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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

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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/.

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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.”

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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.”

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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.”

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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.”

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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.”

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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.”

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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.”

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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

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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.”

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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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