Appendix 1: Policy Guidance on Postgraduate Students (GTAs) Who Teach
Effective from 2024-25 Academic Year
This Policy Guidance outlines the University’s approach to the employment of Postgraduate Students in teaching and teaching-related roles (usually as Graduate Teaching Assistants, or GTAs)1. It is intended as an accessible source of information for GTAs, Heads of School / line managers and other colleagues. The Guidance collates key information from the University’s Extended Workforce Policy (and associated appendices) and from the University’s Code of Practice for GTA Training, Support and Development – each of which contains useful further detail. It provides additional clarification in a number of areas. Practical application may vary in some respects across Schools; however, the Guidance outlines important principles and processes which should be followed to ensure consistent and high-quality practice across the University of Glasgow.
1. Introduction
The University recognises the significant contribution and value that Postgraduate Students make to teaching and learning and seeks to ensure a positive experience for students who teach as well as those who are taught. For the Postgraduate Student, teaching – when undertaken alongside the core programme of research/study – offers the opportunity to acquire valuable experience, training, and personal and professional skills. The role of GTA is a distinctive and valuable one within our broader Extended Workforce and the University is committed to providing a well-defined and supported GTA offer which brings benefits to all parties.
2. Scope, Eligibility and Exemptions
This Policy Guidance applies to registered UofG Postgraduate Research and Postgraduate Taught Students undertaking teaching and teaching-related activities on behalf of the University in defined roles where the level of predicted activity and mutual commitment is sufficient to justify a contract of employment. See Extended Workforce Policy (Section 7), and Grade 6 - Graduate Teaching Assistant . The role of GTA is available to registered UofG Postgraduate Students only; is for up to three years and should normally cease on completion of the programme of research or study at the University.
Exemptions
This guidance does not apply to:
a. Postgraduate Students who are not registered with the University of Glasgow and who are therefore not eligible for GTA roles.
b. Undergraduate students (inc. Demonstrators) registered at the University.
c. Other categories of Extended Workforce teaching and teaching-related employees who are not registered UofG Postgraduate Students and who are therefore not eligible for GTA roles.
d. Work undertaken on a Casual Worker basis, by Postgraduate Students or others, as defined in the Extended Workforce Policy.
3. Principles
The following principles, as detailed in the Code of Practice, should be followed when a GTA is engaged to undertake teaching and teaching-related activities.
- That a GTA is treated fairly, that there is equality of opportunity and there is consistent and equitable approach in respect of recruitment, selection, training, monitoring, and support.
- Learning and teaching-related activities must not detract from a GTA’s main goal of timely and successful completion of their programme of research/study (including within the funded period, where relevant).
- The availability of learning and teaching-related activities will be informed by local pedagogical considerations, as determined by Learning and Teaching colleagues at School level and roles will be allocated through a transparent recruitment process. The amount of activity will vary from year to year and between Colleges and Schools and there is no guarantee of teaching-related opportunities being available.
- Equally, Postgraduate students are not obliged to commit to teaching and teaching-related activities.
- GTAs will be provided with appropriate initial and ongoing training and support to undertake all face-to-face and online learning and teaching-related activities as required.
- GTAs will be paid appropriately for all learning and teaching-related activities and the associated mandatory training they undertake (see Section 7 (Payment) below).
- The duties of the Grade 6 - Graduate Teaching Assistant relate “principally” to “undergraduate level” teaching; GTAs will usually be assigned to teach and/or assess first and second-year i.e. pre-Hons courses. Under no circumstances will GTAs who are postgraduate taught students themselves be assigned to teach on postgraduate taught courses.
- On rare occasions when GTAs might be assigned Hons-level or, exceptionally, PGT marking, please refer to the Code of Practice 4.5 for specific guidance.
- The Grade 6 GTA role allows the GTA to assist with, participate in and contribute to a range of teaching activities. GTAs should not be required to undertake activities that exceed Grade 6 duties and responsibilities (for example, they should not convene or take sole responsibility for the teaching on a course, or independently supervise dissertations, and they should not normally be asked to prepare and deliver lectures).
- GTAs should not have sole responsibility for marking any work or examinations that contribute to a student's final mark in a unit assessment. Marking by GTAs must be second-marked or moderated by sample. For further guidance, see Code of Practice 4.5 and 5.4.
4. Responsibilities
The Extended Workforce Policy and Code of Practice outline the responsibilities of various parties (principally College Graduate Schools and Schools – noting, though, that while “local support may in practice be delegated to the relevant course convenor or head of subject, the School should set responsibilities and maintain an overview”).
Heads of School are accountable for resource planning, for the quality of learning, teaching and student experience, and for the Postgraduate Student Experience. It is thus important that they have ultimate oversight of Postgraduates Who Teach in their School. They should ensure that a 6-month light-touch probation review, is conducted through the University Induction Hub.
