Graduate Studies facilitates numerous resources for faculty, including scholarly travel funding, graduate faculty status, and graduate faculty governance. For additional information and resources beyond this summary, faculty and staff may visit the internal resources page.
Hosted by Graduate Studies, the Scholarly Activity Fund (SAF) provides travel support to UCM full-time faculty to promote and encourage participation in scholarly activities at state/regional, national, or international professional conferences, meetings, or events. These activities provide for both improved teaching as well as for ensuring faculty have the resources to earn Graduate Faculty Status, promotion, and tenure. As funding is not unlimited, this application process ensures equity across campus and distribution of resources. Faculty should complete the appropriate travel pre-authorization with their school chair before submitting the SAF.
Funding is provided for one trip and up to $1,000 per fiscal year per faculty member contingent upon the available budget.
Funding Categories
Hosted by Graduate Studies, these funds are broadly awarded to faculty and staff to support the purchase of materials, supplies, resources, travel, etc. for research, teaching / curriculum, or service learning activities pertaining to diversity, equity, and inclusion at UCM.
To obtain funding faculty and staff must submit to Graduate Studies a complete application with all required documentation. This award is available to all full-time employees.
Applications will be reviewed in the order received. As funds are available, employees may be awarded up to $1,000 per fiscal year.
Full Graduate Faculty Status provides the privilege to
Associate Graduate Faculty Status provides the privilege to
2023 Faculty Scholar Award. The Faculty Scholar Award is sponsored by the Office of Graduate Studies, and selected by the University Research Council (URC), recognizes exceptional merit in the scholarly and creative work of faculty at UCM. The award is open to all ranks of full-time faculty performing original creative work, scholarly activities, or research projects.
Nominations are now being accepted. Deadline for submission: 2/24/23, by 5pm
For more information on how to Apply please review the Application Instructions.
The Graduate Faculty Assembly (GFA) is the governing body of graduate programs for the University of Central Missouri. The GFA is comprised of all members of the Graduate Faculty and administrators assigned to Graduate Studies. Recognizing that input from graduate faculty is crucial to the quality of graduate education, the GFA provides a forum for discussion of graduate education issues and elects members to the Graduate Council (GC).
For meeting dates, agenda, and minutes, visit the Graduate Council website.
The Graduate Council serves as an administrative committee for the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Vice Provost of Academic Programs and Graduate Studies. The GC serves as a recommending body to Graduate Studies and all graduate functions of International Student Services and the Registrar. The Graduate Council functions as the main recommending body to the director of Graduate Studies on all issues central to: the development and advancement of the university's vision with regard to graduate education and research, the development and review of University policies and procedures for graduate education as set forth in the Graduate Catalog, the review and recommendation of curricula (including program admissions requirements, courses, degrees, and certificates), the monitoring of graduate program quality, and the review of all full graduate-faculty status requests.
For more information visit the Graduate Council website.
Graduate policies in the Graduate Catalog can be edited or added in one of three ways: as part of a regular five-year review cycle, on an as-need basis in between cycles, or developed as a new policy as needed when none exist. This is a collaborative effort in order to ensure campus wide input is included and multiple perspectives and implications are considered. Outside of the regular cycle, any member of the university community (such as graduate faculty, administrators, the Graduate Council, the Faculty Senate Academic Standards Committee, or any other committee or group) may bring forth an issue to the Graduate Policy Review Committee. Policies must be completed by the March 1 deadline in order to make it into the next academic year catalog. The first formal step is always a review by the Graduate Policy Review Committee which consists of the following:
To request that a graduate policy be reviewed outside of the regular five-year review cycle please complete the following Request a Graduate Catalog Policy Review form.