1
Postgraduate Teaching Assistants at UCL
October 2016 (Final Draft)
Introduction
Around 45 percent of current PhD students have performed teaching duties at
University College London.1 With Human Resources mandating that ‘departments
should not employ so many [Postgraduate Teaching Assistants] that undergraduate
students rarely come into contact with permanent staff’, it is possible that a majority
of the teaching in some departments conducted is carried out by these PGTAs.2
The UCLU Postgraduate Association has heard complaints from PhD students
employed in teaching roles for many years, often anecdotal and with an air of
reluctant acceptance. Some PhD students have been told that working for free is
simply a part of their journey into academia.
In 2014, we launched the ‘Fair Play for TAs’ campaign calling for PGTAs to be paid a
fair wage for all hours they work, and to have their rights secured through contractual
employment.
Over the years, we have come to understand the following central grievances with
PGTA recruitment and working conditions:
1. PGTAs are often casual workers, leading to insecurity over medium-term
employment; contracts are infrequent, issued at a departmental level and not
standardised by UCL Human Resources.
2. Research students often have little choice but to accept teaching work,
however poorly paid or recruited, since teaching experience is a vital
prerequisite to a career in academia.
3. PGTAs may need to work longer hours than for which they are paid in order to
deliver a standard of education satisfactory to their students and to their line
manager, who may also be their PhD supervisor. These pressures can come
into direct conflict with a doctoral student’s research commitments, which they
are required to balance with their teaching responsibilities. Poor pay and
working conditions may, therefore, push PGTAs out of academia entirely.
4. The lack of standardisation in PGTA recruitment and training at UCL –
together with a lack of clarity in the expectations made of teaching assistants
by their respective departments through informal or absent contracts – leads
to unfair competition for posts. This is also likely to be a key factor in the
university’s underperformance in the National Student Survey (NSS) and the
Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES). Undergraduate
1 There are approximately 5700 research students at UCL, and 45% of respondents to the Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES) 2015 stated that they had taught or demonstrated during their research programme. 2 http://www.ucl.ac.uk/hr/docs/post_grad_ta_scheme.php
2
satisfaction in 2015 at UCL (86) ranked below the sector average (87) in the
NSS, resulting particularly from poor academic support (76), assessment and
feedback (64) and organisation and management (80) – all key tasks
performed to some degree or another by PGTAs.3 Similarly, in 2015 UCL fell
below the sector average in the number of opportunities to teach and by the
number of PGTAs who felt they had been appropriately and sufficiently
trained and supported; satisfaction in ‘teaching’ therefore stood at 54 percent,
against a 57 percent sector average.4 This area is also UCL’s lowest
performing in the PRES survey.
2016 Survey
In August 2016 we re-launched our campaign and ran two online surveys in an effort
to quantify these problems, totalling 267 responses from PGTAs and a further 157
from other, non-teaching research students. Any evidence of overlap between the
two surveys has been removed, though the smaller survey of 60 responses, being
less comprehensive, was used to a lesser extent than the other. Those research
students who have not taught were asked to specify why, as well the barriers they
have faced in attempting to do so.
These surveys supplied the data for the present report. It should be noted that its
quantitative elements – such as pay per hour and number of hours paid or worked
overtime – are estimates provided by respondents, often in the absence of an official
contract to state otherwise, and may therefore not wholly be accurate. It is used,
rather, to flag up where problems may exist.
Since there is no centralised and available record of PGTAs at UCL, we cannot know
how representative of the population this survey is. Nevertheless, this is an
encouraging coverage.
Selection and Recruitment
Respondents to the surveys held widespread concerns, across the university, that
the recruitment of PGTAs is unfair and lacking in transparency. Human Resources
requires that PGTAs be recruited in line with UCL’s Recruitment and Selection
Policy; of particular relevance here, it mandates:
A job description;
A person specification, detailing existing knowledge, skills and experience
required by the post;
The vacancy to be published in advance and through the online recruitment
portal;
An application to be made with a CV;
3 National Student Survey 2015. 4 Postgraduate Research Experience Survey 2015: http://www.grad.ucl.ac.uk/survey/.
3
No informal meetings to be held with any applicants, unless with all;
An interview panel;
Shortlisting before a decision is agreed upon.
There is widespread evidence that many – and often
all – of these obligations are routinely flouted and
ignored by recruiting departments, leading to unfair
competition for posts and poor safeguarding over the
quality of the education received by undergraduates.
When asked to select whether they would or would not
like to teach, the overwhelming majority (between 87.2 and 94.4 percent) of those
not currently teaching answered that they would; a third (32.8 percent) of
Postgraduate Research students surveyed suggested that they would like to do so
primarily in order to gain teaching experience, presumably for their academic
portfolio. Other reasons stated were that it would be an ‘interesting challenge’ (43.2
percent) and money for living expenses (11.2 percent). 5.6 percent said they had no
interest in teaching.
