University of Colorado Health Sciences Center

Clinical Science

Conflict of Interest Policy

For Graduate Students who hold other positions at UCD: Graduate students may hold employment positions within the Health Sciences Center in addition to their positions as graduate students at UCD. When this situation occurs, there is the potential for conflicts of interest to arise. This policy governs such situations.

  1. A graduate student may not also be a regular faculty member (Instructor or above) in the same program in which s/he is enrolled as a student.
  2. If two individuals exist in a student-faculty relationship in a graduate program, they may not both hold faculty (Instructor or above) appointments in the same graduate program, even though that graduate program is different from the one in which the student is enrolled.
  3. Recent graduates can be granted a graduate faculty appointment in the graduate program from which they graduated. In this situation, the new faculty member must not direct courses taken by individuals who were students when the new faculty member was also a student. (In programs where independent student cohorts exist, then the new faculty member must not direct a course taken by students from his/her cohort.) The new faculty member may not serve on an examination committee of any individual who was a student in the program (regardless of cohort) when the new faculty member was still a student.
  4. A faculty member who employs a graduate student as a PRA:
    1. Can be an “in” graduate faculty member of the student’s program and can serve on the student’s graduate degree examination committee(s) with the approval of the Graduate Program Director; or
    2. Can serve as an additional (but not sole) “outside” graduate faculty member of the student’s program and examination committee with the approval of the Graduate Program Director; but
    3. Cannot serve as Chair of the student’s examination committee(s).
  5. Despite the allowable participation on examination committees described above (#4), the Graduate School discourages such involvement and suggests that the employer not serve on the committee, but attend all committee meetings as an invited guest.

Posted 7/20/04