Teaching opportunities

Applying for Teaching Assistant (TA) and marking opportunities

A Teaching Assistant (TA) is a person employed to provide teaching and learning support to academic staff.

In order to become a TA, you must first apply to the TA pool for the School you wish to teach in.

There are numerous Schools within the Faculty of Humanities, and each will have its own TA pool.

To apply, complete the SEED TA pool application form. You must apply to the pool for each academic year you wish to teach in.

In addition to applying for the TA pool, to be eligible to be offered teaching:

• You must receive support from your PhD supervisor for your TA pool application. Supervisor support is required every academic year you apply as a TA, even if you have a bursary or you were registered as a TA during the previous academic year.
• You must complete a Faculty/School TA training programme. If you apply to the TA pool and have not yet completed training, you will be invited to do so. You are only required to complete TA training once, not every year.

Please note that successfully applying to the TA pool does not guarantee that you will be offered teaching.

It is important that you do not undertake any teaching or marking without receiving a letter of intent from your School. Without this, you cannot receive payment.

A contract will be issued by People and Organisational Development within eight weeks of commencing duties. 

The contract will contain information about general terms and conditions and will make reference to the letter of intent. 

More information can be found in the SEED TA handbook.

All queries relating to TA applications should be sent to seedteachingassistants@manchester.ac.uk, which is monitored regularly.

Further information is also available on the Faculty Teaching Assistant Hub.

Leadership in Education Awards Programme (LEAP)

The Leadership in Education Awards Programme (LEAP) supports you in documenting and evidencing your teaching excellence and is an opportunity for you to receive a formal, national qualification for your teaching.

The programme is accredited by AdvanceHE (formerly the Higher Education Academy) and can award Associate, Fellowship, Senior, and Principal HEA Fellowships.