Department of Engineering
Job Specifications
Teaching Assistants in Engineering
Summary
The Department of Engineering recruits Teaching Assistants (TAs) to support its teaching activities.
TAs form a vital part of the teaching team in Engineering with major responsibilities for providing
high quality teaching support and guidance to students; typically in practical small group activities.
TAs work under the supervision of Academic Leads in each area, who define their activities for
each session in which they are required. The variety of teaching in Engineering means that TAs
may have backgrounds from the physical sciences, mathematics, computer science and
engineering.
The main recruitment rounds for Teaching Assistants occur on a biannual basis – during
August/September in preparation for Autumn Semester teaching activities and during
December/January for the Spring Semester. New TAs are provided with training both in general
teaching practice and to prepare them for working with students, and for the specific
requirements of their roles.
All Teaching Assistants share common core responsibilities and requirements (covered in this
document) as well as having role-specific responsibilities. These additional responsibilities and
requirements are covered in the supplementary documents outlined in Section 1.1.
Engineering at Leicester
The Department of Engineering is one of the largest departments in the University of Leicester
with around 600 undergraduate and 100 postgraduate students and researchers, more than forty
academic staff (professors and lecturers) and a similar number of support staff. The department is
internationally renowned for quality research and excellent teaching, and has links with many of
the world’s major engineering companies.
The department offers MEng and BEng degrees in Aerospace Engineering, Communications and
Electronic Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, General Engineering, Mechanical
Engineering and Software Engineering. Specialist MSc courses offered cover advanced elements of
these core disciplines as well as control systems engineering, dynamics, materials engineering,
embedded systems, and information and communications engineering.
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Department of Engineering
1.
Roles
Teaching Assistants are recruited to over 100 positions covering around 15 academic modules.
Collectively they provide more than 4000 hours of teaching support and supervision on an annual
basis. The importance of these staff and the value that the Department of Engineering places on
them cannot be overstated! At the same time, being a Teaching Assistant is a fantastic way of
gaining experience teaching, putting technical knowledge into practice and improving
communication skills. The roles available for TAs are summarised below. The final column refers to
the Supplementary Specification where further details for each role can be found (see Section 1.1).
Semester
Year Module title
Role summaries
Autumn
1
EG1001 Maths with Computation
Autumn
1
EG1002 Engineering Design
Autumn
1
EG1003 Experimentation 1
Autumn
1
Autumn
Autumn
Examples & Feedback Class Tutors
Mechanical Computer-aided Design (AutoCAD,
SolidWorks) Class Tutors
Supp.
A
B
EG1101 Mechanical Engineering
Laboratory Teaching Assistants (Electrical,
Mechanical and Thermofluids)
Examples & Feedback Class Tutors
A
1
2
EG1201 Electrical Engineering
EG2001 Computer-based Modelling
Examples & Feedback Class Tutors
Programming (MATLAB) Tutors
A
D
Autumn
2
EG2003 Experimentation 2
Autumn
3
EG3311 State Variable Control
Laboratory Teaching Assistants (Control, Comms,
Electrical and Mechanical Engineering)
Programming (MATLAB) Tutors
Autumn
Autumn
4
4
EG4113 Adv. Solid Mechanics
EG4212 Radio Systems
Finite Element Analysis (COMSOL)
Radio Propagation (VOACAP and MATLAB) Tutors
E
E
Autumn
4
EG4311 Robust Control
Systems Design (MATLAB/Simulink) Tutors
Programming (MATLAB) Tutors
Systems Modelling (SIMULINK, OrCAD PSpice or
SolidWorks) Tutors
E
Examples & Feedback Class Tutors
Programming (MATLAB) Tutors
A
D
Autumn
MSc EG7012 MATLAB and CAD
Spring
Spring
1
1
EG1001 Maths with Computation
EG1001 Maths with Computation
Spring
1
EG1002 Engineering Design
Spring
1
EG1003 Experimentation 1
Spring
Spring
1
1
EG1101 Mechanical Engineering
EG1201 Electrical Engineering
Spring
2
EG2003 Experimentation 2
Spring
3
EG3202 Radio and Digital Comms Sys.
