Teaching opportunities may be available to help PhD students gain valuable experience. This can be beneficial in terms of career development, and provides a chance for you to share your enthusiasm and passion for your subject. If your supervisor believes that the position can be undertaken without detriment to the research programme in progress, you may be provided with the opportunity to do some teaching. For guidance on department employment visit this page. Students are informed of any teaching opportunities before the start of the academic year.
All teaching activities by postgraduate research students must be approved by the Department. This is usually done by the Departmental Administrator who approaches postgraduates via the PGR Tutors and/or module convenors. It is important that research students restrict their teaching activities to the number of hours for which they receive remuneration. Payments will recognise class contact time, preparation and marking, and payment rates will be announced at the beginning of each academic year.
Research students invited to assist in teaching should note the following points. They may:
Decline to accept the invitation.
Accept only a limited number of hours.
Acceptance of a teaching or assessment role will require attendance at appropriate training sessions and may require attendance at Examination Boards at the end of a semester. Research funding organisations, notably the Research Councils, impose a limit of 180 hours teaching, preparation and marking time per research student in any one year. Students are advised to discuss teaching opportunities with their supervisors in order to ensure any additional workload you take on is not detrimental to the progression of your PhD.
Training for Graduate Teaching Assistants
The University runs Sheffield Teaching Assistant workshops, which are open to anyone who has, or is likely to have, teaching responsibility during their time here. The workshops last 2-3 hours, and you can sign up through myDevelopment. After completing the STA workshops, you can get a certificate of attendance, add it to your DDP as proof of professional development, and even put it towards more formal professional recognition with the Higher Education Academy.
Find out more information about the Sheffield Teaching Assistant scheme here.
The Department recognises the financial difficulties that research students may face during their period of study and realises that many students may need to undertake part-time work. Students must not, under any circumstances, undertake full-time work, and they must always seek permission if they need to be absent from Sheffield for any period of time.