Teaching Requirement
All PhD students must complete two (2) teaching units. There are several options for accumulating teaching units:
1. Serving as a teaching assistant (TA), where teaching units are assigned by the , currently (2009-2010) Prof. Tal Malkin. Further information is available on the taczar website.
2. Serving as the instructor for a 1-point or 1.5-point course, which counts as one (1) teaching unit.
3. Serving as the instructor for a 3-point or 4-point course, which counts as two (2) teaching units.
Serving
as a TA is the default. All instructor (as opposed to TA) assignments
must be approved by the Academic Committee Chair, currently (2009-2010)
. All TA and instructor assignments must be approved by the advisor.
The teaching units must be accumulated while teaching or TAing regular on-campus fall or spring semester courses offered by the Columbia University Department of Computer Science. Teaching or TAing at another institution, during summer session, for CVN, Continuing Education, or another Columbia department or office, does not qualify towards satisfying the teaching requirement.
Teaching units are normally acquired while formally enrolled in the doctoral program (MS/PhD, PhD or DES). However, teaching units as defined above that were accumulated while enrolled in a masters or professional degree program and appointed as a "teaching fellow" (not a "grader") by the Department of Computer Science at Columia University, can be imported into the doctoral program upon approval of the .
Funding as a "Teaching Fellow"
PhD students are typically funded by the department as teaching fellows during the last semester in which they complete the final component of the teaching requirement, but the funding can be delayed until later at the advisor's request under some circumstances. Masters and professional degree students are funded as teaching fellows during the same semester as their assignment. It is not possible to be appointed as both a teaching fellow and as a GRA (Graduate Research Assistant) during a given semester; a student normally funded as a GRA is instead funded as a teaching fellow for one semester. The stipend, tuition and fees support for doctoral teaching fellows is identical to doctoral GRAs.
Special arrangements can be made for students funded through outside fellowships to fulfill the constraints of that external program. However, the PhD teaching requirement is indeed a requirement, never waived, regardless of funding source (including self-supported or employer-supported students).
Funding as a "Preceptor"
After completing the teaching requirement, a qualified student may apply for a preceptor position, which pays somewhat more than a teaching fellow or GRA position. Information about qualifications and application procedures are here.
Additional Teaching/TAing
After completing the mandatory teaching requirement,
students making satisfactory progress, and with advisor approval, may
apply for voluntary instructor or TA positions when available. All
instructor assignments must be approved by the Academic Committee
Chair, currently (2008-2009) . TA assignments are made by the .
While in rare cases full funding may be available for certain positions
to address the department's teaching needs, these students are
typically paid relatively small amounts "add comp" (additional
compensation, currently as of July 2008 its $2000 per semester for PhD
students).
Summer Teaching
Independent of the PhD teaching requirement, graduate students may voluntarily elect to serve in some teaching capacity for summer courses. The courses offered and payscale vary from year to year. Contact for further information. Note that such summer teaching or TAing does not count towards satisfying the doctoral teaching requirement, but it is not necessary to complete the doctoral teaching requirement prior to summer teaching.