Assistantships

Teaching Assistantships (TA) positions are available to both undergraduate and graduate students in the Department of Asian Studies.

Roles and responsibilities

TA positions are paid jobs and demand a level of professionalism, responsibility and accountability. Typical duties include:

  • Prepare course materials and/or participate in class instruction
  • Lead discussion sections, tutorials and review sections
  • Keep class records
  • Set, mark and provide feedback on examinations, tests and assignments
  • Hold office hours
  • Invigilate exams and assist instructors to conduct oral exams
  • Manage and maintain a website as well as the learning management system
  • Duplicate materials
  • Order and obtain AV equipment
  • Demonstrate procedures or set up demonstrations
  • Prepare and present a lecture during the term

Application Procedures

For each Winter or Summer session, job openings are posted and all students are informed by an email. Interested students need to fill out an application form, collect supervisor’s signatures and submit them to the Graduate Program Assistant. We take student preferences to work for a specific course into consideration, but we cannot satisfy every request.

Teaching and research assistantships FAQs

TAs must ensure that they do not have a time conflict between their own courses and their TA assignment course. TAs must be available to attend, if necessary, all sessions of the lecture course they are assigned to. Expectations vary by course and should be discussed with the course’s instructor.

TA assignments begin on the first day of term and continue through the exam period, as required by the course instructor.

Graduate Teaching Assistant I (Doctoral) or equivalent: $33.10/hour

Graduate Teaching Assistant II (Masters) or equivalent: $31.85/hour

Undergraduate Teaching Assistant (UTA1): $17.79/hour

In consultation with the course instructor, TAs must be available to attend any lectures required, to hold office hours, and to conduct other duties that require their presence on campus.

Any relevant experience should be noted. This may include tutoring, mentoring, and/or leadership experience. If you have worked as a TA at another institution or as an undergraduate, this information should also be highlighted.

  1. Attend all orientation sessions provided for TAs.
  2. Take an instructional skills/teaching workshop. (See UBC’s Centre for Teaching Learning & Technology for details.).
  3. Graduate Pathways to Success Program workshops offered by the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.

If appointed, you will need to submit/take the following as a PDF to the relevant email address:

  1. Signed appointment letter
  2. CUPE local 2278 dues deduction form (Link to form)
  3. Direct deposit form (link to form)
  4. Privacy and information security training certificate
  5. Workplace bullying and harassment training certificate
  6. Workload summary form (link to form)

Research Assistantships

Students need to discuss availability for research assistantships with professors in the field of study.

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