++SECTION 1: POSTGRADUATE TEACHERS BRIEFING.

C-SAP has recently completed three surveys exploring the issues facing
postgraduate students in Sociology, Anthropology and Politics who are
teaching in their departments. Responses were received from 44 Politics
departments (survey conducted by Sean McGough in collaboration with the
PSA), 20 Anthropology departments and 20 Sociology departments. The surveys
covered the appointment of postgraduates as TAs (Teaching Assistants),
their training, teaching roles and assessment, as well as their pay and
conditions of employment. The results show how much they are contributing
to departmental teaching loads, and the challenges inherent in Higher
Education's growing reliance on part-time and postgraduate teachers.

Postgraduates in all three disciplines undertake substantial amounts of
undergraduate teaching. For many first-year undergraduates their main
contact with departments is primarily through TAs. In anthropology, for
example, there are more than 200 TAs teaching across the UK at any one
time, equalling the number of full-time teaching staff, and providing a
vital role within departments. The title and status of TAs is far from
uniform, and there are number of different ways they are employed and paid.
The surveys did not attempt to cover part-time teachers who are no longer
registered students, but these are an even more vulnerable group.

Findings from the survey revealed that less than half of Anthropology's
TAs, 60% of Sociology's TAs and 65% of Politics TAs received a formal
contract of employment. There is thus a general uncertainty amongst
postgraduate teachers over their role and status within departments. The
onus is on university institutions to define and clarify these roles,
including their employment rights (e.g. entitlement to holiday pay, pension
schemes and grievance procedures) and their contractual status. Under the
new Fixed-Term Employees Regulations that came into operation in October
2002, institutions are now under a legal obligation to give their
fixed-term employees the same rights as a comparable employee on a
permanent contract.  Informal working arrangements can seem appealing on
both sides, but may sometimes leave TAs vulnerable and unsupported.

There are a number of different categories of part-time and postgraduate
teachers, and the question of definition is key to both enumeration and
status. Should Teaching Assistants be regarded as professional apprentices,
gaining valuable teaching skills that will prepare them for their future
career as anthropologists, or as a pool of vulnerable contract-labour with
no guarantee of an eventual academic post? Time spent in this role is key
to this perception - the argument that the teaching constitutes good
experience for a subsequent academic career becomes less persuasive if a
permanent job does not materialize, and there are rapidly diminishing
rewards for those who teach for more than one year. The aura of
professionalism that surrounds the employment relationship wears thin.

The survey findings underscore the importance of clarity over the duties of
TAs, and the provision of disciplinary-specific rather than generic
training for their teaching role. Support and training for their teaching
role varies widely, and whilst some TAs feel supported and well prepared,
many do not. TAs are keen to develop their teaching skills, but there is a
widespread anxiety over the quality of teaching they provide. Although the
rates of pay varied quite noticeably and there is a general sense that the
rates of pay are not adequate, their main concerns focussed on the
uncertain, minimal position they occupied within the departmental teaching
hierarchy.

In several cases, Heads of Department and TAs in the same department gave
contradictory responses to the same factual question. This shows that
channels of communication are often poor, and the need to ensure that
information gets circulated between department and Teaching Assistants.

The key issue linking many of these findings is the institutional
perceptions and role expectations of Teaching Assistants. Is the job seen
as a valuable chance for postgraduate students to get some informal
teaching experience en route to their academic career, or is it a way of
sub-contracting out teaching in order for institutions to save resources
and lighten the load on full-time staff? Both views are valid, but each
role carries responsibilities for departments and institutions. There is
also the risk that the ideology of professionalism is used to obscure the
inequalities in employment conditions and status hierarchies faced by
hourly-paid teaching staff.

Survey Recommendations for Departments:

*       Define and clearly outline the roles and duties of TAs (including
specific benefits associated directly with teaching and in distinction to
those arising from being a postgraduate student).
*       Issue contracts which clearly set out and explain rates of pay,
additional payments (e.g essay and exam marking), holiday and sickness pay,
grievance procedures and basic employment terms and conditions. *
Establish a clear system of mentoring/ supervising TAs. *       Enhance
provision of training for TAs (notably with departmental training). *
Establish meaningful systems of constructive assessment of TAs. *
Demonstrate through inclusion of TAs in departmental course organisation,
as well as the mentoring and assessment systems, that the role of TAs is
viewed by the department as a valuable part of the department's teaching.
*       TA representatives should be appointed and permitted to attend
specific departmental/institutional meetings. This should be separate from
any Postgraduate representation. *      Consideration requires to be given
to the design and delivery of a suitable national training course that
would require departmental/institutional backing to be successful. *
Establish Professional Practice Guidelines which recognises both the
contribution of TAs to the teaching of the discipline, and their
vulnerability.


For the full briefing and the individual surveys can be found at
http://www.c-sap.bham.ac.uk/anthropology.htm#Postgraduate%20teachers%20survey .

Dr Christine Barry,
Research Fellow,
Centre for the Study of Health, Sickness and Disablement,
Brunel University,
Uxbridge,
Middlesex,
UB8 3PH,
UK.

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