Graduate Faculty Designation

The Graduate Faculty consists of those members of the University's General Faculty who are charged with carrying out graduate student teaching, supervision and advising. All tenured and tenure track faculty at the ranks of assistant, associate and full professor are automatically designated Regular Graduate Faculty. Other qualified persons may be appointed by the Dean of The Graduate School on the recommendation of the relevant academic program (see Special Appointed Regular Graduate Faculty section below).

Nominees for membership on the Graduate Faculty can be either for Regular Membership or for a Fixed Term Graduate Faculty appointment. The Deans of The Graduate School, using a framework approved by the Administrative Board of The Graduate School, make decisions regarding these recommendations.

Special Appointed Regular Graduate Faculty Nominations

UNC non-tenure-track faculty with the necessary research experience to mentor graduate students and who hold a terminal degree appropriate to the discipline can be nominated for Regular membership on the Graduate Faculty. In cases of highly interdisciplinary work, it is also possible to have Regular Graduate Faculty from one unit nominated as Special Appointed Regular Graduate Faculty in another unit.

When Special Appointed members of the Regular Graduate Faculty serve on committees of students, their membership fulfills The Graduate School requirement that a majority of the persons approving a master's thesis or doctoral dissertation, a majority of the members and chair of a master's or doctoral committee, and a majority of the people passing the student on an examination must be Regular members of the UNC-Chapel Hill Graduate Faculty in the student's major academic program.

Nominations for Special Appointed Regular status on the Graduate Faculty must be submitted to the Dean of The Graduate School. A letter of support from the program director/chair must be submitted with the nominee's current C.V. The Dean of The Graduate School will inform the program once a final decision has been made. Note that nominations to the Regular Graduate Faculty undergo more scrutiny than fixed term graduate faculty appointments.

Fixed Term Graduate Faculty Nominations

Other persons may be appointed to the Graduate Faculty for fixed term membership. Fixed term appointees to The Graduate Faculty may serve on committees of students and, at the request of the program and approval of The Graduate School, may chair a committee. These appointees may include: faculty emeriti, clinical or research professors, scholars from other institutions, independent scholars, and practitioners. They will be appointed for terms not greater than five years in length, though such terms may be renewed for subsequent five-year terms.

Nominations for Fixed Term Graduate Faculty status are forwarded by program directors/chairs and must include an indication that the prospective appointee has been reviewed by the academic program and found to have appropriately high qualifications. Any restrictions the nominating unit wishes to place on the appointee's service should be specified by the program to the appointee at the time of the nomination.

Please note that holding Fixed Term Graduate Faculty status confers no other rights or responsibilities other than the ability to serve on student committees. This is NOT the same as a fixed term appointment for teaching at the University, nor are these individuals necessarily employed by the University.

All Fixed Term Graduate Faculty nominations should be submitted electronically through the Recommendation for Fixed Term Appointment system.