The Office of Doctoral Student Affairs

The Office of Doctoral Student Affairs

Mission Statement

The Office of Doctoral Student Affairs at the School of Information supports our PhD students in achieving their academic goals by facilitating recruitment, enrollment, academic success/retention, and graduation.

The Team

• The Office of Doctoral Student Affairs reports up through the Associate Dean for Faculty and provides direct support for the doctoral program. This includes doctoral program initiatives and support, doctoral program admissions, doctoral student funding and records tracking, and doctoral student progression. 

• The PhD program staff can be contacted at umsi.phdprogram@umich.edu for questions from instructors, advisors, or students.

UMSI Doctoral Student Handbook

The UMSI Doctoral Student Handbook is a comprehensive guide detailing the School of Information PhD program’s mission, policies, requirements, timelines, resources, and procedures to support students from admission through dissertation completion.

Doctoral Student Admissions Process

UMSI has a decentralized process for admitting doctoral students. Detailed information about this process can be found in the Doctoral Admissions Process.

Funding

Incoming doctoral students are guaranteed academic year funding (tuition and stipend) and summer funding for the duration of their time in the program, provided they are making satisfactory progress towards the degree. Students receive year-round health benefits.

UMSI is committed to building and supporting an outstanding doctoral program and provides several subsidies and incentives to encourage faculty to support doctoral students. 

Graduate Student Mentoring

Mentoring is an essential part of the doctoral student process. The Rackham guidelines mentoring and advising note: “Research shows that both students and faculty benefit when graduate students are involved in effective mentoring and advising relationships. " For more on this, see Rackham’s publication, “How to Mentor Graduate Students: A Guide for Faculty” . 

Rackham recommends that a formal contract with doctoral students be put in place. The PhD Program Team, in collaboration with the Research Office and the Doctoral Committee, has created a template you can use to begin creating your mentoring plan. You are not required to use all parts of this template – please customize it by removing or adding sections to suit your specific needs and goals. Please see the Rackham's Faculty Committee on Mentoring (aka the MORE committee - Mentoring Others Results in Excellence ) web page for additional information and examples and templates. 

Policy on Funds-in-Hand Requirements for Advisor Changes

When a student changes advisors, the funding or appointment in place for the term in which the change occurs remains unchanged through the end of that term. The new advisors must collectively have the following funds-in-hand (e.g., RESIN, grants, etc.) to cover any GSRA commitments up to three terms immediately following the advisor change: 

1. Funds to cover any GSRA appointments guaranteed to the student who is changing advisor(s) by their offer letter or by current school policies during the three terms immediately following the advisor change (see examples below). 

2. Funds to cover any GSRA appointments guaranteed to each of the new advisor(s)’ current doctoral students by their offer letters or by current school policies for the same three-term period.
   
   

Note that this policy determines the funds-in-hand required to advise current students but does not modify the existing funds-in-hand policy governing the admission of new doctoral students or the number of GSRAs guaranteed to any student.

Examples: 

As of Winter 2026: 

Students in the Fall 2025 cohort and earlier are guaranteed a GSRA during: (i) the Winter, Spring/Summer of their first year, (ii) Fall, Winter, Spring/Summer of their second year, and (iii) all subsequent Spring/Summer terms. 

Students in the Fall 2026 Cohort and later are guaranteed a GSRA during: (i) the Winter, Spring/Summer of their first year and (ii) all subsequent Spring/Summer terms. 

Other terms can be covered by GSI or GSRA appointments.

Example 1: 

A student changes advisors during the Fall term of their third year.

The student is guaranteed:

• Winter of their third year: GSI or GSRA

• Spring/Summer of their third year: GSRA

• Fall of their fourth year: GSI or GSRA

Because GSRA funding is guaranteed only for Spring/Summer of the third year, the new advisor(s) must have funds-in-hand sufficient to cover one GSRA term for this student.

Example 2: 

A student in the Fall 2026 cohort changes advisors during the Fall term of their first year.

The student is guaranteed:

• Winter of their first year: GSRA

• Spring/Summer of their first year: GSRA

• Fall of their second year: GSI or GSRA

Because GSRA funding is guaranteed for Winter and Spring/Summer, the new advisor(s) must have funds-in-hand sufficient to cover two GSRA terms for this student.