TA/TM/Sessional Employment

Employment Opportunities in MSE

Mechatronic Systems Engineering (MSE) welcomes qualified graduate and undergraduate students to apply for Teaching Assistant (TA) positions for MSE courses. Students must apply/reapply and be selected for TA positions each term. All positions are subject to budgetary approval and sufficient enrollment.

SFU is an equity employer and encourages applications from all qualified individuals including women, persons with disabilities, visible minorities, Indigenous Peoples, people of all sexual orientations and gender identities, and others who may contribute to the further diversification of the university.

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TA Postings
Requirements
Appointment Priorities
Application Portals
Other Opportunities

The TA applications for Summer 2025 are now closed.

Specific Course Requirements

Each course within Mechatronic Systems Engineering has its own requirements. Review the requirements before you apply.

Notes:

Teaching assistant and marker pay rates are determined by the 2022-2024 TSSU Wage Schedules. Salary per Base Unit (BU): $1242; Scholarship per BU (does not include prep units which are typically 0.17): Master's (GTA1) - $190; PhD (GTA2) - $420. Undergrad and non-student TAs and Markers do not receive scholarship pay.
All positions are subject to budgetary approval and sufficient enrollment.
For the latest updates on course and lab schedules, instructors, and more, visit: go.sfu.ca.
Course outlines can be viewed here.

Job description

By accepting a TA/TM appointment, you are confirming your commitment to be available for the entire duration of the appointment, including any subsequent assignments or requirements that may be assigned to you such as:

orientation, planning, and coordinating meetings
lectures, if required
assigned labs or tutorials
assignment, mid-term, and final exam marking
mid-term and final exam invigilation
office hours

Detailed Description

Conducting weekly laboratory sessions or tutorials throughout the semester, whether mandatory or optional, and ensuring the seamless operation of these sessions by fulfilling all necessary responsibilities for effective instruction.
Providing students with support, guidance, and constructive feedback on their coursework through written or verbal communication, assisting them in their learning journey.
Hosting office hours for designated courses, where Teaching Assistants are expected to assist students in understanding course materials and assignment requirements efficiently.
Assisting course instructor in invigilating and grading midterms and finals, as well as evaluating assignments, quizzes, and projects as needed.

Requirements

General Requirements

Must possess a thorough understanding of the course's discipline to effectively interpret and explain course materials.
Should demonstrate sufficient written and verbal communication skills to provide support to both students and instructors throughout the semester, whether through in-person interactions or via email correspondence.
Must exhibit adept time management and organizational skills, particularly for courses involving labs and tutorials.
Should be available for various responsibilities including attending lectures, conducting labs, holding office hours, invigilating and grading midterms and finals, as well as evaluating assignments, quizzes, and projects as needed.
For consideration of re-employment, a Teaching Assistant must maintain a satisfactory level of performance, as assessed through TA ratings on course evaluation forms and feedback from course instructors.

Education Requirements

Teaching Assistants must have an undergraduate degree in mechatronics engineering, or engineering science, or an equivalent post-secondary degree from a recognized institution.
Applicants must have broad and specific knowledge of the individual course requirements and pre-requisites in order to provide optimum TA support for students and course instructors.
An industry experience specific to the course(s) applied for is an asset.

Appointment Priorities

MSE TA Selection Priority Criteria

According to Article XIII F.3.2 of the Collective Agreement with the TSSU, when selecting TAs for a course among applicants within the same priority group as outlined in Article XIII F, the Graduate Program Committee will consider the following criteria:

Instructor’s rankings: Course instructors are required to rank the applicants based on factors such as course-related qualifications, communication skills, TA ratings on course evaluation forms, and instructor evaluations of existing TAs. According to B.1, high priority is given to applicants that have sufficient knowledge in the discipline related to the course, based on the information provided in the application forms by the applicants and the required qualifications listed in the posting. The instructors may also interview the applicants to determine the rankings.
Applicants’ qualifications for particular courses (e.g., discipline of prior degree(s), TA evaluations, expertise).
Thesis-based graduate students (PhD, MASc) have higher priority than non-thesis based program students (e.g., Professional Master’s).
Within a priority group, applicants will be given lower priority if they hold financial support with a value greater than 5.17 base units from merit-based scholarships/fellowships during the semester of appointment. Merit-based scholarships/fellowships include GF, FAS-GF, President’s Scholarship, Graduate Dean Entrance Scholarship (GDES) (previously MYF), Tri-Council awards, foreign government merit-based scholarships.
Graduate student applicants who would exceed their normal completion times during the appointment (over 12 semesters for PhD and 6 semesters for Master’s) would have lower priority.