Schools that wish to employ GTA colleagues should appoint a GTA Facilitator (usually an academic, who should be allocated an appropriate workload allowance) whose responsibility it is, on behalf of the School, to oversee the implementation of relevant UofG policies and the maintenance of good practice in the employment, training and support of GTAs.
GTA Facilitators will necessarily work closely with the College Graduate School; the Head of School, the College Dean of Graduate Studies; the College Dean of Learning & Teaching; School administrative teams; P&OD colleagues; the ADD team, with programme and course convenors and with GTA mentors (see section 8 below) to provide guidance and to ensure that the provisions of these policies are locally applied.
Schools should also identify a line manager to whom GTAs should refer any questions about their contractual conditions, core training and payment. This should be an academic member of staff within the School. The GTA facilitator should not act in a line management capacity.
5. Recruitment
(see also Code of Practice : Summary of Responsibilities)
Recruitment and Selection is managed at a local level and School Administration should work with their local P&OD team to agree the appropriate contracts and number of hours to offer.
School Administration are responsible for carrying out the pre-employment/right to work checks as per the Home Office Right to Work Checklist (see section 3.5 above).
The recruitment process for GTAs is managed via adverts on People XD. Schools are responsible for ensuring a transparent, fair and timely selection process. Further guidance is provided via Recruitment and Onboarding however the key steps are as follows:
| Process No | Action Required | Details | Actioned By |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Staff Request raised | One staff request per School, per role type is raised via PeopleXD, i.e. one for Graduate Teaching Assistant. | School Administrator or LRC |
| 2 | Staff Request is approved | Vacancy Numbers are provided to the relevant School Administrators. | LRC |
| 3 | Students to apply | School Administrators provide the students with the vacancy number and ask them to apply via the recruitment portal. | School Administrator & Student |
| 4 | Interview | Hiring managers make a decision on who to appoint and inform the School Administrators of the outcome. | Hiring Manager |
| 5 | Students Status updated | School Administrators check if an extension or a new contract is required. If a new contract is required, School Administrators conduct Right To Work checks. School Administrators update the successful candidate’s status on the system and specify the start & end dates and minimum number of hours. | School Administrator |
| 6 | Contracts to be issued | The Onboarding team will identify successful candidates on the system and contracts will be issued via email. | Onboarding Team |
| 7 | Contracts returned | Students return their contract and HMRC form to the Onboarding team who complete the set up. | Student & Onboarding Team |
When recruiting to GTA opportunities, and prior to confirming appointment, Schools should ensure that a GTA:
a) Has obtained a qualification higher than the level they are teaching or has extensive experience and expertise in the field of study.
b) Possesses a good standard of English, equivalent to a minimum of IELTS 6.5, or a higher level where required by the School.
c) Has successfully completed the ILTHE training.
d) Is provided with clear and transparent information on how to submit their claims for payments including details of the approval process and the frequency of payments.
6. Contractual Arrangements
- The GTA contract may be for up to three academic years where possible (two years is more typical and contracts may be shorter based on the individual’s period of study).
- GTA roles will usually commence after the first year of research/study (and in some cases, for example, for accredited PhD programmes, must not commence until this time).
- Colleagues should always be given as much notice (and commitment) as possible in relation to anticipated work (e.g. start dates, timings and duration).
- The number of hours in the contract should be as many as can be confirmed and guaranteed.
- The level of known and anticipated activity – to include time for mandatory training, preparation, delivery, assessment & feedback, required meetings etc, as outlined in Section 7 below, must be sufficient to justify a GTA contract. Thus, in most cases, initial contracts will normally offer between 30 and 45 hours per academic session and will not normally exceed 0.1 FTE (equivalent to ave. 3.5 hours per week).
- Other provisions of the Extended Workforce Policy cover casual hours and other arrangements.
- All contracts will include a clause allowing for the variation of hours in future years (either up or down following consultation with the individual).
- Additional ad-hoc hours may be offered, worked and paid but the aim is to include as many guaranteed hours as possible in the initial contract (subject to any visa restrictions – see below) to deliver a mutual commitment to these.
- In offering additional hours a system must be in place locally to ensure no individual exceeds the maximum number of permitted hours (see note 2 below) in any single week. As below, contract extensions must not go beyond a student’s registration end date.
- For GTAs, the assumption is that staff will work all the hours included in the contract. Holiday entitlement is therefore added to these. This is calculated automatically by the Payroll system based on the hours claimed and holiday is deemed to be accrued and therefore paid in the month the hours are completed. Individuals will see this as a separate item on their pay slips.
- Those involved in the recruitment and management of GTAs must take appropriate steps to ensure compliance with any UKVI restrictions2.