Laboratory Teaching Assistants (Control, Comms,
Electrical and Mechanical Engineering)
Programming (MATLAB) Tutors
Spring
Spring
4
4
EG4421 Holistic Aeroengine Design
EG4222 Radio Communications
Design Class Tutors
Programming (MATLAB) Tutors
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Electrical Computer-aided Design (OrCAD PSpice)
Class Tutors
Laboratory Teaching Assistants (Electrical,
Mechanical and Thermofluids)
Examples & Feedback Class Tutors
Examples & Feedback Class Tutors
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C
C
E
E
B
C
A
A
C
E
E
E
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Department of Engineering
1.1.
Supplementary Specifications
In Sections 2 and 3, the core responsibilities and requirements of all Teaching Assistants are
outlined. Supplementary responsibilities and requirements that are specific to each role, outlined
in Section 1, are summarised below. Supplementary Specifications will be co-located with this
main Job Specifications document.
Supplement Document number Roles covered
2.
A
B
EG/TA/2A/2015
EG/TA/2B/2015
Undergraduate Example & Feedback Class Tutors
Undergraduate Computer-aided Design Class Tutors
C
D
EG/TA/2C/2015
EG/TA/2D/2015
Undergraduate Laboratory Teaching Assistants
Undergraduate Programming (MATLAB) Tutors
E
EG/TA/2E/2015
BEng, MEng and MSc Module Teaching Assistants
Responsibilities
All Teaching Assistants will be expected to:
 Liaise with Academic Leads to ensure delivery of relevant course material.
 Respond to reasonable requests made of them by the Module Convener.
 Feedback comments and suggestions from students to Academic Leads.
 Through their experience, generate suggestions for incremental changes in their activities
that could enhance the student experience, increase the relevance of activities (to e.g.
leading research or industrial practice) and/or increase the efficiency of teaching and
assessment.
 Record attendance of students.
 Conduct relevant duties in accordance with their specific role (see Section 1.1).
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Department of Engineering
3.
Requirements
Characteristic
Essential
Minimum of a bachelors (2.1 or above) degree in engineering, physical sciences,
computer science or mathematics.
Strong interpersonal communication skills, including the ability to converse in
technical English.
Excellent time management and punctuality.
Teaching experience that may include previous roles as a teaching assistant, other
small group teaching or lecturing.
X
X
X
Experience in presenting to groups / speaking in front of audiences.
4.
Desirable
X
X
Support and availability
4.1.
Training
All Teaching Assistants are required to have attended a training day before they begin teaching.
The Training Day for Teaching Assistants (run twice a year prior to the start of teaching in
September and January) includes a basic introduction to teaching theory and practice provided by
the Leicester Learning Institute, complemented by specific sessions relating to TA roles lead by the
Department of Engineering. It is expected that experienced TAs will assist with the delivery of this
training.
The training date for the coming semester is specified on the application form. All Teaching
Assistants must be available for this. New Teaching Assistants will not be allowed to commence
teaching without having attended this training day.
4.2.
Outline teaching timetables
Teaching timetables will be released prior to the start of each academic semester. Activities
supported by Teaching Assistants may occur from Monday to Friday each week between the hours
of 09:00 – 18:00.
The outline teaching timetable for major 1st and 2nd Year undergraduate activities is shown below.
Activities supported by Teaching Assistants typically run for a maximum of 10 weeks from the start
of each academic semester. Following face-to-face teaching activities during these periods, there
may also be a requirement for TAs to support in the marking of student coursework.
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Department of Engineering
Dates of University Semesters (note: not University Terms) can be found on the University
website: http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/governance/calendar/terms-and-semesters
Morning
Afternoon
1st Year Labs (EG1003)
Monday
Tuesday
1st Year Design (EG1002)
2nd Year Labs (EG2003)
1st Year Design (EG1002)
2nd Year Labs (EG2003)
Wednesday
Thursday
1st Year Labs (EG1003)
Friday
5.
Remuneration
5.1.
Rate of pay
Teaching Assistants will be paid as per the University Pay Scale, Grade 5, Spine Point 22. Current
hourly rates can be found as part of the advertisement on the Unitemps website.
5.2.
Hours
There is no University restriction on the number of hours worked by Teaching Assistants other
than in the following cases. If more than one of these conditions applies to an individual, the
minimum number of hours will apply:
 Current University of Leicester students – 15 hours per week.
 EPSRC-funded Postgraduate Research (PhD) students – 6 hours per week.
 Current international students (studying at any UK university) may have specific working
restrictions on their visas – these will be checked during the registration process with
Unitemps.
5.3.
Expenses
No expenses (including travel costs) are offered as part of these roles.
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