Wanted: teaching assistants at IIMC

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, June 24, 2007
Students pursuing their masters’ degree or PhD at institutions such as Jadavpur University and Calcutta University might consider heading to the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIMC) for a teaching post.
From this year, IIMC has decided to hire bright university students as teaching assistants to teach their first-year students. Till now, second-year students of IIMC used to double up as teaching assistants, by helping freshers to understand whatever is taught after regular classes. “The decision to hire teaching assistants for first-year students has already been taken. Soon we will start recruitment,” said Anindya Sen, dean of program and research initiative, IIMC.
Explaining why second-year students were relieved of their assignment, Sen said, “The second-year students are under a lot of academic pressure and they also have to do their internships at various companies. It becomes very difficult for them to help first-year students with their study lessons. Sometimes they had to do so at very late hours and we decided to do away with it.”
The teaching assistants hired from various universities will have to attend classes at IIM along with the freshers and then stay back on campus for “tutoring sessions”. “We will hire students specialising on the module being taught in class. Thus the teaching assistant should have in-dept knowledge about the subject and should be able to handle teaching others,” said Sen.
This year 300 students have taken admission in IIMC and they have 3 semesters in their first-year covering 17 different courses. There will be different assistants for each of these courses. The teaching assistants will have to come to campus at least 5 days a week for a duration of 3 months, which is the timeframe of each semester. “After the course gets over, assistants can go back to their respective campuses and do their research work,” the dean Sen.
Apart from helping students understand their lessons, teaching assistants will be also required to correct answer scripts of class tests and quizzes. The IIMC campus is in the outskirts of the city and it might pose a problem for scholars travelling there. To counter that, IIMC is lining up an attractive compensation package. Apart from good money, the teaching assistants will be given an appointment letter as well as certificate of participation.
They will also have the rare distinction of both studying and teaching at IIMC, which they can put in their CV. That not too bad is it?
mou.hindustantimes@yahoo.com