- A GTA contract is conditional on the individual continuing as a registered student at the University, will not be extended beyond the registration period and will cease at the end of the final academic year in which the individual is registered as a UofG student. Any contract extensions (see above) will take this into account.
- People & Organisational Development oversee the contract-end management process and will issue individual notifications of contract-end as per contractual terms and relevant notice periods. Line managers should hold appropriate conversations with colleagues approaching the end of their contract as per the Contract-End Management process.
7. Payment
- Hourly paid employees and workers are paid for hours worked, where there is a requirement for work to be undertaken, subject to prior authorisation and approval by the Head of School/Service.
- Hourly-paid individuals accrue holiday for every hour worked and receive payment in lieu of this via their monthly pay. This is based on a pro-rata entitlement of 32 days annual leave plus any public holidays which fall within the period of the contract.
- Colleagues should be fairly paid for the work that they do, reflecting both the contribution and the time spent on associated activities. For hourly paid colleagues engaged in tutoring and graduate teaching related activities, this includes being paid agreed appropriate time for preparation, administration (including attendance at required meetings) and marking in addition to their teaching or class contact time.
- The table below indicates the amount of time which should be applied to a range of teaching/tutoring and teaching support related activities for which payment should be processed at School/Service level accordingly.
| Type of work | Payment | Comments | Timesheet Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tutoring | 1 hour per hour of tutoring/ teaching contact time. (i.e. actual time) | Based on actual contact time. For online teaching, an expectation will be made by the School that sets out expected time. This is deemed to be equivalent to actual time. |
Basic Hours |
| Mandatory Training/ Training/Formal Meetings |
Actual | For classroom training the time will be as scheduled (i.e. actual time). For online training an allocation will be made based on the expected average time to complete. Schools should identify required meetings and allow time accordingly. |
Basic Hours |
| Preparation | Normally 30 minutes per hour of tutoring/teaching contact time is payable for preparation relating to tutorials. |
|
Preparation |
| Development | Normally 30 minutes per hour of tutoring/teaching contact time is payable for developing a lecture/course/ programme. | This minimum factor may increase for development of an entirely new syllabus or decrease for updating an existing syllabus. | |
| Marking | 1 hour for each hour undertaken on marking and feedback-related activities including examinations, assessments, projects, coursework, essays, etc. | This is a time allocation and should be claimed in line with School instructions. The reasonable expectations of School/College in terms of scripts marked per hour may vary between disciplines and levels of academic work. Hence the number of hours credited is typically linked to the number of scripts (based on an average expected time per script) and not the “actual time” spent. |
Marking |
8. Training and Support
(see Code of Practice Sections 3 – 4)
Training and Induction:
The University provides central training for GTAs and Graduate Demonstrators in the form of a statutory Introduction to Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (ILTHE) programme, run by the Academic & Digital Development (ADD) team3.
Along with other employees, GTAs and Demonstrators are required to complete a range of other mandatory training courses. Before a GTA begins teaching, the School must confirm all mandatory training courses have been completed.
In addition, three hours of paid subject or School-specific training must be provided by Schools. This training should complement the ILTHE programme by covering local processes and expectations and providing an introduction into a local community of teaching.
Schools must provide induction for all postgraduate students who are teaching for the first time and must ensure appropriate and ongoing support, training and development opportunities throughout the period of teaching, including guidance on teaching delivery, on the extent of a GTA’s role in student support and pastoral matters, and instruction in effective and appropriate assessment and feedback (Code of Practice 4.2 – 4.5, 5.2 – 5.4 and relevant marking and moderation policies).
9. Further Development and Evaluation
Schools should provide GTAs with information about opportunities for peer support, networking and further training and development.
GTAs should be given feedback on their teaching via the same mechanisms as other staff and should be provided with opportunities to discuss this feedback. In turn, they should be given opportunity to feed into course evaluations, PSRs etc. (Code of Practice 4.6, 5.2 and 5.5).
GTAs should have the opportunity to raise concerns or issues within their School and for their voice to be heard in relevant decision-making processes (Code of Practice 4.7).
[1] The term Graduate Teaching Assistant replaces the term “PhD Student Tutor” which was in place from 2023-2024.
[2] If the individual is a Visa holder, it must be ensured that they are not scheduled to work more than the number of hours allowed by their visa (typically 20 in any single week but other restrictions can apply). Note that this is not an average and includes all work. Those on such a visa should be asked to sign a declaration stating that they understand any restrictions and that they should raise any concerns accordingly, if for example offered other work elsewhere.
[3] Where an individual’s existing competence in teaching can be clearly demonstrated (e.g. appropriate prior accreditation or experience), they may apply to ADD for exemption from certain elements of the courses (this is not guaranteed).