I'm interested in knowing what people get paid for being a teaching assistant on a course in their department. My department offer what amounts to £225 for 20 weeks (two terms) teaching/administrative assistance on a masters course. They insist you sit in on the lectures (2 hours per week) + there's a two hour seminar you're expected to attend each week. Plus administrative stuff. They pay only for one hour of this. How ethical is that!?!

Hi my dept pays £44 per 1 hr of teaching a seminar (PhD students only teach seminars here, we have no undergrads) and £22 for 1 hr of office hour. Usually there are 1 or 2 hours of teaching each term week, and one hour of office hour. So per annum pay amounts to £1k to £2k...

Works out less than min wage.

Think I would say thanks but no thanks.
Then get a part time job at a bar.

Of course, if it is teaching experience you are after, then the pay doesn't really come into it ?

I actually think thats appalling pay, and complete exploitation. My place pays £38 per hour, whether its a lecture or seminar, although admin and office hours all come under that, so if you calculate how many hours it takes to prepare that hour (particularly lectures) then its pretty poor. But even so, what you are getting for 20 weeks work is completely unethical. Do you need the experience that much, or can you just say no?

I think my uni is actually being kind! We get £88 for 2 hrs and £22 for an office hour as I said, and it seems this is on the high side? But prep time and student time.... arrgh

Pamplemousse that sounds appalling.

I teach at an art school (not where I study for my PhD) and they pay me approx 34.00 per contact hour for seminars and lectures. For lectures we're given two or three hours, and it's up to the individual lecturer if they want to make the actual lecture that long or not - or you can show visual material.

Also we get extra hours here and there, for things which need no preparation, like tutorials, field trips, i.e. gallery visits which take about 3 hours, and department meetings, which we are paid for at the teaching hourly rate.

We have to mark and carry out admin outside of this.

According to a union rep I know each contact hour carries 2 1/2 hours of work, and that includes the time you spend with the students. So what most of us are being paid contravenes that, but your uni absolutely takes the biscuit!!! I'd say the situation you describe is very unethical indeed. Just depends how much you need the experience!

I get paid £40 per hour for teaching time as a lecturer, but teaching assistants only get between £17-22 per hour, which still leaves your figure looking pretty low