Just wondered if any of you were teaching (GTA for example) whilst doing your PhD, and how you're finding it.

I've been short-listed for a GTA post which involves 6h of teaching per week. The job sounds good, and the prospect of being fully funded and getting some teaching experience at Uni level is quite appealing but taking into consideration prep time, marking, assessing...I was wondering whether it wouldn't be too much to take on on top of a PhD - not that I've actually been offered the post yet, I'm jumping the gun a bit but wanted to have some feedback from people who've managed it.

6 hours a week is quite a lot when you factor in the preparation. Personally, I think it's too much in addition to a full-time PhD. Lots of lecturers teach for 6/7 hrs a week - so you are on par with their teaching load.

My brother was teaching for 4/5 hours a week when starting he PhD, and his prep took him up to about 20 hrs a week. He eventually quit as he decided he was being ripped off and earning less than the min. wage per hr.

On the plus side, it is great way to get teaching experience.
But basically, it's very cheap labour for the university.

Hi- I did about three or four hours a week, and to be honest the prep does take up a lot of time and did affect my research (maybe 2 hours would have been about right..). But then again it does look good on your cv- money was ok too!

Thanks for your replies: they confirmed my worries about the workload and time spent on preparation and resources. I know it looks good on the CV though...I'll just have to wait and see whether they actually offer it to me first!!

i think the question you need to ask is, would you be teaching 6 different topics, or one topic to 6 different class groups? cause that makes a significant difference to prep time! (or, 2 topics to 3 class groups each...)
i taught 2h this year, two groups of the same topic. i found prep time to be not a real issue at all. i went to the lecture (1h), i discussed the topic with my fellow class teachers (45min), did the reading (time varying), and put together a plan for the class (15min). sometimes i made a handout or a short powerpoint or quiz, that would take me an extra ca. 15 min.
however, i found the essay marking to be brutal. one batch of essays (25) took me about 10 full working days to get through (i was not the fastest, but tried to make comments that would be at least minimally useful).

so the next question is: does your post involve (formative) essay marking? if yes, how many essays per student, and how many students in those 6 hours, or in short, how many essays of which length, in total? that's what you need to consider, i'd say, and perhaps negotiate extra pay for the marking.

Thank you for your reply Shani. The set-up, as I understand it, is that it'll be 2 teaching blocks of 3 hours each with 20 students max in each session (evening classes).

By the looks of it the GTA is expected to come up with all their own resources and not all classes are equipped with a projector or even an OHP. I'm worried that (if I do get it that is, and that's a big IF...) I'd have to spend ages producing resources from scratch and come up with my own assessment criteria, so it'll effectively be a lecturer's job without the salary (although the stipend is reasonable) and a PhD on top.

On the other hand, the fees would be waived and the stipend really isn't bad. If only I could get my hands on a studentship...

During semester time I am contracted to do 6 hrs per week teaching, and to be honest it actually varied from 2hrs to 12 hrs. However as others have suggested some of my subjects were tied together such as EU law to both 2nd year and hons year groups, constitutional law to 2nd years and Administrative law to Hons year. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a big workload - BUT remember that semester time is only around 10-12 weeks at a time, so a total of 20 - 24 weeks per year. I've found the balance between focusing purely on the research for a few months in the summer, and combined with teaching during semester to actually be beneficial overall as you don't get utterly sick of your own subject!

I too am a GTA and the main issue I have come across is that I did my undergrad in a (very) different university to the one in which I am doing a PhD. The courses I am expected to teach are things that I am totally unfamiliar with, and as such the prep is a huge workload. If you actually want to be an effective tutor (rather than just go through the motions) it is a heavy workload, and I do have more contact time - and more assessment - than many of the full-time staff. Whereas their admin duties are part of their workload balancing, mine isn't and its tough. Also, marking 100+ essays in the 2 week turnaround my uni expects is horrific, you lose a full 2 weeks of research time, plus you are exhausted at the end. Then you have a dozen or so students who hand in late - sometimes legitimately, so it actually takes up 4 weeks, twice a year, so two months of research time has gone to assessment... rubbish!!

thanks all for sharing your experiences. I find out today whether or not I've got it and part of me is hoping I won't - I've thought about it a lot and I think I'd rather concentrate on the PhD for now. Thing is I also have a young family and I'm worried it'll be unwanted added pressure for myself and my partner.

I'm also worried I'd be burning bridges if I did get it and refused it.
Admittedly I do waste an incredible amount of time worrying about anything at the mo!!!!