Teaching Assistants

Teaching is an integral part of the graduate experience at Brown. Typically, doctoral students will work as teaching assistants (TAs) at some point in their graduate careers and will be responsible for assisting faculty members both inside and outside the classroom on all work related to the instruction of a particular course. TAs do not bear primary responsibility for the course; rather, their role is to assist faculty as necessary.

The duties of a TA vary across courses and departments and may include some classroom experience, the presentation of occasional lectures, leading discussion sections, preparing and supervising labs, conducting tutorials, holding office hours, and grading papers, problem sets, quizzes, and examinations. Departments make every effort to assign graduate students to courses according to their interests, broadly defined; however, the need to cover courses and to broaden student teaching experiences may also affect teaching assignments. A full appointment usually requires fifteen to eighteen hours of work per week, but should not exceed an average of twenty hours per week over the course of the term.

A TA’s financial award includes tuition, health insurance, the health services fee, and a stipend. Appointments are made on an annual or semester basis on the recommendation of the department. Double work appointments are not allowed.