However, poor recruitment practice was cited as the predominant barrier to working
as a teaching assistant, whether to gain necessary academic experience or
otherwise. A plurality of respondents (41.6 percent) explained their reason for not
currently teaching as there being both a lack of teaching opportunities advertised in
their department. Moreover, a large proportion of those who cited a ‘lack of
opportunities to teach’ may simply have not seen them advertised:
‘Other’ comments (27.6 percent) can be broken down into:
6.6%
1.5%
5.1%
36.5%
41.6%
17.5%
5.8%
9.5%
9.5%
27.0%
I have no interest in teaching or teachingexperience
I have sufficient teaching experience for mycareer
I do not think that I would enjoy teaching
There are a lack of opportunities to teach in mydepartment
I have not seen any teaching opportunitiesadvertised by my department
I do not have the time to teach due to academicwork
I do not have the time to teach due to externalemployment
I do not have time due to other commitments.
I cannot teach at this stage of my course
Other - Please specify
Table 1. What are your main reasons for not currently working as a teaching assistant at UCL? Select all that apply.
“A lot of PGTAs … are picked based
who they know, not on what they
know, which I find fundamentally
unfair – you have to play the system
as it is to get a position.”
4
Selection and recruitment: There is a widespread lack of clarity over the
recruitment process and selection criteria. One student reported that this led
to a ‘lack of confidence’ in their suitability, while others noted instances where
positions were not advertised beyond the lecturer’s class or where they were
reported on too short notice for students to rearrange their diary
responsibilities accordingly.
A lack of support within departments: There were a small number of cases of
students being refused permission to teach, with one student describing their
department as ‘derisory’ of such duties.
A lack of relevant opportunities: Many advertised opportunities are not
relevant to the student’s experience or academic portfolio.
Pay and workload: One student described the pay they had seen advertised
as ‘appalling’, while another expressed concern that teaching would be too
time-consuming for the money advertised.
Access requirements: One student was concerned that the intensive teaching
culture associated with working as a PGTA would be inaccessible to
individuals with requirements relating to health or disabilities.
The PGTA workforce under survey broadly reinforced these concerns over
recruitment. Almost half (48.2 percent) disagree that ‘UCL jobs are openly and
clearly advertised’.
These views were widely vindicated when teaching assistants were asked to specify
how it was that they were recruited to their position:
28.5%
28.9%
35.6%
4.2%
10.2%
1.1%
I asked the department about available jobopportunities
I was personally invited to teach
It was advertised by email in thedepartment/faculty
It was advertised on the UCL website
A friend recommended me
Other (please specify)
Table 2. How did you hear about the job?
5
Only 4.2 percent of vacancies were identified on the UCL website. Central HR
theoretically host a database of PGTA positions, but this does not appear to be used;
moreover, despite 15 percent of respondents earlier in the survey indicating that they
taught in a separate department to that in which they were a student, the evidence
here suggests that the vacancy page provided on the Joint-Faculty Office Intranet is
also very underused as a mechanism to promote inter-departmental teaching:5
As a result, therefore, of the devolved system
of PGTA recruitment, the selection process
operates upon more informal methods and
there are no systems in place to regulate how
students are selected to teach. Only 35.6
percent of teaching assistants heard about
their job through an all-departmental/faculty
email, which itself lends itself to a lack of
transparency. But of greater concern is that
28.9 percent of teaching assistants were
personally invited to teach, and a further 10.2
percent were recommended to perform their tasks by a friend. There is, moreover,
clearly a significant onus on students to nominate themselves pre-emptively for
appointment; currently, those already with some knowledge of how the recruitment
operates within their department are, as a result, more likely to receive a teaching
position than those who are not.
When asked about the specific recruitment processes through current PGTAs were
admitted, the evidence suggests that very few students will have gone through all, if
any, of the main stages in the selection process obligated by UCL HR:
5 The vacancy search form is part of UCL’s job search; the Joint-Faculty page can be accessed at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ah-shs-office/joint-faculty-pgta-vacancies.
85.0%
15.0%
Table 3. Is this the same faculty/department in which you teach?
Yes No
“Students are continuously advised
to ‘ask’ for opportunities, which can
be both intimidating and hard if you
do not know who is responsible for
the teaching in that department… all
teaching opportunities should be
advertised within a centralised
database according to discipline,
subject to a recruitment process like
any other role.”
6
The devolved processes through which PGTAs are
selected for their positions leads to poor and
fragmented recruitment procedures. The lack of
clarity in application procedures prevalent amongst
the wider research student population is vindicated in
the ways in which current teaching assistants have
been recruited; it is neither clear, therefore, that a
student selected to teach in a given area is
appropriate for the position, nor that applicants
interested in teaching have a fair and equal chance
of performing it. Ultimately, the many and varied responsibilities which UCL depends
upon PGTAs to perform are poorly distributed and rationalised, this stemming, it
would seem, predominantly from the poor standardisation of institutional HR
regulations.
