All Ph.D. students in UW-Madison English programs receive five or six years of guaranteed funding averaging to around $40,000 a year, through a combination of fellowships, assistantships and scholarships. Students also receive tuition remission, a robust healthcare plan and are eligible for professional development/travel funds and other forms of financial support.
Beyond the resources noted here, you can also find out more about additional funding options through these on-campus resources:
Teaching Assistantships in the English Department
Teaching assistant positions provide a salary, health insurance benefits, and full tuition remission. Segregated fees are not covered. For semesters or years a student is not on fellowship, and depending on what year a student is in a program, appointments range between 40-60%, or an estimated 16-24 hours of work a week during a semester.
Teaching assistants work in various formats, including leading smaller discussion sections for a large lecture, teaching their own composition courses, and working in the Writing Center.
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Composition & Rhetoric
Creative Writing
English Language & Linguistics
Literary Studies
Students in the Literary Studies program who enter without an MA will usually not teach until they complete their first year in Madison. Students are typically awarded a multi-year contract as a Teaching Assistant to begin after a year of Master’s training. The support is contingent on their satisfactory completion of seven courses during the first (Master’s) year. Literary Studies students who enter the program with an MA from another institution are may be eligible for teaching appointments in their first year at Madison.
Research & Project Assistantships
Beyond teaching assistantships, the Department offers individual assistantships to graduate students to assist with research, training, or other academic programs or projects. Most positions are a one-third workload, though some, particularly those that employ late-stage dissertations, may be higher. PAs and RAs are included in a labor agreement between the State of Wisconsin and the Teaching Assistants Association (TAA). Available positions are filled in accordance with the current contract.
A project or research assistant receives a salary, fringe benefits, and full tuition remission. Entering students typically do not apply for assistantships; they are awarded by the Admissions Committee, and often go to students starting the first stage (M.A. level) of the Ph.D. program. Additional assistantships are also available through various faculty members and research groups, and these are advertised to the graduate student body as they become available.