Teaching Assistantships

Teaching Assistantships (“TAships”) are Academic Student Employee positions reserved for current enrolled students. All TAships are awarded as a percent of full-time, with 50% TAships being the most common: the percentage refers to the percent of a full-time 40-hour week worked, meaning a 50% TAship would be equivalent to 20 hours per week for 11 weeks, with the understanding that some weeks may have more hours than others, but the total for a quarter should not exceed 220 hours.

There are three types of Academic Student Employment teaching positions:

Teaching Assistantships: students assist the Instructor of Record with duties as delineated in the position description, and may include assisting with teaching duties in a laboratory environment, grading homework and exams, and/or holding office hours.
Readerships: students only assist with grading, and have no student contact
Associate Instructors: post-candidacy students with demonstrated teaching experience who teach the course under the oversight of the Instructor of Record

Any appointment greater than 25% (=10 hours/week) comes with the benefit of fee remission, which includes in-state tuition and health insurance, minus a small charge of $188.26. TA fee remission does not include Non-Resident Tuition Remission (NRST).

For more details, please refer to the Graduate Studies Student Academic Employment and Appointments page.

The eight graduate groups in the College of Biological Sciences do not award or have access to teaching assist; these are awarded by individual academic departments. Each department on campus has its own procedures for the recruitment and hiring of their TAs, and students in any program are authorized to serve as a TA for any department, if selected. Students seeking TAships are encouraged to approach any department they feel qualified to TA for.