Training and Professional Development
As with recruitment, the training of PGTAs is standardised in institutional policy, but
not in practice. UCL HR mandates that:
All PGTAs must attend a three-hour UCL Arena One Gateway Workshop or
an agreed equivalent induction session provided by their Faculty or
Department;6
Faculties are asked also to provide additional support for their PGTAs,
amounting to at least three hours in total in each PGTA’s first year of teaching
and continuing support;
6 This is also required by the UK Quality Assurance Agency (QAA).
60.8%
45.9%
62.1%
28.7%
39.2%
54.1%
37.9%
71.3%
I saw a job description
I saw a person specification
I submitted an application/CV
I attended an interview
Table 4. Did you go through a recruitment process?
Yes No
“I've been turned down
because I've already had
teaching experience, but
also because someone else
had more experience, so the
hiring process is not
transparent, and is not the
same across different
departments.”
7
In particular, faculties or departments should provide guidance relating to
small group teaching, assessment, giving feedback, and, where appropriate,
laboratory supervision;
PGTAs with a substantive teaching role which includes assessment and
feedback should be strongly encouraged to attend the Teaching Associate
Programme (TAP).
There is evidence, however, that few of these obligations are provided for at either
an institutional or faculty level.
It is encouraging that the majority of PGTA students have
attended the Arena One course. Nevertheless, coverage is
conspicuously incomplete; numerous comments to the
survey suggested, moreover, an insufficient quantity of
spaces through Arena One, with some respondents having
applied repeatedly to the course without ever securing a
place.
UCL HR mandates that no research student spend more than 180 hours per week
teaching, amounting to around nine hours per term time week; indeed, respondents
to the survey are paid, on average, for 8.9 hours per week, with an additional 3.8
hours reported as unpaid. Therefore it is concerning that, despite this indicating that
a large majority of teaching assistants work with a ‘substantive teaching role’, only
22.5 percent of PGTAs attended the TAP.
67.5%
22.5%
17.5%
21.5%
27.5%
22.0%
10.0%
15.5%
I attended the UCL Arena One course (three-hoursession provided by CALT)
I attended the extended UCL Arena One TeachingAssociate Programme
I received at least three hours of mentoring orguidance in my first year from either my faculty or
department
My faculty or department gave me guidance onsmall group teaching
My faculty or department gave me guidance onassessment
My faculty or department gave me guidance onproviding feedback
My faculty or department gave me guidance onlaboratory supervision
None of the above
Table 5. What, if any, training did you receive? Tick all that apply.
“It seems like they
do not care if we are
employable in
academia after we
graduate.”
8
The reason for this is unclear. It may be that faculties and departments do not either
adequately advertise the TAP or make it mandatory for those PGTAs most in need of
further training; alternatively, there may be too few places provided by the Centre of
Advanced Leaning and Teaching.
In either case, training is intrinsic to any teaching duty, and UCLU recommends that
PGTAs be paid for all hours occupied in it. Currently, they are not.
Employment and Workload
The vast majority of the PGTA workforce is highly
casualised, leaving research students insecure in
their employment status and workload, and
undergraduate students insecure in their learning.
It is a regulation of UCL HR that PGTAs ‘be
issued with a contract of employment’ of the
appropriate type (whether fixed-term, ‘as and
when’ or otherwise). But, in practice, this is poorly
implemented:
A large minority of PGTAs (43 percent) were not provided with a contract; of those
who were, only around two thirds were informed of the hours that they were
expected to work, whether weekly or otherwise.
This was in spite of the fact that, within those who knew the hours expected of them
on a weekly basis, the average PGTA was paid to work 8.9 hours per week; this is
43.0%
18.0%
39.0%
Table 6. Were you provided with a contract of employment?
No contract Contract not specifying hours Contract specifying hours
“HR in my faculty is an absolute
nightmare. I had several
missed/late payments as did my
colleagues; the administrative
system really makes PGTAs
feel undervalued and abused.
There are many unethical
practices that UCL conducts
with no repercussions. For
example, many PGTA were not
paid following Christmas.”
9
just shy of the nine hours per term time week (180 hours per year) regulated by UCL
as the maximum amount of time that a research student is allowed to teach.
Moreover, PGTAs are responsible for a comprehensive list of tasks:
When accounting for unpaid hours, PGTAs work far in excess of these hours – in
breach both of the institution’s HR policy on maximum teaching hours and that which
mandates all teaching assistants be paid ‘for
contact hours and such time as is necessary for
preparation of teaching material and
assessment of work’.
Almost all PGTAs work unpaid overtime.
Respondents estimated that, on average, they
work 3.8 hours per week beyond what they are
expected to do; that is, 29.8 percent of all the
work carried out by teaching assistants is done so without any pay at all.
69.5%
44.0%
57.5%
29.0%
25.5%
66.5%
16.0%
13.5%
10.0%
4.5%
21.0%
1.5%
25.5%
7.0%
Marking work (including providing writtenfeedback)
Meeting students to give feedback on work
Advising students on assignments
Writing teaching material
Delivering lectures
Leading seminars/tutorial groups
One-on-one or small group language teaching,e.g. oral conversation
Pastoral support (looking after the personal well-being of students)
Transcription/typing/data entry
Non-teaching lab technical duties
Non-teaching administrative work
Library duties
Office hours
Other
Table 7. What tasks did the teaching involve? Tick all that apply.
