Teaching Affiliates – Guidance for Casual Engagement

Version 1.2

Last amended: 02/08/2016

Faculty of Arts

Teaching Affiliates – Guidance for Casual Engagements (v1.2; 2/8/16)

1.Teaching Affiliates

Teaching Affiliates in Schools/Departments in the Faculty of Arts[1]are engaged to deliver modules under supervision.They will manage their own teaching activity and reflect on practice and development of skills. Teaching Affiliates are requiredto have an understanding and knowledge of their subject/discipline gained through a degree or equivalent qualification. A Teaching Affiliate’s specific duties include (but are not limited to):

  • Administration
  • Preparation
  • Teaching
  • Assessment

As per the Faculty Code of Practice on working with Teaching Affiliate Colleagues, a convenor should set preparation work that corresponds appropriately to the time paid (one hour per contact hour; no preparation payment for a repeat delivery, e.g. second or third seminar group in a week for the same module). The preparation allowance includes time for oral or written communication between the TA and convenor about the structure and content of the seminar, particular areas of focus, or for the TA to plan approaches and questions that might stimulate discussion. While this preparation allowance might include time for some basic preliminary reading, it does not constitute payment for reading a whole text or body of literature, and this should be considered both at the stage that a TA is appointed and when the convenor is setting preparation work.

2.Rate of Pay

The skills, qualifications and/or experience of someone engaged to teach on a casual basis have no bearing on the rate of pay.

Rates of pay are benchmarked against the University’s salary scale at the first point of the appropriate level. Teaching Affiliates will initially fall within the Research & Teaching job family at level 4a. If however the Head of Department/Section considers that more than 50% of the work allocated to a Teaching Affiliate sits within level 4, the HoD may pay the level 4 rate following approval from the Head of School.

Teaching Affiliates teaching evening language classes will be paid a level 4 rate for their teaching. This rate accounts for the level of autonomy required to administer and teach these classes.

PhD supervision work will be paid at level 5 rate.

Please find current rates of pay in the ‘Casual staff – Rates of Pay’ document. These pay rates will reviewed each year.

3.Teaching norms

The Faculty of Arts teaching norms outline the amount of time which will be paid to Teaching Affiliates for completing each individual activity. Please contact the Faculty Manager if a teaching activity is not listed.

4.Travel expenses

Travel expenses and parking permits for casual engagement staff (excluding Visiting/Guest Lecturers) are paid in exceptional circumstances only, after approval from the Dean of the Faculty, granted in advance of the casual engagement. Approval process: the member of staff wishing to pay the travel expenses should email a brief rationale to the Dean. No action should be taken until a response is received.

5.Expression of Interest

Anyone interested in working as a Teaching Affiliate is required to submit an Expression of Interest (EoI) along with their CV to the relevant Head of Department/Section or the Teaching Affiliate Co-ordinator (School of English only).If the prospective Teaching Affiliate is a PhD student, this form must be signed by a supervisor to indicate his/her approval of the EoI.

It is vital for the Teaching Affiliate to write his/her full name on the Expression of Interest form and also to provide both the University of Nottingham email address (if they have one) and a personal email address. This will ensure the School is able to contact the individual.

6.Interview

Those considered to have the appropriate qualifications/knowledge to teach will be invited to interview by the Head of Department/Section or Teaching Affiliate Co-ordination (School of English only). Once the interview has taken place the School Office will inform the individualof the outcome.

7.Pool of casual staff

Teaching Affiliates successful at interview will be put into a casual staff pool for five years subject to satisfactory performance. When in the pool, Teaching Affiliates are not required to re-interview in order to take on a casual assignment. Those in the pool of casual staff have no obligation to be available for work, nor does the University have an obligation to provide work.

8.Engagement

Casual engagements of students are subject registration status and satisfactory academic performance. An assignment will not be offered where academic performance is not satisfactory and will cease with immediate effect where study is suspended either by the University or the student opting for Voluntary Interruption of Study, for example.

A Teaching Affiliate’s casual engagement will be administered by the University’s HR Department, located on the King’s Meadow Campus.

Once you have been offered a teaching assignment, you will need to register with HR by completing an online registration form and visit your School Office to present your eligibility to work in the UK documents (e.g. passport). To complete your registration HR will contact you to request your bank details. HR will then conform your registration is complete by issuing a payroll and casual assignment number. Unless you have a payroll number we will not be able to arrange payment.

Finally, your School Office will send you a letter of engagement confirming the details of the casual engagement.

9.Self-employment

Self-employed individuals will be paid on receipt of invoice in line with University practice and timescales. However, that an individual is registered for self-employment does not mean the engagement with the University is one of self-employment. Please speak to the School Office who will submit a non-employment status application form to HR for secondary assessment and authorisation.

10.Casual assignment

A Teaching Affiliate’s casual assignment consists of administration, preparation, teaching and assessment on an established module. If a Teaching Affiliate has been given work on two or more modulesthe work will be presented as separate casual assignments.

