Teaching Assistantships
Teaching Assistantships
Teaching Assistants form an integral part of the Department’s human resources, responsible for the Department’s core mission of undergraduate teaching and learning. The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering hires a limited number of Teaching Assistants annually to support its undergraduate programs. Applicants will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
- mastery of the course academic material
- ability to help students actively learn
- ability to explain subject matter clearly and logically
- ability to effectively lead discussion groups that facilitate student learning
- ability to constructively evaluate student presentations
- ability to effectively assists student learning by enabling different sets of skills, including oral and verbal communications, problem solving, critical thinking, numeracy, teamwork, leadership, planning
Undergraduate student experience and performance is the principal underlying driver for the appointment of Teaching Assistants. Please note that financial need is not part of the evaluation criteria.
DEADLINE: April 30, 2013
Applicants must be full-time graduate students currently registered in the department’s MEng, MASc, or PhD programs, or must have been accepted into one of these programs to begin in September (with no provisional acceptance). Priority for Teaching Assistant appointments will be given to MASc or MEng students who have not exceeded two teaching years and to Ph.D students who have not exceeded four teaching years.
Although the precise duties will vary depending on the course for which an appointment is made, in general they will include duties from one or more of the following types:
Laboratory Assistant – assisting in supervision of electric power, electronics and/or computer laboratory experiments, marking of the laboratory reports.
Tutorial Assistant – assisting in or taking charge of tutorial sessions, marking of assignments, preparing or written solutions, reviewing of assignments with undergraduates
Marking – marking of assignments.
Training (Mandatory) - New TAs and returning TAs who have not participated in the Faculty of Applied Science TA training program must participate in training. The training is designed to help ensure that TAs are successful in their roles.
Be advised that Teaching Assistants at The University of British Columbia (UBC) are represented by the Canadian Union Of Public Employees Local 2278 (CUPE2278) and that a Collective Agreement between UBC and CUPE2278 is in effect. Under this agreement, previously appointed TAs must be given preference over new applicants. Once CUPE 2278 members, i.e., previously appointed TAs have been considered for available positions, new applicants are considered for any remaining positions. All positions are offered on the basis of seniority and merit based on the criteria listed above. Faculty members are responsible for the assessments of merit. Applicants should be aware that generally, not all applicants will be offered Teaching Assistant positions.
Completed applications should be submitted to the ECE Administration Services Office either via postal mail, via fax or via scanned attachment to an email to jobs [at] ece [dot] ubc [dot] ca. Applications will be accepted after the deadline until all positions are filled but, other considerations being equal, candidates who applied by the deadline will be preferred.
Applicants who have already been Teaching Assistants at UBC (CUPE 2278 Members) need only to submit the Application form or send an email to jobs [at] ece [dot] ubc [dot] ca noting that there are no material changes from your previous application. You may complete a new Application Form if there are any changes such as a change of degree program, additional courses to TA, leaves, etc.
Full application instructions are found on the attached application form.
Graduate Students: please note that you should NOT consider Teaching Assistantships as a source for guaranteed income. The Department is not in a position to consider financial need in the process of TA appointments.