TSSU Agreement Excerpts

The priority for appointment/re-appointment as a Teaching Assistant in the School of Mechatronic Systems Engineering is in accordance with Section B.1, F.1 - F.9 and H.1 - H.2 of Article XIII of the Collective Agreement with the Teaching Support Staff Union (TSSU), specially the following sections:

B. Qualifications
B.1. Many departments include a wide range of specializations and, in order to be appointed, a person must have sufficient knowledge in the discipline of the course to interpret the course material.

F. Appointment Priority
F.1 Teaching Assistants may be appointed to fill teaching support positions only when faculty members are unavailable. Faculty members and full time employees of the University are not Teaching Assistants. However, no appointment of a Sessional Lecturer I may be made if there is a qualified graduate student within the first priority group (specified in F.3.) available for appointment as a GTA (graduate teaching assistant).

F.3 a. In hiring Teaching Assistants, departments shall give priority to the applicants in the following order:
(i) Graduate students registered in the department
(ii) Graduate students registered in other departments
(iii) Undergraduate Teaching Assistants (UTA) or External Teaching Assistants (ETA)

b. Prior to appointing a Teaching Assistant from applicants in (ii) or (iii), the department must have provided at least a five (5) base unit appointment to those applicants in (i). Subsequently, the same will be applied to those applicants in (ii) prior to appointing a Teaching Assistant from applicants in (iii). If any graduate students request less than five (5) base units, then fulfilling that request will be sufficient to comply with this requirement.

F.4 a) If a graduate student indicates in writing a desire to TA in their department, s/he will be deemed to have applied for all available TA positions in the relevant semester. Such graduate students will not be required to apply for specific appointments, but may indicate their preferences for particular courses.
b) Graduate students from outside the department must apply in writing and indicate the courses to which they are applying; they may indicate any preferences for particular courses.

F.5 If Teaching Assistant positions become available after the initially posted positions in the department have been assigned, the department will notify all graduate students
registered in the department, via email. In addition, the position will be posted on the central posting system in accordance with the last paragraph of Article XVI.

Qualified graduate students who have been allocated less than five (5) base units in a given semester who apply specifically for these new positions, will have priority for additional base units up to five (5). These positions shall be assigned in accordance with Article XIII F.

F.8 Failure to give timely acceptance of an offer of appointment may result in loss of priority for that semester.

F.9 The appointing department shall make all reasonable efforts to apply candidates’ stated preferences, when appointments and assignments are made.

H. Re-employment as a Teaching Assistant
H.1 To be considered for re-employment, a graduate or undergraduate Teaching Assistant must maintain satisfactory performance as a Teaching Assistant.
H.2 The re-employment of Teaching Assistants will also depend on the needs and budget resources of the university

Selection Procedure

The selection of TAs will start with lower level courses that have high enrollment to ensure that the most appropriate TAs are selected for these courses first. In addition, normally no individual should be assigned TA for more than one course in a semester unless under special circumstances (e.g., when there is no required expertise or lack of number of candidates in the pool for a course).

For each course, one or more candidates will be selected based on the criteria listed in Section 2. The applicant(s) on the ranked list (a) are first considered for each course based on the number of TA base units allocated to that particular course. Each candidate is then checked against criteria (b), followed by (c), (d), and (e). If the candidate meets all the criteria, s/he will be selected. If the above process does not work out, for example due to insufficient applications meeting all the criteria, the candidate that meet most of the criteria may be selected. The position may be re-advertised if no qualified candidate can be found.