An Associate (in lieu of TA) may serve as a “senior TA” for a department/program’s TA training activities, as a TA consultant or Language Screener for the Teaching + Learning Commons, or under an Academic Instructional Improvement grant.

Prior to 2023-24: Use of this title requires prior approval by the Dean of the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs. 

Effective Fall 2023, the use of this title no longer requires prior approval.

Appointment to this title requires evidence of extraordinary merit in teaching and scholarship and prior relevant teaching experience.

Concurrent Appointments

If the student is already set up as a Teaching Assistant or other monthly appointment and you are adding a concurrent readership, you MUST add the Associate-in-lieu at a monthly rate.

IA System

The Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor has developed an online system that helps academic departments and programs to facilitate the assignment and hiring process for students applying for TA, Reader, Tutor, Undergraduate Instructional Apprentice, and Associates-In positions.

The Instructional Assistant Data Management System (IA System) allows departmental staff to create custom questionnaires for Academic Student Employee (ASE) positions they want to fill, and provides a way for students to apply for those positions online.  Departments and programs that already know who will fill these positions can simply assign the students and send them offers through the system.

The IA System provides additional data from various campus resources on each applicant, to help facilitate the decision-making process and to provide a single repository for relevant data.  The system also provides the opportunity for instructors to select and rank applicants, if the department/program wishes to include instructor input in the decision-making process.  The IA System also streamlines the approval process for graduate students being hired outside their home departments.

Once a final hiring decision is made, departmental staff assign the student to a class and make an offer through the IA System.  The student is sent an e-mail notification, which includes instructions and a link back to the system, where he/she can accept or decline the offer.  For paid assignments, the system generates a PDF appointment letter, which the student is required to open before he/she can accept the offer.

The ASE assignments also make it easy for an academic department or program to participate in the online Evaluations system.  This system, which launched in Spring 2012, allows students to evaluate their ASEs and graduate courses, and instructors to evaluate their ASEs.

To obtain access, please contact ATS at ats@ucsd.edu.  To start the recruiting process for your department, go to http://academicaffairs.ucsd.edu/Modules/ASES .

Pay Rate

Refer to the Student Academic Title Rates sheet for current rates.

Pay Schedule

Payroll online entries vary depending on the approved program’s use of the title. If you are unsure how to complete, call the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs for assistance.

Effective October 1, 2023, Associates-in-lieu of TA with:

• Six (6) quarters of University teaching experience at UC San Diego

  • During Academic Year terms (October 1 - June 30)

    • Fall: 10/1 - 12/31

    • Winter: 1/1 - 3/31

    • Spring: 4/1 - 6/30

• At Appointment at 25% FTE or more in a position - only a maximum of one experience count can be earned per quarter

• Who have not advanced to candidacy shall be placed at Salary Point 3

• Who have advanced to candidacy shall be placed at Salary Point 5

Placement on the Salary Scale

Experience in the Teaching Assistant (Job Code 002310), and Associate Instructor count towards University teaching experience.

An Associate Instructor (teaching a course) may conduct the entire instruction of a lower division course or upper division course with approval granted by the Dean of the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs.  Graduate students are not eligible to teach graduate level courses. 

Use of this title requires prior approval by the Dean of the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs.

Appointment In addition to meeting general academic eligibility guidelines (see Chapter 1: Academic Eligibility), appointment to this title requires evidence of extraordinary merit in teaching and scholarship, prior relevant teaching experience, advanced training in the subject matter, and support of the department chair. For Ph.D. students, the candidacy exam must have been passed and the student must be in the final stages of dissertation writing or must have equivalent other accomplishments (publications, extensive experience as performer-teacher, etc.). MFA students should have submitted their application to candidacy (and will likely be in the second to last or last quarter). The appointment is also dependent upon positive academic and administrative review and approval by the student's Department/group Chair, the Divisional Dean and the Dean of the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs.  Graduate students may serve as an Associate Instructor no more than three (3) times during their career at UC (Summer Session not counted) for upper division courses.

For requests to teach in Summer Session, students must be registered for the Spring Quarter prior to, or the Fall Quarter following, the requested Summer Session.

• General information regarding the Committee on Educational Policy may be found on the Academic Senate web page at: https://senate.ucsd.edu/

• The policy regulating the appointment of graduate students as Associate Instructors to teach undergraduate upper-division courses may be found at:  http://senate.ucsd.edu/media/67798/Associates-In-to-Teach-Upper-Division-Courses.pdf.

  • The policy regarding written assessments of the Associate Instructor’s performance may also be found at the above link.

Advancement to Candidacy Exceptions

Graduate students must have advanced to candidacy at UC San Diego prior to the submission of the request for appointment as an Associate Instructor.  If your department is requesting an exception to this rule, the student will need to have a dissertation committee set up and an advancement to candidacy date scheduled prior to the start of instruction for the applicable quarter.  Please include this information in your letter of exception. 

