Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTA)

A teaching assistant is a PGR who helps with teaching in some way, usually in a lab demonstrating some aspects of what needs to be done, helping the students understand it and perform it, and marking the work. Teaching assistants are either paid to do this, or have to do it to fulfil a requirement of their funding.

The term teaching assistant is the Department’s new term for the what we used to call “demonstrators”. So you will still hear the phrase “demonstrator” for a while until people get used to the new term.

In order to become a teaching assistant, you will need to respond to a call for the subjects you know about. This is so we can put the right students in the right labs (there is always a need for TAs to know JAVA). You will also need to take the Graduate Teaching Assistantship course which is put on by the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences.

Leadership in Education Awards Programme (LEAP)

The Leadership in Education Awards Programme (LEAP 1) supports you in documenting and evidencing your teaching excellence, and is an opportunity for you to receive a formal, national qualification for your teaching.

The programme is accredited by AdvanceHE (formerly the Higher Education Academy or HEA) and can award Associate, Fellowship, Senior and Principal HEA Fellowships.

If you join LEAP you’ll be assigned a mentor and a peer support group. You will also have access to a range of online resources and optional support workshops.

1

https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/bmh/ps-activities/training/education/leadership-in-education-awards-programme/