Student assistants at the Faculty of Science allowed to lead seminars after all

This spring, the Faculty of Science announced new guidelines for student teaching assistants to prevent students from running into problems when teaching friends, flatmates, or acquaintances, or when grading exams for people they know.

The faculty also wanted to prevent student teaching assistants from being overburdened with tasks they are not yet equipped to handle. This has generated considerable tension in the past, as evidenced by a DUB article from 2023.

A big debate ensued about what tasks student assistants should and shouldn't do. For example, trade unions were concerned about the faculty's intention to continue using student assistants for grading.

But there were voices of concern within the faculty itself. They feared that bachelor’s students in their final year would no longer be able to supervise seminars for first-year students.

Fear of strict rules
The faculty board initially appeared keen to impose strict restrictions in this regard. Such an approach raised many questions earlier this year, including from the associate professor Laurens van Meeteren, who voiced objections while speaking as a guest at a faculty council meeting.

Approached by DUB shortly afterwards, Van Meeteren said he was flabbergasted that a university would make it difficult for its own students to gain teaching experience. “It’s strange when you consider that we have to train our own lecturers here, to a large extent.”

According to him, many undergraduate students find a teaching assistantship motivating, as they learn a great deal from having to explain to others what they have learnt themselves.

The associate professor was also concerned about the consequences for his degree programme. It would be difficult to continue offering small-group teaching.

“Then we’ll have to work harder to find Master’s students who want to be teaching assistants. That’s tricky, because they often have less time for such a thing. What’s more, we need quite a lot of teaching assistants. We have three hundred first-year students, so it’s nice to split them into groups of 25.”

According to him, the Biology programme employs more than a hundred student assistants every year, who work with first-year students in seminars, help with assignments, and lead debriefing sessions. They also supervise practicals and projects. “It’s actually pretty varied.”

Flexible
We meet Van Meeteren again at the beginning of this month and discover that he has been reassured. He has managed to find enough suitable Master’s students for the coming academic year after all. Moreover, the situation does not seem to be as bad as he feared.

According to the new rules for student assistants that the faculty ultimately published on the Intranet, bachelor’s students may teach “under supervision” within their own degree programme, provided a lecturer or PhD student is also present.

However, degree programmes cannot always guarantee that someone will be present in the same room to assist a student assistant. The question, therefore, was how exactly the rules would be interpreted.

Whilst the faculty board initially maintained a strict stance towards DUB, insisting that bachelor’s students were not permitted to teach “independently”, it looks like there is some leeway in practice.

According to Professor Aukje Mantel-Teeuwisse, director of the Undergraduate School, both the faculty board and the bachelor’s programmes believe that it should remain possible to deploy bachelor’s students for teaching duties. They have therefore discussed the conditions under which this could be done.

For example, student assistants must be well prepared for their role and must not be involved with seminars where new material is taught. However, discussing completed assignments or practising sums with a group, for instance, should be permitted.

Furthermore, a lecturer must always be available to answer questions from student assistants leading the class. How this is organised is up to the programmes themselves, says Mantel-Teeuwisse. “We’re talking about details and implementation here. Each programme must provide the best possible solutions for this.”

Good preparation
Margot Koster, Director of Biology Education, also emphasises the value that student teaching assistants bring to education. She believes that her programme prepares students well, as a lecturer is almost always present when student teaching assistants lead tutorials. “The only exception lies in first-year courses with a lot of students, where many groups are spread across different buildings, so it's not possible to do that. In those cases, a lecturer can be reached via Teams.”

Vice-Dean Bert Klein Gebbink explains in an email that the faculty’s policy aims to ensure the supervision of student assistants and the quality of teaching. “The exact implementation may vary from course to course within the established frameworks.”

Also trained in teaching methods
Van Meeteren understands that the faculty board aims to ensure that student assistants are treated fairly. He also acknowledges the risk that undergraduate students might be tempted to favour certain students they know better.

According to him, the Biology programme has implemented all sorts of safeguards to prevent such problems from arising. Those wishing to become student assistants must follow a programme best known as Stuko (Student Teaching Qualification). Students must meet for three evenings, and an observer is always present when they teach seminar groups.

Van Meeteren: “Student teaching assistants used to be trained mainly on subject content, but very little on teaching methodology. That has now changed.”

In addition to learning how to lead a seminar group, students are advised on how to handle conflicts of interest or loyalty. The key advice in such cases is to report the matter to the teaching coordinator as soon as possible.

The programme is quite popular with students, although they have to undertake it in their own time. Around fifty students participate each year. Van Meeteren: “Students find it interesting because they receive an EduBadge, which they can add to their CV. But that's not all. Many of them are simply curious about what it’s like to teach because they are considering an academic career.”

The first-year students taught by their senior peers also seem more than satisfied. Van Meeteren notes that, in some course evaluations, the student teaching assistants score higher than the lecturer. “That interaction often works well. The student teaching assistants are motivated and enthusiastic, and the students are pleased to have points of contact to whom they dare to ask a ‘silly’ question.”

“My main point is that well-trained and supervised student assistants can contribute a great deal to our education whilst also gaining valuable teaching experience. Fortunately, it looks like this is not being lost.”

Obligation
When debating the new conditions, people often wonder whether student assistants should be financially compensated for the courses they have to take as part of their training. In addition to the Stuko training, they can follow an educational training programme developed by the Freudenthal Institute, for example.

Trade unions believe that university staff -- which student assistants formally are -- should not have to sacrifice their spare time for courses they need in order to do their jobs.

However, according to UGS Director Mantel-Teeuwisse and the Director of Education Koster, this does not apply to them. According to Koster, the terms of appointment always include time to prepare student assistants for the tasks they will be carrying out. Training courses such as those offered by Stuko and the Freudenthal Institute are optional, explains Mantel-Teeuwisse. “Students are encouraged to take them, but they are not mandatory.”

Vice-Dean Klein Gebbink does not wish to comment on this matter. “As this is still under development and several processes are currently running in parallel, I prefer to wait for the outcomes before commenting further on the substance of the issue.”

Karl Strube is a student member of the faculty council and a Master’s student in Biology. As an undergraduate, he gained extensive experience supervising seminars. He believes that an ideal solution has now been found for students, lecturers and degree programmes alike.

“If degree programmes wish to continue offering small-group teaching without placing an additional burden on lecturers, they cannot do without student assistants. For students, a student assistant role is excellent for personal development and for finding out whether teaching is something for them.”

Strube himself has had nothing but positive experiences. He says that leading seminars has made him more confident and shown him how enjoyable it can be to transmit knowledge to others. “What I enjoyed most was when I talked about something I found really cool and saw a student’s eyes light up. Passing on that passion is wonderful.”

He believes the Faculty Council will closely monitor developments regarding student assistants and the discussion about possible compensation for training courses. Even after he steps down as a faculty council member this summer.