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.

More information can be found at

Payment for GTA contracts

As a GTA you hold a contract to work a specified number of hours over Semester 1. To provide GTAs with regular payments, payment will be made equally across the four months in Semester 1 - October to January.

Why have we amended the approach?

We completed a review of last year’s GTA processes and recognise that payments were complicated and prompted lots of queries, please accept our apologies for this. In response, we have updated the functionality on the GTA portal to provide an overview of hours (worked and contracted) and changed the approach to requesting to work over the contracted number of hours. This change will reduce the occurrence of overpayments related to the profile of work conducted over the semester.

What do you need to do?

Each month all GTAs need to confirm the hours worked using the GTA portal. When accessing the portal, GTAs will see the total number of hours contracted to work, displayed against assigned course units. Each time you are asked to work by the course unit lead, please review the hours worked against the hours you have been contracted to work, to determine if working will take you over the total number of hours. Please note – any additional work above the total contracted hours for the semester must be discussed with the course unit lead and they must confirm this has been approved, before carrying out work and submission of hours to the portal.

Additional hours

If additional hours are approved (approval will be provided by the department GTA lead), the number of hours shown against the assigned course unit will be updated and these hours should be entered onto the portal. If the hours have not been updated you will not be able to enter additional hours worked. Please note, to support PGR progression, workload and wellbeing, the total number of hours an FSE GTA can work in a semester is capped at 120 hours.

Working below the contracted number of hours

Working below the contracted hours will result in an overpayment, if this is likely to occur the FSE GTA operations team will contact you to discuss. There are a few options available should this occur, examples include, carrying out additional work, (could be related to the unit or to support other activity); agreeing on a repayment plan; deduction from further contracts in semester 2.

Support with cost-of-living pressures

To support colleagues with the cost-of-living pressures, Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) pay will be adjusted to start the pay spine at one point higher, the equivalent of around a 3% increase. Further information can be found at the Support with cost-of-living pressures pages

Note

You can contact the GTA Ops Team Directly.

Public Engagement and STEM ambassadors

The Department is very involved in “public engagement”, which means promoting science and computer science to the general public. Our Department is particularly involved in two areas. The first is promoting computing in schools. The second is working with the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) to promote science in science fairs and events. MOSI provides training to scientists and science PGRs in public engagement by qualifying them as “STEM ambassadors” (STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). As a PGR, you should take the opportunity to get trained as a STEM ambassador and to participate in public engagement events. The School’s public engagement are run by Dr. Giles Reger 1.

Leadership in Education Awards Programme (LEAP)

The Leadership in Education Awards Programme (LEAP 2) 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.