As employees of the University, postgraduate associates may participate in one of the available health plans offered by Yale for themselves, their spouse, and their families, subject to specific plan provisions. Postgraduate fellows may be eligible to enroll in the same health plans, and the cost may be subsidized in whole or in part, to the extent that funds for this purpose are included in the fellowship or are supplemented by the faculty supervisor or the department. Postgraduate appointees may also be eligible to enroll in dental coverage made available by the 2 University on the terms offered to those in the Postdoctoral job classification. All postgraduate appointees must have evidence of health insurance coverage during their appointment. 

Unless restricted explicitly by an external sponsor, postgraduate appointees are entitled to the Official Yale Holidays including recess days each year. Appointees are additionally entitled to 12 business days as paid time off (PTO) during each one-year appointment, prorated for appointments of less than 12 months. PTO does not accrue from one year to the next and is not paid out if unused by the end of an appointment. PTO may be used for vacation, illness, caring for family members, or other personal matters. All PTO should be scheduled in advance with the faculty supervisor when foreseeable, and it is recommended that a written record of time used be maintained. PTO for appointees is tracked by the department. Postgrads are not required to use PTO for educational objectives are part of their academic training, including participation in programming at Yale, graduate and medical school applications and interviews. 

Postgraduate appointees may receive up to nine (9) sick days annually but require medical documentation from a health care provider if an absence exceeds seven (7) consecutive days. Sick time may be used when the appointee is ill, injured, or caring for an ill family member (child, spouse, parent, parent-in law or domestic partner). Sick days do not accrue from one year to the next and are not paid out if unused by the end of an appointment. Appointees who exhaust their sick day allowance and need additional days may use personal days or apply for an unpaid leave of absence. 

If an appointee’s funding source specifies personal days and/or sick time provisions that are more restrictive than those outlined above, the terms of the funding source shall apply. At a minimum, however, an appointee must always receive at least five (5) sick days annually. 

Some postgraduate appointees may qualify for family and medical leave under state and federal law, including state family domestic violence leave. Postgraduate fellows must also follow the external funding source’s policy on leaves. Additional information on eligibility requirements for these leaves may be found on the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs website.

Postgraduate appointees and their spouses or domestic partners are eligible to audit (not for credit and not recorded on a transcript) University courses in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and Yale College during the academic year. Classes audited by postgraduate appointees should be consistent with the appointees’ training objectives. Appointees should discuss their plans with their faculty supervisor to ensure that the coursework does not interfere with research activities. Postgraduate appointees must have the permission of both their mentor and the instructor to audit classes. Each school has additional requirements for course auditing. Information about school-specific policies can be obtained from the dean’s office of each school. Postgraduate appointees may, at the discretion of their mentor and with approval of the course instructor, be allowed to enroll for credit in courses at Yale, for a fee, through the regular admissions procedures, through the Yale College non-degree Special Students Program, the Yale Summer Session, or the Graduate School’s Division of Special Registration. 

An appointee has access to the University’s facilities on terms usual to faculty and staff and is eligible for parking privileges with a limited allocation priority.