Faculty & Staff

At UMass Amherst, we strive to help our faculty become more effective mentors of their graduate students, postdocs, and undergraduate researchers as an important part of building our campus community. We are proud to offer mentor training and additional resources to help you hone your skills in this important area of professional development.

To gain Graduate Faculty Status (GFS), faculty are recommended to the Graduate Dean by the Graduate Program Director or Department Head. Each department/program has specified criteria for Graduate Faculty appointment, which is on file in the Graduate Dean’s office. Learn more about the process below.

An A-Z listing of all forms and downloadable documentation on the Graduate School site.

Please see below for a number of helpful links for faculty. Contact the Graduate School via phone (413) 545-6002 or email with any questions.

Information Technologies also offers extensive training and documentation for most SPIRE functions including many of the Graduate Admissions processes as well as recording and changing grades.

The Office of Professional Development (OPD) [link to 6.0 OPD page] regularly collaborates with faculty to integrate professional development training into academic curriculum, support advising, share resources and alleviate time constraints that hinder student participation.

All faculty teaching and/or advising 5th year option students must be members of the Graduate Faculty. Members of the 5-College community are eligible to serve as Graduate Faculty provided they meet the criteria for Graduate Faculty status as established by the UMass Amherst academic departments and the Graduate Council. Such recommendations are made to and approved by the Graduate Dean.

For additional information on setting up an Accelerated Master's Degree Option, see Faculty Senate.

Course proposals must be submitted through the UMass Course and Curriculum Management System. After submission, the approval process is as follows:

• Proposals are routed for approval to the Graduate Council Academic Standards and Curriculum committee.
• If approved by the Academic Standards and Curriculum committee, the proposal is sent to the full Graduate Council for approval.
• If approved by Graduate Council, the proposal is then sent to the Faculty Senate for approval.
• If approved by the Faculty Senate, the proposal is sent to the Provost Office for final approval.

Proposals for new areas of study for graduate certificates are created and submitted by the academic unit that wishes to offer such a certificate. Proposals must be accompanied by endorsement from the department heads and deans of the colleges/schools in which the contributing course work is offered as well as from the academic unit or units whose students or degree programs could be impacted by the creation of the graduate certificate. The Graduate Council will consider all the proposals for new graduate certificates to assure proposal guidelines have been followed and that repetition and redundancy across areas of study for certificates are not evident. Those meeting the criteria set forth by Graduate Council will then be recommended to Faculty Senate and the Provost for approval.

Welcome to the online Graduate Reference Center for applicants to the University of Massachusetts Amherst Graduate School. Using our Graduate Reference Center enables us to efficiently compile a complete academic dossier of each applicant to the University for evaluation by our faculty.