6.1
Senate Guidelines for Appointment of Postgraduate Student Demonstrators/Tutorial Assistants
It is recognised that experience in teaching and assessment contributes significantly to the employability of postgraduate students, therefore the use of postgraduate student Demonstrators/Tutorial Assistants is encouraged subject to the following guidelines:
6.1.1
Only enrolled postgraduate research students should be employed as Demonstrators/Tutorial Assistants.
6.1.2
A postgraduate student must undertake the necessary training offered through Human Resources/SALT/APECS and the Faculty/School/Department before being allowed to undertake demonstrating, teaching, tutorial or assessment duties. Training must be successfully completed and reported to Human Resources before payment for demonstration or tutorial services may be authorised.
6.1.3
In appointing Demonstrators/Tutorial Assistants, Departments must ensure that they have the relevant knowledge, skills and experience to undertake the teaching allocated to them.
6.1.4
A postgraduate student may not undertake demonstrating, tutorial or assessment work, inclusive of preparation time, for more than six hours in any one week.
6.1.5
A Demonstrator/Tutorial Assistant shall normally be used only for teaching undergraduates.
6.1.6
Demonstrators/Tutorial Assistants may contribute freely to demonstrating, tutorials and other support teaching, but would not be expected to contribute to more than 25% of the lecturing on any module.
6.1.7
All Demonstrators/Tutorial Assistants will be assigned a mentor drawn from the academic staff, who may be the module coordinator of the module(s) on which the assistant is teaching. The responsibilities of the mentor will be as follows:
To brief the demonstrator/tutorial assistant on all teaching;
To provide materials or monitor the quality of any materials provided by the Demonstrator/Tutorial Assistant;
To monitor the quality of teaching provision;
To provide marking criteria where the Demonstrator/Tutorial Assistant is used for assessment purposes and to employ quality assurance mechanisms to monitor their involvement in assessment, e.g. moderating of marks;
To review student feedback provided on the Demonstrator/Tutorial Assistant as part of a professional development process.
6.1.8
Any exceptions to the above are subject to the approval of the Chair of the Progression and Awards Board.