Faculty & Staff

High-quality graduate education depends upon professional and ethical conduct by all participants. Although Rice University is composed of many distinct disciplines and programs, we, its faculty and students, nevertheless form a single scholarly community. As such we have communal responsibilities for upholding academic standards and sustaining a creative, collegial environment.

The following guidelines delineate practices that will promote execution of our academic responsibilities and foster quality graduate education. They are based on the collective experience and wisdom of a number of major research universities and are largely a matter of honesty, courtesy, and common sense. They define our expectations for the three major components of graduate education within the University; the graduate program, the faculty advisor and the graduate student. Although some of these guidelines have a more limited relevance, most are applicable across all disciplines.

Graduate Programs should:

• Provide for prospective and continuing students the following information:
  • the specific requirements for achieving particular advanced degrees;
  • the forms of funding available and the procedures for receipt and continuation of financial support;
  • admission statistics and attrition rates from the various degree programs, average time for degree completion, and realistic information on career opportunities including data on placement of recent graduates.
• Provide appropriate training at the departmental, divisional, or university level for graduate students who teach.
• Inform students of university policies affecting them such as those on intellectual policy, environmental health and safety and misconduct in research