Priority System for TA Appointments
The department hires qualified applicants to fill TA positions in accordance with Article XIII F of the SFU-TSSU Collective Agreeement using the following priority system:
- Qualified graduate students registered in the department.
- Qualified SFU graduate students registered in other departments.
- Qualified SFU undergraduate students or external applicants.
When the principles above have been applied and a choice must be made between two candidates of otherwise equal priority, the department considers the following:
- Departmental funding commitments
- Applicants' preferences as to assignment (both in terms of total base units and particular course or work load)
- Efficient use of departmental TA resources
- Communication skills - particularly English language skills
- Instructor preferences
- Balancing the total numbers of base units across applicants
- TA's employment evaluations
- Availability of other sources of funding
As required by the Collective Agreement, if an assignment within a priority group requires a selection between applicants, the graduate student without financial support from merit-based scholarships or fellowships with a value equal to at least 5.17 base units during the semester of appointment will have priority for the appointment.
Appointments to "Qualified SFU undergraduate students or external applicants" will be made only after all qualified graduate students have had their priority satisfied as described in the collective agreement. For such candidates we consider, in addition to the factors listed above, the discipline in which the candidate has had formal training and its relation to the specific opportunity being considered. Preference will be given to candidates with formal training in actuarial science or statistics.
All appointments will be made in keeping with the Collective Agreement. Please refer in particular to Article XIII Sections F and H. As outlined above, the criteria for all appointments include past performance as a TA and subject matter competency. A negative TA evaluation is considered unsatisfactory performance and will normally result in a candidate's not being appointed again.
Updated January 2021