“If I only ‘worked to rule’ on the
amount of hours I was paid to
prepare for seminars, I would not
be able to prepare them
adequately and most of my time
would be spent doing admin or
giving feedback on written work.”
10
Respondents to the survey were also asked to specify the areas where they most
often worked beyond their paid amount:
In all tasks, therefore, the vast majority of PGTAs did at least some overtime work;
preparation, marking and providing feedback are the most poorly paid areas. It is
also worrying that such a large proportion of teaching assistants were asked to
perform administrative tasks (which do not provide experience in teaching) without
this being specified in their hourly or weekly pay.
The topic of overtime work is even more acute when the
level of official pay is factored in. UCL regulations state
that, at a minimum, PGTAs should be paid at the bottom
spine point of Grade 5 (currently £12.40 with the London
Allowance), with yearly progression.
This base pay is far below almost all other higher
education institutions. A table of this data can be found in Appendix A.
5.1%
11.6%
14.6%
5.6%
11.1%
37.9%
19.2%
25.8%
16.2%
21.7%
27.3%
14.6%
19.2%
16.7%
14.6%
13.6%
18.7%
19.2%
19.7%
23.7%
9.1%
11.6%
8.6%
15.7%
11.6%
6.1%
23.2%
10.6%
25.3%
15.7%
Teaching
Marking
Admin
Preparation
Providing Feedback
Table 8. In order to complete your teaching responsibilities, how often did you have to work beyond the hours you were paid?
N/A Never Rarely Sometimes Often Very often
“PGTA pay should be
standardised across
departments. I earn
13.80 in one department
and 11.80 in another for
the same tasks.”
11
Through these surveys, teaching assistants (whether paid through their stipend or
employed as workers) were asked to specify either the hourly rate they received
from their employers, or to estimate it by dividing their overall pay by their allocated
work hours. This returned an average hourly pay of £14.68.
This puts the ‘real’ average hourly wage at an estimated £10.31.
It is therefore not a surprise that there is
such widespread antipathy to pay from
UCL’s PGTA workforce. A majority (52.7
percent) of those who listed delivering
lectures and/or seminars amongst their
tasks ‘disagreed’ that teaching
opportunities at UCL were fairly paid, a
third of whom ‘strongly’ disagreed.
When accounting for overtime, PGTAs are
paid far below both UCL regulations and
that which would be an accurate reflection
of the importance of the work they carry
out across the institution; a significant number of respondents indicated, indeed, that
they had applied for teaching posts at other universities (including Birkbeck College
and Imperial College London) where pay was far higher.
At UCL, the workload needed in order to carry out departmental teaching duties
would appear, therefore, to be poorly rationalised, to the detriment of both research
students and the undergraduates whom they teach, with an inadequate minimum
base pay.
Departmental Variation
Departments which returned more than five responses were ranked according to
average hourly pay (official and ‘real’, i.e. including unpaid overtime). This can be
seen in Appendix B.
Hourly pay varies drastically across departments, as do the number of included
hours for marking and preparation (and therefore unpaid overtime). The UCL School
of Management in the Engineering is an example of good practice, therefore, paying
both a high enough number of teaching hours to include most preparation and
assessment time, but also providing a strong hourly rate in recognition of the
important responsibilities carried out by PGTAs.
Table 9 records this departmental variation:
“After my funding ran out I took on a
three-day a week job while completing
my PhD and taught at UCL two days a
week. That money amounted to around
£2500 for a whole year, while the three-
day week job amounted to £16,500. The
difference is laughable. On another note,
I was once asked if I wanted to pour
wine at a postgrad department party - I
would be paid £12.14 per hour, the
same rate as teaching. That shows how
undervalued PGTAs are.”
12
Pay Gap – Gender
Overall, our research suggests that, for like-for-like work, female TAs are paid
drastically less than are men at UCL. This is due to the fact that men are paid to
work more hours than women are, and are also paid a higher wage. Women receive
22 percent less than men per paid hour of work, and are also expected to work 3.1
fewer hours per week than men:
£0.00 £5.00 £10.00 £15.00 £20.00 £25.00
UCL School of European Languages,…
UCL Science & Technology Studies
UCL School of Slavonic & East European…
UCL Division of Psychology & Language…
UCL Division of Surgery & Interventional…
UCL Institute of Archaeology
UCL Earth Sciences
UCL Chemistry
UCL Centre for Multidisciplinary &…
UCL Computer Science
UCL Division of Biosciences
UCL Statistical Science
UCL AVERAGE
UCL History
UCL Philosophy
UCL Political Science
UCL School of Management
Table 9. PGTA Pay by Department
Hourly Pay with Overtime (Average) Hourly Pay (Average)
10.7
7.4
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
Men Women
Table 11. Paid Hours Per Week
£16.36
£13.23
£0.00
£2.00
£4.00
£6.00
£8.00
£10.00
£12.00
£14.00
£16.00
£18.00
Men Women
Table 10. Hourly Pay
13
In total, then, we estimate that men take home £173.53 per week, while women
receive £94.13. Women therefore receive only 54 percent of the weekly pay that
men do.
