can be found online.