"Institution" on submission for a former student between jobs I'm about to submit a paper where one of the authors is a past student who got a master's degree at my university a few months ago (I was his advisor). He plans to apply for PhD positions at the next deadline, but is presently unemployed. What should we write on the manuscript for his institution? &quot;Master's graduate, previously at XXX University&quot;? &quot;Former student at XXX University&quot; (this doesn't specify that he actually got a degree, though)? The dreaded &quot;Independent researcher&quot;?
Whenever I co-write a paper with former students of mine, based on their MSc thesis, we typically put XXX University as affiliation of both the student and me. The bulk of the work has been done when both of us were affiliated with this university, so this seems appropriate. The fact that the student is no longer affiliated with the university seems of minor importance to me.
Does the venue to which you submit demand that you specify the role of each author? If not, I'd just let it be. If so, consider &quot;MSc alumnus&quot;, substituting the appropriate title for &quot;MSc&quot;.