There is also a smaller but nevertheless significant gap in the number of hours
worked overtime and unpaid by men and by women. On average, men work 4.0
hours per week beyond that for which they are paid, while women work 3.7. On the
one hand, this suggests that men are burdened overall with more work than women,
paid or not but, as a proportion of total hours worked, women work a greater amount
of time without pay than men do; 27 percent of the total work men do is without pay,
and 33 percent of women’s.
Accounting for unpaid hours, then, male PGTAs work for an average hourly pay of
£11.88 and women for £8.85 (below the London living wage).
It should be emphasised that the gender pay gap here identified at UCL starkly
contrasts to national trends: according to a 2014 report by the National Union of
Students, there was no difference recorded in the pay received by male and female
teaching assistants across the UK as a whole.
At UCL, hourly pay variation by gender arises from the more general differences in
pay across departments at an institutional level; women are more clustered around
faculties and departments which pay
less, while men are more common in
disciplines which typically offer a higher
base pay grade than is required by
UCL’s central HR policy. For example, all
of our survey’s respondents from the
UCL Division of Psychology and
Language Sciences (official pay of
£13.30) and most from UCL Science and
27.4%
33.1%
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
35.0%
Men Women
Table 13. Proportion of Hours Per Week Unpaid
4.03.7
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
Men Women
Table 12. Hours Worked Unpaid Per Week
“Teaching is under-resourced. Students do
not feel they can expect a response from
course admins about administrative issues
(e.g. marking scheme), so they ask TAs,
who are not told themselves. Lecturers…
are given too many students by the
college, even after protesting. I no longer
wish to pursue a career as a lecturer
after my experiences at UCL.”
14
Technology Studies (£12.60) were women, while all respondents from UCL
Computer Science (£14.95) and all but one from Political Science (£16.40) were
men.
Action therefore is needed to level up any pay divisions and ensure that a policy of
equal pay for equal work is enforced. According to our data, increasing the minimum
base rate from Grade 5 to Grade 6 would halve the gender pay gap, lowering it from
22 percent to 11 percent.
Gendered divisions in pay within departments, as analysed in those with sufficient
respondents, were negligible. Nevertheless, while the data is inconclusive due to the
paucity of respondents, in a number of departments (such as UCL Philosophy, UCL
Chemistry and UCL School of Management), men had been contracted to carry out
significantly more hours of work per week than women, perhaps a factor in the
results shown in table 11.
In order to mitigate the likely of gender discrimination, recruitment procedures need
to be standardised and thereby policies on recruitment and selection better enforced.
Pay Gap – Fee Status
There is also a very significant variation in the pay (both with and without overtime)
in PGTAs by student fee status. The average hourly pay of a UK home citizen is
£15.33, EU citizens £14.10 and international students £13.40; with overtime, these
figures are £10.92 for home citizens, £9.54 for EU citizens and £9.24 for international
students.
As a result, compared with UK home students, EU citizens are paid 8 percent less
and international students 12.6 percent. Accounting for overtime, these proportions
are even more dramatic; EU citizens receive 12.7 percent less than UK home
citizens, and international students 15.4 percent less.
£15.33 £14.10
£13.40
£10.92 £9.54 £9.24
£-
£2.00
£4.00
£6.00
£8.00
£10.00
£12.00
£14.00
£16.00
£18.00
Home EU International
Table 14. PGTA Pay by Fee Status
Hourly Pay Hourly Pay with Overtime
15
It is not clear why this is the case. Increasing the minimum base pay rate from Grade
5 to 6 would reduce the hourly pay gap for international students from 12.7 percent
to 11.6 percent and EU citizens from 8 percent to 5.2 percent.
A large component in the fee status pay gap is therefore a departmental variation, as
with the gender pay gap; but we cannot rule out discrimination as a cause. Most
likely, alongside an increasing minimum base pay, better recruitment standardisation
would soften the pay division and effect barriers to reduce discrimination.
Recommendations
The University and College Union (UCU) has, in conjunction with the NUS, published
a Postgraduate Employment Charter which it encourages all relevant higher
education institutions to adopt.7 Many of UCL’s regulations are already in line with
the Charter; however, the following should be introduced:
A basic, obligatory pay beginning at the bottom of Grade 6 rather than Grade
5, moving the minimum hourly rate from £12.40 to £14.47. While this modest
pay increase would still rank UCL below many of its counterparts, such a
change would halve the gender pay gap, and mitigate that by fee status as
well as the flouting of regulations around paid hours common at a
departmental level.
Hours worked for admin tasks should be paid in line with the minimum hourly
rate, since the current regulations state pay is only mandatory for contact
hours, preparation, teaching and assessment, but not admin work.
PGTAs should be eligible for teaching awards where they are not, as well as
other elements of the professional academic culture enjoyed by full-time
teaching staff (such as membership of UCL staff networks).
