A productive way to cut

Sometimes, when you can see the likenesses, it makes it easier to want to write that essay.

In my two years here, so far I have been taught by three PhD students. Each time I found it an incredibly rewarding experience and I can tell you for certain that I have learnt just as much and enjoyed as much intellectual stimulation with these “students” as I have in any of my seminars with established “academics”. Yes, sometimes, it was interesting to have world-leading academics teaching their subject – but the experience was often equal parts interesting and terrifying. I once didn’t say anything for an entire seminar because I was so daunted by the prospect of contradicting a woman who had spent the last ten years or more of her life working on something that I wanted to contend with.

In marked contrast, PhD students are approachable and relatable. It was always fun to use the first half of an essay tutorial chatting about what we had gotten up to the night before. Okay, so a shared experience of Dusk or Ziggy’s might not have been the best way to go about working on structuring an essay on Mrs Dalloway, but it was relaxing – and helped to put an easily overwhelmed fresher at her ease. Sometimes the great academics can be a tad intense for 9.15; with the PhD students you often got more of a sense of camaraderie. A kept point that many people have argued in their campaigns against this proposal is that taking on the teaching of undergraduates must be detrimental to postgraduate study. After all, who wants to spend time preparing seminars or marking work when they could be doing their own original research?

I would argue that teaching undergraduates is one of the most rewarding things a postgraduate student could do in their PhD study. Teaching is a coveted skill in mant vocations – giving their students a chance to master it has to only be a good thing. Also, leading seminars give PhD students a chance to air their own views and “test” their ideas, as it were, to a captive audience. Just as us undergrads are encouraged to discuss our ideas with friends, even call on our tutors in their office hours, PhD students can use their seminars to assist and even advance their original research. There is also the added bonus of the financial reward. For these students, taking seminars is a valuable source of income for what is an expensive few years. One of my student teachers freely admitted as much in our very first lesson with him. He had volunteered to take our class, of course, because he was passionate about the subject, but essentially because he “needed the money”. Surely it should be viewed as a positive thing that the University is offering work for postgraduates in this less than encouraging economy?

It can be seen, then, that sharing the load of teaching undergraduates can be beneficial to both PhD students and established academics. It provides the students with an income and useful skills for the future, as well as potentially aiding their research; added to this, if more PhD students are leading seminars, more senior academics will have more time to devote to their more extensive research.

And for us: the undergraduates; sometimes it is best to have a balance in our academic journey. For first years at least, a seminar tutor who is still technically a student can help ease you into the world of a university degree. A student tutor who could be you in a few years time, shows you how a student becomes an academic – and how exciting that can be – and can make the world of academia a whole lot less daunting.

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