Hi

I'm starting my PhD on the 3rd and I received an email yesterday from someone at the university saying that I had been signed up by my supervisor to assist with the first year undergrad lab demonstrations.

Two questions: 1 - Is it usual for supervisors to sign up PhD students for these sort of things automatically? (We did have a brief discussion about it during the interview 6 months ago)

2 - I know they will pay me but does anyone have any idea how much? (I assume it varies depending upon the university anyway)

Thanks

I was told that it is up to you if you want to do lab demonstrations or mark undergrad homework- you don't have to do either if you don't want to. However, i happen to know that it is secretly frowned upon if you don't help out with one or the other, lab demos or marking. So it seems unusual for him to sign you up automatically. Maybe he thinks that's what you want?

I think you get paid per hour, i can't remember how much the postgrads said they were on in the past (couple years ago now) but i think it was in the region of £11 per hour. If you are in the UK near London it would be higher obviously.

It's quite unusual to be signed up automatically for these types of things, and certainly not in the spirit of the PhD to take charge of a students own time-management!

Unless your 'brief discussion' 6 months ago led your supervisor to believe that this is something you wanted to partake in. Why not ask your supervisor if these are mandatory (unless you want to do them, of course, in which case just do them!)?

The pay will vary from university to university, and even from activity to activity. I believe lab demonstrations at my University are around £20 an hour, whereas tutorial sessions, invigilating and marking are probably between £10 and £15 an hour. Not bad for an hour's work to be fair, and can certainly make a considerable boost for your annual income on top of your stipend.

Unfortunately universities also often place a limit on the numbers of hours per week that you can dedicate to such activities, your thesis is more important, afterall. Not entirely sure of the limit, this will probably vary between universities too. Probably no more than 5 or 6 sessions per week.

I think it is very thoughtful of your supervisor to sign you to earn some extra cash, as stipends are fairly low. A few PhD students in my department pay their rent from marking, lecturing etc.

Good luck with your PhD.

Hi well I am about to start my first year of PhD and I have already been signed up to demonstrating in a BMS microbiology class, I assume it's as I am a BMS graduate but don't know tbh! I get ~£12 an hour, then £60-£85 for 4-5 hours of marking of lab scripts.

Cool, I was expecting £6 an hour or something!

It's definitely something I want to do anyway (though they will have to teach me what to do first!), I was just surprised that my supervisor signed me up without asking me first but maybe there was a deadline or something.

Thanks for the replies everyone