All contracts should state that PGTAs have the right to join UCU, being the
recognised teaching trade union on campus.
A PGTA’s line manager should not also be their supervisor, in order to fully
distinguish employment from study.
Payment should be made for all training hours. In line with this, the TAP
should be recommended for all PGTAs whose teaching duties amount to an
agreed number of working hours (e.g. two hours of lectures or five hours in
total), and CALT should dedicate resources to creating more available
spaces in theses courses.
No students should be required to teach as a condition of their stipend.
Teaching assistants in this position have much less power over their
responsibilities than those employed, and are in any case already only a
small proportion of the PGTA workforce.
7 The Postgraduate Employment Charter can be accessed at https://www.ucu.org.uk/postgradcharter.
16
This report has also indicated that many of the regulations already embedded in
UCL’s PGTA scheme are poorly enforced, if at all. On an institutional level, we
recommend that a centralised and standardised system of PGTA recruitment be
introduced at UCL:
A centralised system of recruitment (recruited, naturally, with departmental
participation and according to their needs) would ensure that all students have
a fair chance of receiving employment.
Currently, all students with access/disability requirements may inform Student
Disability Services, allowing for appropriate teaching supervision to be put into
place; however, as employees, a PGTA’s line manager has no access to this
information, and depends on the student to declare it. A more standardised
system would make recruitment and employment practice more inclusive and
introduce more stringent barriers to prevent discrimination.
Mark Crawford
Postgraduate Students’ Officer, UCLU
17
Appendices
Appendix A: Hourly Pay in National Counterparts
18
Counterparts Outside London
Institution Hourly Pay (Exclusive of London Allowance)
Leeds Trinity University (2014) £9.968
University College London £10.84
University of Leicester (2014) £11.20; rises to £37.71 when including additional £9,651 maintenance grant.9
University of Leeds £14.31 for non-demonstrating module assistance, £12.00 for demonstrating10
Bangor University Approximately £20.00 per hour (£25, 296 annual salary rate)11
University of Warwick (2014) £19.73 – £29.3212
University of East Anglia (2014) £56.37 per lecture13
Counterparts Within London
Institution Hourly Pay (Inclusive of London Allowance)
University College London £12.40
School of Oriental and African Studies £15.4814
Queen Mary (2014) £73.44 per lecture15
A number of respondents also suggested that they performed additional teaching tasks at
universities (such as Imperial College London and Birkbeck College) where hourly pay was
significantly higher, but precise figures have not yet been found.
8 https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/huge-variation-in-graduate-teaching-assistants-pay/2012859.article 9 https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/huge-variation-in-graduate-teaching-assistants-pay/2012859.article 10 http://hr.leeds.ac.uk/PG_teaching_assistance 11 https://www.bangor.ac.uk/humanresources/systems/roleprofiles.php.en 12 https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/huge-variation-in-graduate-teaching-assistants-pay/2012859.article 13 https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/huge-variation-in-graduate-teaching-assistants-pay/2012859.article 14https://jobs.soas.ac.uk/fe/tpl_soasnet01.asp?s=4A515F4E5A565B1A&jobid=68073,1236799877&key=22353498&c=237152988372&pagestamp=dboiuupxiruymmoioc 15 https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/huge-variation-in-graduate-teaching-assistants-pay/2012859.article
19
Appendices
Appendix B: 2016 Surveys: Departmental Variation.
20
Faculty Department Paid Hours (Weekly Average)
Unpaid Overtime (Weekly Average)
Proportion of Work Unpaid
Hourly Pay (Average)
Hourly Pay with Overtime (Average)
Arts & Humanities UCL School of European Languages, Culture and Society
5.3 8.1 60.4% £12.50 £4.94
Mathematics & Physical Sciences
UCL Science & Technology Studies 4.2 5.3 55.8% £12.60 £5.57
Social & Historical Sciences UCL School of Slavonic & East European Studies
5.6 5.3 48.6% £13.10 £6.73
Brain Sciences UCL Division of Psychology & Language Sciences
4.4 3.7 45.7% £13.30 £7.22
Medical Sciences UCL Division of Surgery & Interventional Science
9.3 1.5 13.9% £8.70 £7.49
Social & Historical Sciences UCL Institute of Archaeology 7.3 5.6 43.4% £13.90 £7.87
Mathematics & Physical Sciences
UCL Earth Sciences 8.8 4.5 33.8% £12.60 £8.34
Mathematics & Physical Sciences
UCL Chemistry 9.6 3.7 27.8% £11.90 £8.59
Arts & Humanities UCL Centre for Multidisciplinary & Intercultural Inquiry
6.2 2.3 27.1% £12.43 £9.07
Engineering UCL Computer Science 11.6 7.4 38.9% £14.95 £9.13
Life Sciences UCL Division of Biosciences 8.7 2.4 21.6% £12.10 £9.48
Mathematics & Physical Sciences
UCL Statistical Science 5 1.6 24.2% £12.80 £9.70
UCL AVERAGE 8.9 3.8 29.8% £14.68 £10.13
Social & Historical Sciences UCL History 8.2 2.3 21.9% £14.00 £10.93
Arts & Humanities UCL Philosophy 11.8 2.6 18.1% £13.90 £11.39
Social & Historical Sciences UCL Political Science 8.8 3.17 26.5% £16.40 £12.06
Engineering UCL School of Management 9.4 2.2 19.0% £20.40 £16.53
21
Appendices
Appendix C: UCU-NUS Postgraduate Employment Charter
The Employm
ent Rights Act 1996 statesthat you should have a contract w
ith afull statem
ent of your terms and
conditions when you start your job.
