“I attended our Faculty meeting and raised the issue of appropriate payment for PGTA hours for certain modules and this has been improved to accurately reflect seminar preparation hours for the coming academic year.”
– An Information Studies Rep
“I also raised the issue of PGTA training and academic support for research students after the first year (there is a weekly doctoral seminar for first year research students) and there are now plans to develop in-department seminars addressing teaching and continuing PhD research for second- and third-year students."
– An Information Studies Rep
“PGTA salaries in our department: late payments, no payments or partial payments have been an issue in our department for several years now. This semester some of our PGTAs were not paid and neither have they been offered apologises for that sad situation. I have taken up this case with the Postgraduate Student's Officer, the central HR, our departmental administration as well as the Graduate Tutor and the Dean for Arts & Humanities. Despite the initial claims by HR that the missing October salaries will be paid out at the end of November I have managed to secure an out of cycle payment for our PGTAs as many of them rely on this additional income to sustain themselves. I am now working together with the Student Union and my department on introducing a new role of PGTA representative and I am planning to start a PGTA society.”
– An Arts & Humanities Rep
"I have been engaged in discussions with the head of UCL HR Business partnering to improve the experience of post-graduate teaching assistants, namely, to ensure PGTAs are treated as UCL staff members (…) To date, I have successfully secured back-pay to all post-graduate teaching assistants in the Division of Biosciences who were incorrectly compensated for their work in term 1."
- Biosciences Rep
"I was able to solve many PGTA related issues, including acquiring back-pay for all PhD students in the Divison of Biosciences. I was able to influence UCL-wide policy on the creation of a COVID Impact statemnts for PhD students attending their viva. I was also able to raise a number of issues such as tyring to gain recognition for PhD students who supervise students."
- Life Sciences Rep