Limitation on Serving 

Graduate students may serve as an Associate Instructor no more than three (3) times during their career at UC (Summer Session not counted) for upper division courses.   

While it is understandable that a graduate student who has previously taught the class would be well-equipped to continue to teach it, the cap exists to ensure students are not unreasonably burdened with large teaching responsibilities.  Departments who want to submit an exception to exceed the 3 UD cap, are strongly encouraged to identify a different individual to teach the course, including potentially a different graduate student. 

 Academic Senate policy can be found under “D. Limitations on Serving”.   

Specialized Training

Per Educational Policy Committee:  Candidates must have successfully served as a Teaching Assistant in the department or program area in which they would be appointed as Associate-In or successfully completed specialized training in instruction.  If departments deem student is eligible based on past or future training, departments must show that the student has connected with the Teaching+Learning Commons and either provide a date for the future training or date of completed training.

See Drafted Information for the Student Once Flagged

Spring Evaluations

In order to appoint Associate Instructor, a current spring evaluation needs to be on file (excluding students who advanced to doctoral or MFA candidacy during Winter or Spring immediately preceding or were on leave of absence for Spring immediately preceding).

Student Teaching Evaluations

Teaching evaluations do not need to be uploaded in the Documents section if they already appear under the Applicant Assignment History and/or Applicant CAPEs sections.  Where the recent evaluations and/or CAPEs fall below 75%, please provide additional information in the department nomination letter addressing the low scores.  For example, the department could describe the concrete approaches they will use to improve the student’s teaching performance.  If the student teaching evaluations are below 75%, as noted above, then, as laid out in the Academic Senate guidelines, the students must have completed training with the Teaching+Learning Commons.

• If applicants have CAPEs below 75%, Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs wants to ensure that the instructor is aware of and can receive teaching support on campus, and requests that the instructor takes initiative to improve as an instructor by participating in either a Teaching Workshop or individual Teaching Consultation, whichever they would most benefit from in preparation to teach as Instructor of Record. The instructor should register for this support by [date] and provide evidence of having participated by [date].

  • Find a list of upcoming Teaching Workshops here (updated prior to each quarter): https://commons.ucsd.edu/educators/faculty-programs/eth-workshops.html

  • Sign up for a Teaching Consultation on the form linked from here: https://commons.ucsd.edu/educators/grad-student-programs/consultations-and-observations.html

• If applicants or departments feel that the lower student evaluations do not merit additional support, the department can provide the information within the department nomination letter or a letter of explanation that will be considered by Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs.

Associate Instructor files must be submitted using the IA System at http://academicaffairs.ucsd.edu/Modules/ASES, in the applicable quarter’s Associate Instructor (teaching a course) campaign created by GEPA . Unlike TA appointments, where students apply for a position, departments submit an Associate application on behalf of a student. Once submitted, the application is then routed for review to the student, Faculty Mentor (listed as Supervising Faculty on the IA System), Department Chair and Divisional Dean/Provost Office will route the file through the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs for the Dean’s review and approval.   Late Upper-Division files and/or exceptions requests will be routed to Educational Policy Committee (EPC) for review and approval.

When creating an application for a student, the department/program completes the position detail section in the IA System and answer questions 1-13.  For requests to teach lower-division classes, the department/program does not need to complete questions 6-13.

A current Spring evaluation is required for all Associate Instructor requests. See policy at: http://grad.ucsd.edu/resources/general/academic-policies/evaluations.html.

For the Documents section, you may upload all documents using Portrait Orientation as one PDF or as separate PDFs.

Documents required include:

1. Current Curriculum Vitae or Academic Biography

2. Department Nomination Letter  from Department Chair or Program Director/Divisional Dean to the Dean, Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs (template and more information stated below)

Approval status may be tracked under Application Status on the Applicants page of the IA System. In addition, the system will generate an Appointment letter which includes the following message for applications not yet approved:  Note: this assignment has not yet been approved by the Dean of the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs, so this document should not be considered a final appointment letter. This notice will not appear once the assignment has been approved by the Dean of the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs.

Campaign

A new campaign will need to be created for each quarter before departments can submit files. Each quarter, GEPA creates an Associate Instructor campaign for the applicable quarter; please do not create your own campaigns for Associate Instructor (Teaching a course). GEPA staff will notify departments when the application becomes available.

Deadlines

Please see the Graduate Financial Support Calendar for current deadlines.  Applications for Upper-Division courses must be routed to the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs (GEPA) four (4) weeks (counted in business days) prior to the start of the quarter in which a course is to be taught.  Upper-division requests submitted after this deadline, will require an exception request that will be routed to the Educational Policy Committee (EPC). 

Department Nomination Letter

The department nomination letter should describe the experience and expertise of the proposed candidate. Template of basic letter here.