Part-time w
orkers have the right to betreated no less favourably thancom
parable workers on full-tim
econtracts. Sim
ilarly, fixed-term em
ployeeshave the right to be treated no lessfavourably than com
parable permanent
employees. This m
eans that you shouldbe paid equal pay to other m
embers of
staff doing work of equal value.
You should also have the same access
to work facilities as other m
embers of
staff including computing facilities,
photocopying and secretarial support. If you don’t and the reason is becauseyou are part-tim
e or fixed-term (or hourly
paid) then you may be able to challenge
your employer.
You should be paid for all hours worked
and you should be provided with
holiday pay.
You should have access to a grievanceprocedure if you need to m
ake a formal
complaint.
Any complaints about you or your w
orkshould be handled in accordance w
ithan agreed disciplinary, capability orprobation policy.
You have the legal right to join a union.
Your employer has a legal responsibility
for the health, welfare and safety of staff
and you should have a safe and healthyw
ork space.
You should not be discriminated against
on the grounds of your sex, sexualorientation, race, disability, age, religionor belief or your m
embership of or
non-mem
bership of a trade union.
As an employee you have the right not
to be unfairly dismissed after tw
o years.If you are m
ade redundant and havew
orked for at least two years you are
entitled to redundancy pay.
of postgraduate students had taught or demonstrated at their
institution during their research programm
e51%
Postgraduate Research Experience Survey 2013
received formal training (only 40%
in clinical medicine)
62%agreed they received appropriate support and guidance, 29%
disagreed57%
2012 Postgraduates who teach survey
Key statsPostgraduate students: know
your employm
ent rights!While the Postgraduate Em
ployment C
harter outlines good practice,being an em
ployee means you have certain specific rights in law
:
of postgraduates that teach at UK H
EIs did not receive ajob description
49%
did not receive a full contract of employm
ent50%
believed that they were receiving an unfair level of pay for their w
ork43%
of postgraduate teachers earn less than the national minim
um w
age in real term
s30%
of postgraduates were expected to teach w
ithout any formal training from
theiruniversity or departm
ent22%
of postgraduates who teach do not receive any feedback from
their students 30%
of postgraduate teachers receive no feedback on their teachingfrom
the module lecturer
50%
of postgraduate teachers have no departmental representation and a further
37% do not know
if they have a representative31%
of postgraduate teachers were either m
embers of a trade
union or were interested in joining one
53%Many postgraduates are “forced” to
teach, regardless of their interest orability, as part of their course, or as aprerequisite for a scholarship or bursary.
Postgraduates teaching in arts andhum
anities subjects are the least happyw
ith their pay: on average, they are onlypaid for one in every three hours w
orked.
Postgraduate
employment
charter
Con
tact
you
r loc
al U
CU
bra
nch
to s
ee if
you
can
wor
k to
geth
er to
lobb
y yo
ur in
stitu
tion
to im
plem
ent t
he P
ostg
radu
ate
Empl
oym
ent C
hart
er
Appr
oach
pos
tgra
duat
es o
n w
hat k
inds
of s
uppo
rt a
nd re
pres
enta
tion
they
are
lack
ing
and
how
they
wou
ld li
ke th
e pr
inci
ples
of t
he C
hart
er to
be
put i
nto
prac
tice.
Toge
ther
with
you
r ins
titut
ion,
UC
U, a
nd p
ostg
radu
ate
stud
ents
, exp
lore
whe
ther
ther
ear
e ef
fect
ive
and
appr
opria
te p
olic
ies
on s
uppo
rt fo
r pos
tgra
duat
es w
ho a
re e
mpl
oyed
by th
e in
stitu
tion
and
for p
ostg
radu
ates
that
teac
h, a
nd s
ugge
st im
prov
emen
ts.
Stud
ents
’ uni
ons
shou
ld e
ncou
rage
pos
tgra
duat
es e
mpl
oyed
by
thei
r ins
titut
ion
to jo
inU
CU
so
that
they
can
be
repr
esen
ted
in e
mpl
oym
ent i
ssue
s th
at a
stu
dent
s’ un
ion
has
less
aut
horit
y or
exp
ertis
e on
.
Post
grad
uate
s in
em
ploy
men
t hav
e th
e rig
ht to
join
a tr
ade
unio
n an
d U
CU
has
the
capa
city
to re
pres
ent e
mpl
oyed
pos
tgra
duat
es if
they
hav
e gr
ieva
nces
and
issu
esre
late
d to
thei
r em
ploy
men
t.