If the Teaching Affiliate is a student then the Head of Department/Section is required to gain the approval of the individual’s supervisor once hours have been calculated to ensure that the casual work will not interfere with the student’s study.

If changes are made during the semester to the casual assignment the Head of Department/Section is responsible for communicating this with the Teaching Affiliate and to the School Office. The School Office will then make the amendments to the casual assignment and inform the Teaching Affiliate of the changes to the total number of claimable hours.

11.Evaluation of teaching

Teaching Affiliates will be assessed once in each year they are given a casual assignment. They will be assessed in two ways: teaching observation and Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET). This assessment will determine whether the casual worker is working to an appropriate standard and to define any areas where improvement and development is needed.

12.Claiming payment

A.Payment for teaching(e.g. seminars, convening, office hours, UG/PGT supervision; see table below for complete list) will be spread equally over the number of months you are working, e.g. four for Autumn semester, five for Spring semester and nine for a full academic year. You need to visit the School Office to sign this payment schedule, after which you do not need to claim for this work. However, you are required to submit a weekly online timesheet to confirm hours worked (links below).

Casual Engagement Timesheets:

  • CLAS:
  • English:
  • Archaeology, Classics and Philosophy:
  • Humanities:
  • History,History of Art and Theology and Religious Studies:
  • Music:

B. Payment for other activities (e.g. assessment, MRes/PhD Supervision; see table below for complete list) needs to be claimed each month by completing a PAY01 form and submitting it to your School Office.

Payment is made on the penultimate working day of the month. The School Office will monitor the hours claimed by the Teaching Affiliate.

Teaching Affiliates are allocated an agreed amount of time to complete each activity. A Teaching Affiliate needs to complete a claim for some of this activity using the PAY01, with other activity covered by the schedule signed at the start of the assignment. See below for advice on claiming for individual activity. Please note that you are able to use the Casual Assignment Calculator to calculate these amounts.

Activity / Claim guidance
Admin
Module convening / 10 hours per module / Included in payment schedule
Office hour / Per hour in office / Included in schedule for each office hour agreed in the casual assignment letter
Induction / Per hour of attendance at level 4a rate / Claim via PAY01 at a level 4a rate
Preparation
Existing lecture / 2 hours per 1 hour delivery / Included in schedule, two preparation hours for each hour of delivery
New lecture / 5 hours per 1 hour delivery / Included in schedule, five preparation hours for each hour of delivery
Seminar (including language classes) / 1 hour per 1 hour for a series of session delivery. Subsequent repeat sessions of the seminar with other groups are covered by the initial preparation so delivery time only is paid for repeat sessions. / Included in schedule, one preparation hour per hour of first delivery
DL module / 5 hours per student on completion of module / Claim via PAY01
Delivery
e.g. lecture, seminar, instrumental tuition / Per hour of delivery / Included in schedule
Assessment
Coursework/dissertation marking / Per item: 10 minutes fixed allocation plus 10 minutes per 1,000 words pro rata (i.e. 1 minute per 100 words) / Claim via PAY01
Evening Language Class assessment / One-off payment: 20 minutes (class fewer than 20)/30 minutes (class 20+) per attendee / Included in schedule, paid in addition to delivery time
Exam marking / Per exam: 5 minutes fixed allocation plus 10 minutes pro rata per hour of exam / Claim via PAY01
In-class exam / 10 minutes per student / Claim via PAY01
Language in-class test / 10 minutes per test / Claim via PAY01
Presentation (solo) / 15 minutes per presentation / Claim via PAY01
Presentation (group) / 20 minutes per presentation / Claim via PAY01
Supervision
MA/MSc dissertation / 5 hrs per student fte pro rata supervisor % / Included in schedule
MRes / 55 hours per student fte pro rata supervisor % / Included in schedule
PhD / 80 hours per student fte pro rata supervisor % / Claim via PAY01
PhD (thesis pending) / 40 hours per student fte pro rata supervisor % / Claim via PAY01
UG dissertation / 5 hrs per student fte pro rata supervisor % / Included in schedule
Other
Exam board / Per hour of attendance / Claim via PAY01

13.Engagement procedure

  1. Sendan Expression of Interest formas above.
  2. Attend interview as above.
  3. Successful candidates will be advised they have been put into the pool of casual staff.
  4. Register with HR, provide HR bank details and provide eligibility to work in the UK documents.
  5. Once work has been agreed you will receive details of your casual assignment.
  6. Sign schedule of payment for relevant teaching activities – see above.
  7. Complete weekly timesheet – see above.
  8. Claim payment using PAY01 for other activities – see above.

1

[1] School of English, School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies (American and Canadian Studies; Culture, Film and Media; French; German; Language Centre; Russian and Slavonic; Spanish and Latin American) and School of Humanities (Archaeology; Art History; Classics; History; Music; Philosophy; Theology and Religious Studies)