• Addressed to Dean of Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs

• From the Department Chair or Program Director

• List the proposed nominee name and PID, session, course, and pay rate per current academic year

• List the reason for the appointment

• List the qualifications of the nominee

  • Use the guidance from Academic Senate

• Describe how the student will be supported in this role

  • Faculty mentor

  • Address any teaching support

  • Classes/workshops

• Explain any exceptional circumstances

  • Not Advanced to Candidacy

  • First time Associate proposed to teach course with enrollment of 100+ undergraduate students

  • Low student teaching evaluations (<75%) within the last three years

    • For example, address negative comments and how the graduate student has been mentored to improve in any relevant areas

  • If the student is proposed to teach an upper division course and has not taken training with Teaching+Learning Commons (for example “Introduction to College Training”), but is relying on qualified teaching experience, or other training, then please list that

  • Late Upper-Division Associate Instructor files

IA System

The Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor has developed an online system that helps academic departments and programs to facilitate the assignment and hiring process for students applying for TA, Reader, Tutor, Undergraduate Instructional Apprentice, Associate Instructor, and Graduate Student Researcher positions.

The Instructional Assistant Data Management System (IA System) allows departmental staff to create custom questionnaires for Academic Student Employee (ASE) positions they want to fill, and provides a way for students to apply for those positions online.  Departments and programs that already know who will fill these positions can simply assign the students and send them offers through the system.

The IA System provides additional data from various campus resources on each applicant, to help facilitate the decision-making process and to provide a single repository for relevant data.  The system also provides the opportunity for instructors to select and rank applicants, if the department/program wishes to include instructor input in the decision-making process.  The IA System also streamlines the approval process for graduate students being hired outside their home departments.

Once a final hiring decision is made, departmental staff assign the student to a class and make an offer through the IA System.  The student is sent an e-mail notification, which includes instructions and a link back to the system, where he/she can accept or decline the offer.  For paid assignments, the system generates a PDF appointment letter, which the student is required to open before he/she can accept the offer.

The ASE assignments also make it easy for an academic department or program to participate in the online Evaluations system.  This system, which launched in Spring 2012, allows students to evaluate their ASEs and graduate courses, and instructors to evaluate their ASEs.

To obtain access, please contact ATS at ats@ucsd.edu.  To start the recruiting process for your department, go to http://academicaffairs.ucsd.edu/Modules/ASES .

Pay Rate

Refer to the Student Academic Title Rates sheet for current rates.  Pay for an academic quarter may change if the student does not work for the entire service period (see Calculating a Daily Rate of Pay).

Pay Schedule

Associate Instructors are paid monthly.

Summer Graduate Teaching Scholars (SGTS) Program

Students selected for the Summer Graduate Teaching Scholars (SGTS) program still need to submit an Associate Instructor file through the IA System.  Departments/Programs can upload a copy of the SGTS nomination packet under question 18 instead of submitting a new nomination letter.   Students not selected for the SGTS program can upload a copy of their nomination packet under question 18 instead of submitting a new nomination letter.   The SGTS nomination letter should be amended: 

• If the student received feedback on why they were not selected

• If there are additional issues not already addressed in the SGTS letter for example: new low teaching evals, etc.

SGTS applicants bypass the Department Chair signatures in the IA system, even if they were not accepted as a SGTS applicant.  

Summer Session Process

Summer Associate Instructor files are submitted using the IA System as stated above in 'Appointment Process' at http://academicaffairs.ucsd.edu/Modules/ASES .  However, the Department/Program completes questions 1-17.  For requests to teach lower-division classes, the department/program does not need to complete questions 11-17.  Once submitted, the application is routed for review to the student, Faculty Mentor (listed as Supervising Faculty on the AI System), Department Chair, and Summer Session will route the file through the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs for the Dean’s review and approval.  If an exception is requested for an upper-division course, the application will also be submitted to EPC for review and approval.

Limitations on Teaching During the Summer

Associate Instructors may teach up to a maximum of three Summer Session courses, which compensates up to 25.5% annual salary. See the 2022 Summer Session Guidebook for policies and procedures pertaining to summer instruction at https://summersession.ucsd.edu/_files/Guidebook/Guidebook.pdf.

Effective October 1, 2023, Associate Instructors with:

• Six (6) quarters of University teaching experience at UC San Diego

  • During Academic Year terms (October 1 - June 30)

    • Fall: 10/1 - 12/31

    • Winter: 1/1 - 3/31

    • Spring: 4/1 - 6/30

• At Appointment at 25% FTE or more in a position - only a maximum of one experience count can be earned per quarter

• Who have not advanced to candidacy shall be placed at Salary Point 3

• Who have advanced to candidacy shall be placed at Salary Point 5

Placement on the Salary Scale

• Experience in the Teaching Assistant (Job Code 002310), and Associate Instructor count towards University teaching experience.

• Returning Associate Instructors (students who were appointed as Associate Instructors prior to AY 2023-2024) should be hired at Salary Point 7, regardless of their experience

• Effective Fall 2023, new Associate Instructors may start at Salary Point 1

New Associate Instructors

Returning Associate Instructors