Post
grad
uate
s w
ho a
ren’
t em
ploy
ed b
y th
eir i
nstit
utio
n ca
n jo
in U
CU
as
stud
ent
mem
bers
for F
REE.
Join
ing
UC
U g
ives
you
col
lect
ive
stre
ngth
: UC
U e
xert
s an
impo
rtan
t inf
luen
ce o
nin
stitu
tiona
l and
nat
iona
l hig
her e
duca
tion
polic
y an
d co
nditi
ons
of e
mpl
oym
ent
UC
U fi
ghts
for g
reat
er jo
b se
curit
y fo
r sta
ff on
fixe
d-te
rm a
nd h
ourly
-pai
d co
ntra
cts.
UC
U o
ffer p
rofe
ssio
nal d
evel
opm
ent c
ours
es a
nd d
ownl
oada
ble
reso
urce
s co
verin
g a
rang
e of
topi
cs fo
r pos
tgra
duat
es a
nd e
arly
car
eer r
esea
rche
rs.
Man
y po
stgr
adua
tes
are
activ
ely
invo
lved
in th
eir l
ocal
UC
U b
ranc
hes.
Man
y br
anch
esha
ve a
spe
cific
offi
cer t
o re
pres
ent p
ostg
radu
ate
stud
ents
.
You ca
n join UCU by visitin
g www.ucu.org.uk/join
or by pick
ing up
an
application form
from
your lo
cal U
CU branc
h
For m
ore inform
ation on
pos
tgradu
ate em
plom
ent, visit o
ur web
site:
www.nusconnect.o
rg.uk/campaigns/postgrad
How
students’ unions can use the charter
Why postgraduates should join UCU
Fair, transparent and equitableappointm
ent proceduresPostgraduates should be offered em
ployment opportunities
at their institution though a formal and transparent process.
Positions should be advertised with a job description such
that qualified students are equally able to apply for the role and understand the w
ork that is expected of them. Successful
applicants should receive a contract stating working hours,
amount and regularity of pay, provision for sickness and holiday
leave and the recognised trade union.
A fair rate of pay for all hours w
orkedAll postgraduates w
ho teach should be paid, and this shouldinclude recognition of tim
e spent on preparation, marking,
administration, attending lectures and supporting students.
UC
U recom
mends 2.5 tim
es the hourly rate for every teachinghour, based on a salary spine point in the university pay scale. It should be clear how
payment and taxation processes are
managed and, for international students, how
National
Insurance numbers are obtained.
Com
pulsory teaching and teachingbursariesA postgraduate student should never be forced to teach w
ithoutpay as part of their doctoral program
me, or as a criteria for
receiving a fee waiver or other non-cash bursary. Bursaries or
scholarships which require a student to teach should provide
at least the cash equivalent a student would receive if they w
ereregularly em
ployed to teach, as well as the sam
e employm
entrights and support as those on regular em
ployment contracts.
Supervision or mentoring, line m
anagement,
and review of progress provided by a
suitably qualified staff mem
ber who is not
the research supervisor Postgraduates w
ho teach should be able to raise issues, andseek advice from
, a single academic point of contact w
ho isqualified to supervise postgraduate teaching and w
ho is in a position potentially to provide an academ
ic reference in the future.
Formal and inform
al feedback onperform
ance and support for improvem
entIn the case of postgraduates that teach this should include thefeedback of students and that of a m
ore senior academic
manager or m
entor who has had the opportunity to observe the
postgraduate teaching.
Induction and initial training, and supportfor continuing professional developm
ent In addition to standard training provided by their institution,postgraduate teachers should have an induction into discipline-specific teaching practice and an introduction tocourse m
aterials, teaching methods, m
odes of assessment
and feedback and student complaint procedures. There
should be opportunities to develop specific teaching skills such as teaching students w
ith specific support needs,introduction to pedagogic theories and additional languagesupport for international students. All teaching staff should be able to undertake a nationally accredited course in highereducation teaching.
Representation within the institution
and by a trade union Postgraduates that teach should have representation onteaching and learning com
mittees and/or student-staff liaison
groups at department and faculty or school level. Postgraduates
have the right to be an active mem
ber of a recognised tradeunion and to be represented by that union to their institution.
Integration into the professionalacadem
ic culture Postgraduates in em
ployment should be treated on an equal
basis with academ
ic colleagues and given opportunities toengage as professionals w
ith the teaching culture in theirsubject. For exam
ple, postgraduates who teach should be
eligible for teaching awards.
Access to the necessary facilities andresources required to undertake the role These could include printing and photocopying, use of teachingroom
s, stationery and equipment, offi
ce space, a storage facilityand access to online learning environm
ents.
A reasonable balance betw
eenem
ployment and research
Postgraduates benefit from professional developm
entopportunities offered by w
orking for their institution, but careshould be taken to ensure that em
ployment does not take
precedence over research and successful completion of the
doctoral thesis.
Postgraduate employm
ent charter
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