Hi all. I am still applying for a Phd, I wonder about the workload given to PhD students receiving a "studentship" grant. Particularly in the social sciences/business area.

In some uni that I found here they advertise that successful student getting studentships (with fee and stipend) will have "teaching duties up to 5 hours a week in term time".

What does that exactly mean?

Also, will the workload matter whether you are an overseas student or not?

Any sharing is greatly appreciated.

Thanks:)

This clause does appear in the terms and conditions of many studenship and post-doc emloyment contracts. I never had teaching duties enforced, however, this is very much at the discretion of the department and supervisors. Also, department workload may dictate whether such a clause is enforced. I was expected to assisst in safe student use of equipment and maintenance of that equipment.

Teaching duties can mean anything from student project supervision, personal tutor duties, laboratory class supervision up to lecturing. If you intend to follow an academic career, pushing the lecturing angle may be useful.

As regards workload, note for every hour doing laboratory supervision and lecturing, you should add an extra hour preparation time (lecture notes, etc.), so five hours could end up ten hours (a quarter of your week).

I don't think a first year PhD student will be considered ready by most Universities to take on such duties and this is something you may be asked to take on second year onwards. Indeed, if you overrun at the end, teaching duties can provide a useful source of finance.

However, many candidates may choose to keep such duties to a minimum to concentrate on their PhD, a big enough source of stress in itself. A number in my Uni. decided not to push the teaching angle for this very reason.

What Mackem said is pretty much spot on. Just to add a little to it - some colleagues of mine ended up tutoring classes they were not that familiar with (i.e. they hadn't done it for a long time) and had to do loads of revision to get up to scratch. They still were fine, it just took a while. Others managed to find stuff that was at a very low level technically and they had loads of experience in. I reckon you can probably guess who had the better time of it. My point is, if you can, make sure when you do the tutoring or whatever that you teach something you're comfortable with from the off.

Hey DX! When I first started my PhD (Psychology) I was expected to start teaching straight away- I only had to do 2-3 hours per week, but by the time you had prepared for it and factored in the marking, it was a lot more than that. In my first year PhD I was running seminars with another PhD student for second year undergrads, and in my second year PhD I was teaching assistant for my supervisor's third year undergraduate module. I was also supervising MSc projects in my second year PhD. I should have been teaching again this year but my supervisor asked that I was let off on health grounds, as my health is quite variable and she wanted me to concentrate on my PhD. So you might be asked to teach straight away, and in my case I wasn't given any choice in what I was teaching. Sometimes it was a bit of a pain, but I am glad that I have teaching experience under my belt because it might help with job applications later on. Not all studentships/scholarships will require you to do teaching duties, so you'll need to make enquiries if you're not sure. Best, KB

Hi DX,

I'm in my first year of an animal science PhD. I receive a Graduate Teaching Assistant studentship paid for by my College, so part of my work are the teaching related duties (which cover everything from teaching, running practicals, tutoring, marking etc.). My contract states I have to do 6 hours per week, but in general it is a bit more because I quite enjoy it and have noticed that the students appreaciate my extra effort. In my first semester I assisted 1st year degree practicals, in my second semester I ran 1st year biochemistry practicals and tutorials and assisted 2nd year nutrition practicals. Besides the practicals I mark all the biochemistry lab reports and design and mark the quizzes. To top it up I regularly lecture in subjects related to my BSc or MSc and supervised MSc practicals and the practical work of a undergraduate dissertation student.

It sounds like a lot of work, and at times it is, but on average I do 7.5 hours a week, so 1 day per week really. And it's fun :)