SEAS Eliminated Extra Pay for Graduate Students Who Teach Beyond Required Load

Graduate students at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences who teach more courses than required for their degree programs no longer receive additional compensation under a policy that took effect at the start of the fall 2025 semester.

The change, part of a broader overhaul of SEAS’s Ph.D. funding model announced to faculty in June 2024, eliminated the bonus stipend previously paid to students who taught beyond their program’s required teaching load.

Under the new policy, doctoral students who teach additional sections receive the same overall compensation they would earn in a semester focused solely on research. Instead of adding extra pay for additional teaching work, SEAS adjusts the portion of a student’s funding allocated to research assistantships during semesters in which they teach.

Teaching fellow duties typically require 10 to 15 hours of work each week, often alongside full-time research commitments.

According to SEAS spokesperson Leah Burrows, the revised funding model no longer provides an additional RA salary to students who teach beyond their required teaching load. Course heads were informed of the policy during the spring 2025 semester, and the change was reflected in TF and RA appointment letters sent to students in summer 2025.

Burrows said the policy does not reduce the overall financial support guaranteed to doctoral students. Incoming Ph.D. students receive Notices of Financial Support outlining their funding packages, which typically include a “combination of tuition grants, stipends, traineeships, teaching fellowships, research assistantships, and other academic appointments,” according to the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences website.

Several students criticized how SEAS communicated the policy change, saying the rollout was chaotic and that many were not fully aware of the new rules until months after they took effect. Burrows pointed to earlier communications in appointment letters announcing the forthcoming change in response to a request for comment.

In December 2025, SEAS Chief of Staff & Interim Dean for Academic Programs Rebecca M. Ginzburg emailed graduate students to clarify the policy change. The message, obtained by The Crimson, also outlined updated teaching expectations.

Students who entered the SEAS Ph.D. program in fall 2024 or later are expected to teach two sections, unless their faculty advisors arrange to buy out the second section. Students who entered in fall 2023 or earlier are required to teach one section.

Ginzburg wrote that “any student who TFs above the expectation does not receive additional compensation during the semester in which they TF.”

The change comes as SEAS adjusts its graduate funding model amid broader financial pressures affecting research funding. In recent years, the school has faced new fiscal constraints, including the effects of a higher federal endowment tax and shifts in federal research funding allocations.

In summer 2025, SEAS also implemented a research continuity policy after several federal grants were terminated, allowing Ph.D. students to supplant lost grant money with TF stipends. According to Burrows, long-standing SEAS rules prohibit Ph.D. students funded primarily through teaching fellowships from receiving additional RA compensation beyond the standard level of graduate student support.

The policy shift arrives as the Harvard Graduate Union-United Auto Workers continues contract negotiations with the University. After nearly a year of bargaining, the union introduced its first set of economic proposals earlier this year.

One proposal would restructure TF compensation, including teaching pay by roughly 74 percent.

Burrows wrote that despite the revised funding model, the salary rate for TFs — as set by the union contract and the Office of Undergraduate Education — remains unchanged.

—Staff writer Taylor M. Bierwerth can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @tmbierwerth.

—Staff writer Noah A. Ferris can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @noahaferris.