Graduate Teaching Assistants

Within the Faculty of Medicine our Graduate Teaching Assistants play a vital role in supporting the teaching activities across the various undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Being a GTA has multiple benefits, in providing support to both the students and staff by enhancing the learning experience. It allows you to hone your understanding of the subject when you teach and apply your skills and knowledge to other students. 

GTAs with experience are also encouraged to apply for professional recognition to enhance their qualifications, please see our “Future teaching leaders programme” for further information.  

Only students registered at Imperial College London may work as GTAs. If you are employed as a Research Assistant whilst studying for a PhD, you cannot receive additional payments for GTA work and you should not agree to undertake any.

To be eligible to work as a GTA you must have the following:

1. Proof of Right to Work in the United Kingdom

   This applies to everyone, even UK nationals.  You will need to provide all relevant right to work documents. If you have a Tier 4 visa it must state that you are allowed to work. Please see the College's pages on right to work acceptable documents.

2. A National Insurance Number

   To obtain an NI number, see the information online at Apply for a National Insurance Number. Please note the National Insurance number process takes several weeks, sometimes months, so you should do this as soon as possible.

3. A visa status that allows you to work in the UK

   Please see the College advice Work rules during your studies for international students wishing to work on a visa.

4. Be aware of Tier 4 visa restrictions

   International students holding Tier 4 visas cannot work for more than 20 hours per week.  If you have a visa, please check the details regarding paid work.

5. Completed the mandatory Graduate School Training

   Please see the training section below for more detail.

6. Agreement with your PhD supervisor

   Your supervisor must give you permission to work as a GTA and the maximum number of hours you can work as a GTA each academic year is determined by your PhD supervisor. The absolute maximum the College will allow is 200 hours per academic year.

The Graduate School offers two compulsory training workshops recommended for working as a GTA, these are:

• Introduction to Learning and Teaching
• Introduction to Assessment and Feedback for Learning

You may attend any other optional courses if you wish to develop your teaching skills further.

Training dates at the Graduate School can be found on the GTA programme web page.

GTA performance is monitored by the member of staff employing you. The students can comment on the quality of assistance provided by GTAs and this is used to determine if GTAs are retained for specific tasks.

Please note, that the majority of in person GTA activities at the Faculty of Medicine take place on the Hammersmith campus. 

Your main objective as a PhD student Imperial College London is to successfully complete your PhD.  Thus, the maximum number of hours you can spend working as a GTA is limited.

You should not be asked to work more than 20 hours in any week or more than 200 hours over the course of an academic year.  If you are concerned about the number of hours you have committed to work, you must discuss this with the module organiser and GTA co-ordinators as soon as possible. 

Please note, there is a peak season of GTA shifts available in the Faculty of Medicine, which is in the Autumn and Spring terms, with a reduced need for GTA support in the Summer term when most taught students have completed their academic year. 

Having experienced molecular biology wet lab skills is a desirable quality for a Faculty of Medicine (FoM) GTA candidate, as we provide support to many lab-based modules and courses.

Before applying for any GTA work you must follow the steps below before registering as a casual worker. 

• Check that you are eligible to work in the UK (see the eligibility section above)
• Make sure you have a National Insurance Number
• Agree the number of hours you will work in the year with your PhD supervisor (not to exceed 200 hours annually, with maximum 20 hours per week for Tier 4 students)

To apply for any of the GTA positions above, please fill out this FoM GTA Information Form to indicate your interest and you will be contacted by the FoM GTA co-ordinators. Once you have been accepted and inducted by the GTA co-ordinator, they will start the formal process of registering you as a GTA, which will include registering with the College’s Casual Worker Team.

The Casual Worker Team will then contact you directly and you will complete the rest of the registration process for your GTA work with their team. For new workers, this will involve providing your right to work documents plus National Insurance Number to them. There may be other documentation which you are required to complete, to register as a casual worker for your GTA work.

Once you have been contacted by the Casual Workers Team and have an agreement for GTA work in place, you will be added to the official FoM GTA Team.

From 05 August 2024, GTA pay rates/hour for Medicine activities are below, in line with Imperial policy:

• Assistant Invigilator - Total Pay per hour (inc. holiday): £16.68
• Chief Invigilator - Total Pay per hour (inc. holiday): £20.28
• GTA - Lower - Total Pay per hour (inc. holiday): £22.00
• GTA - Upper - Total Pay per hour (inc. holiday): £35.78

Claims must be submitted through Imperial's casual pay app for the modules you have registered to support. You should not commence employment if your Right to Work checks have not been completed by Casual Worker Team. The User Guide and instructions on how to submit claims can be found on the Casual worker webpage.

• You’ll be able to enter your timesheet after each shift and save it for submission at the end of the week (Monday to Sunday).  Please clarify, in the timesheet comments section, what type of work (as per above) you have done for each claim and on what course this work was performed for e.g. MSc Immunology, lab tutorials. 
• Only submitted timesheets can be seen and approved by the hiring manager. 
• Rates of pay can be selected from the drop-down menu. If you’re unsure which rate of pay to use, please check with the GTA co-ordinators.

In order for the hiring managers to be able to process your timesheet claims in time for pay day, please have all claims submitted and approved by the hiring manager by the 5th of each month. If timesheets are submitted after the 5th, the Faculty cannot guarantee payment within that month. 

Imperial pay dates can be found in column three on Payroll deadlines webpage.
If you have any questions please email us.

Payslips

You will find your monthly Payslip on My.Imperial.ac.uk. Please note that if you receive less payment than you expect from your GTA work, it may be due to statutory deductions. 

If you have a query regarding statutory deductions on your Payslip, please contact casualworkerteam@imperial.ac.uk 

If you no longer want to be registered as a casual worker or would like to end your contract, please follow the instructions found on the existing casual worker page and notify the GTA co-ordinators via email.