Appointments may be made for the full Academic Year (Sept. 1 to May 31) or for either of the regular Academic terms (Sept. 1 to Jan. 15 or Jan. 16 to May 31). Teaching Assistants must be regularly enrolled students pursuing advanced degrees, and all appointments are contingent on being a graduate student in good standing during the period of appointment. All appointees, whether U.S. citizens or not, will need to present evidence of employability meeting current Immigration Service requirements. Renewal of appointments in succeeding terms will be based on past performance, the needs of the Department, and the value of the appointment in the student’s own academic program.
Full-time Teaching Assistants carry a stipend and health insurance, and are accompanied by full tuition awards. Any other required fees are to be paid by the Assistant. Required texts for subjects to which an Assistant is assigned are normally provided by the department. It is occasionally possible to arrange part-time Teaching Assistantships, when suitable teaching assignments are available.
Academic credit for teaching is obtained by registering for 6.9900[6.981], Teaching Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Registration under this number is limited to 24 units per term for a full-time Teaching Assistant. A maximum of 24 units of teaching credit may be used toward the Master’s degree and 72 units may be used toward the Engineer’s degree; a half-time TA equaling or 12 units will satisfy the teaching requirement of the doctoral program. Full-time Teaching Assistants may also register for 27 additional units of classroom and laboratory subjects and thesis, a limit that is strictly enforced. (MEng students may register for 12 units of thesis along with TA credit). Teaching Assistants must not be registered for the subject to which they are assigned as a TA.
Full-time Teaching Assistants are expected to devote effort commensurate with a 24-unit registration in 6.9900[6.981]. Duties may include: student contact in laboratories, problem sessions, tutorials, and individual consultation; grading homework and examinations; attending lectures, recitations, and staff meetings; preparing home problems and laboratory experiments; and individual study of course material. Experienced Assistants may instruct recitation sections when appropriate assignments are available. Assistants must be available for duties in the subject to which they are assigned beginning ten calendar days prior to Registration Day (unless their appointment starts after that date), and must contact their supervisors by that date. They are also expected to be available for proctoring examinations and grading papers after the end of scheduled classes. Except for the ten-day period mentioned above, Assistants will not normally have departmental teaching assignments during IAP, but instead will be expected to make progress in their degree programs.
A Teaching Assistant usually finds that his or her teaching duties and studies leave no time for other employment. If, for some compelling reason, it is necessary to consider an additional obligation, explicit permission must be obtained in advance from the Department’s Education Officer.