General Information

For TA/TMs

Application Process

You'll be getting an email about a month or two before the next semester starts when the online TA application form is posted. The email will include the deadline for your application. You'll indicate which courses you'd be most interested in and also which courses you do not want to TA. Try to choose courses that you know something about, so you won't be overloaded with all the new material and reading you'll have to learn just to mark the assignments! Tutorials are extra course components where you'll usually be expected to create content and basically hold mini-lectures for smaller groups of students. This may also include extra marking. NOTE: Anything with a "W" means "writing intensive". That means a lot of paper marking for you, so make sure your schedule can handle it.

Finally, after the department sends out the final TA positions about a month later, you'll meet with the instructor to go over how many hours of your total contract will be assigned to what component (i.e., how many hours you're expected to mark, and how many will be office hours, etc.)

How to Find Office Space

Ask Iris Lee about office space if your lab or professor doesn’t already have somewhere designated for office hours.

Wages Include Scholarship

Did you just say that my TA wage includes an additional scholarship? Yes we did! On top of your salary, you get an additional scholarship. The amount of this scholarship depends on if you're a Masters or PhD-level student. Click here to see the current wages.

What's a "Base Unit"?

Base units are incremental and based on hours worked. One base unit currently represents 42 hours of work over about 13 weeks of a semester and final exam period. The established formula for all TA and TM assignments in the Psychology Department is: 4 X 1 hour labs or tutorials = 5.17 base units

So, How Many Hours Will I Work?

This depends on if you have a full-time or part-time contract, and what you decide to sign up for. Since all TA/TM/Sessional positions are salaried (meaning you get a set pay for a set amount of hours over the whole semester), you could end up with 210 hours for a full-time position or 105 hours for a part-time position (see above). Where those hours are alloted is up to you and the instructor. Generally, this is what your contract will include:

• Preparation for labs and tutorials
• Attendance at planning/coordinating meetings with instructor
• Attendance at lectures
• Attendance at labs/tutorials (only if the course has these)
• Office hours/emails with students/outside meetings
• Grading
• Quiz prep/exam invigilation
• Stautory holiday compensation