Postgraduate teaching and marking employment status

Short answer

In most cases, yes. When a postgraduate student carries out teaching, demonstrating, seminar leading, marking or similar work for their university and is paid for it, that activity is normally paid work that carries employment rights. The important question is not usually whether it is “paid employment” in a loose sense, but which category of employment status applies, because that determines which rights attach.

However, the precise answer depends on the arrangement. Some postgraduate teaching and marking is genuinely paid work. Some is unpaid and treated as part of a studentship, training, or a scholarship condition. And some marking is folded into a scholarship or stipend in a way that raises questions about whether it should have been separately paid. The label the university uses is not decisive; what matters is the reality of the relationship.

The three employment status categories

English and Welsh law recognises three main categories, and postgraduate teaching can fall into any of them depending on the facts.

Employee. A person working under a contract of employment, with mutuality of obligation, an obligation to do the work personally, and a sufficient degree of control by the employer. Employees have the fullest set of rights, including unfair dismissal protection (usually after qualifying service), statutory redundancy pay, and statutory notice.

Worker. A broader category covering anyone who works under a contract to perform work or services personally, where the other party is not a client or customer of a business run by the individual. Workers are entitled to the national minimum wage or national living wage, paid holiday under the Working Time Regulations 1998, rest breaks, protection against unlawful deductions from wages, whistleblowing protection, and protection from discrimination. Many casual graduate teaching assistants sit in this category.

Self-employed. A person genuinely in business on their own account. This is uncommon for internal university teaching, because the university typically controls what is taught, when, and how, and expects the individual to do the work personally.

The GOV.UK guidance on employment status confirms that workers are entitled to core rights such as the national minimum wage, holiday pay and protection against unlawful discrimination, while employees additionally have rights that can depend on continuous service.

How universities usually structure this

Practice varies between institutions, which is why the answer turns on your particular contract. Two common models illustrate the range.

Some universities engage graduate teaching assistants expressly as employees. For example, the University of Kent describes its GTAs as holding a dual status: they are both registered students in receipt of a scholarship and employees of the university, subject to staff conditions of service as well as student terms, with a salary calculated over a set number of hours per year including annual leave.

Other universities engage graduate teaching assistants as casual or temporary workers rather than employees. The University of York, for instance, treats GTAs as temporary and casual workers, normally engaged on casual or short-term contracts, with set rates of pay administered through its temporary worker arrangements.

Both models involve paid work with employment rights attached. The difference is the level of protection: an employee has more rights than a casual worker, but a casual worker is still entitled to at least the national minimum wage, paid holiday and protection from discrimination and unlawful deductions.

The key issue: is marking and preparation being paid at all, and at the right rate

A recurring problem in the sector is not whether teaching is “employment” but whether all the hours actually worked are being paid, and whether the effective hourly rate meets the national minimum wage.

Teaching-related work is not only the contact time in the room. It normally includes preparation, reading, setting up materials, marking, giving written feedback, holding office hours, answering student emails, and attending required meetings or training. If a GTA is paid a flat rate per teaching hour or per script marked, but the real time spent pushes the effective hourly rate below the applicable national minimum or living wage, that can be an underpayment the individual is entitled to recover. National minimum wage law looks at total pay divided by total working hours in the relevant pay reference period, not at a notional “contact hours only” figure.

So the more precise questions are usually:

1. Are you being paid for marking and preparation, or only for contact time?

2. When your total pay is divided by all the hours you actually worked, does it meet the national minimum or living wage for your age band?

3. Are you receiving paid holiday on top of, or properly rolled into, your pay?

If the honest answer is that substantial marking or preparation time is unpaid, or that the effective rate falls below the minimum wage, you may have a claim.

Where the activity may not be paid employment

Not every postgraduate teaching-type activity is paid work. Distinguishing genuine work from other arrangements matters, and there are ordinary explanations that are not unlawful.

Studentship or training obligations. Some funded PhD studentships require a modest amount of teaching or demonstrating as part of the training and professional development attached to the award, rather than as separately paid employment. Where teaching is genuinely a condition of a scholarship and reflected in the stipend, that can be a legitimate arrangement rather than unpaid labour. The line becomes blurred, however, if the “training” is in substance ordinary teaching work that the department relies on to deliver its curriculum. In that situation the reality may point towards worker status regardless of the studentship label.

Voluntary or occasional activity. Genuinely voluntary, ad hoc participation with no obligation and no expectation of pay may not create worker status. But regular, timetabled, university-directed teaching and marking generally does.

The stipend or scholarship point. A tax-exempt maintenance stipend for doctoral study is not wages. But if you are also doing defined paid teaching work, that teaching work is a separate matter and should be paid and treated on its own terms. The fact that you receive a stipend does not remove your rights in respect of separate paid teaching.

Why the label the university uses is not decisive

If a dispute arises, an employment tribunal looks at the true nature of the relationship, not just the wording of the contract. Terms that do not reflect what actually happens in practice can be disregarded. The central factual questions are whether you had to do the work personally, how much control the university exercised over what and how you taught and marked, whether there was an ongoing obligation to offer and accept work, and how integrated you were into the department. If the substance shows a personal-service relationship under university control, you are very likely at least a worker, and possibly an employee, even if the paperwork calls you a “scholar” or “student demonstrator”.

What this means for your rights

If you are a worker or employee doing paid teaching and marking, you are entitled to at least the following.

The national minimum wage or national living wage for all working time, including marking and preparation, calculated across the pay reference period.

Paid annual leave under the Working Time Regulations 1998, pro-rated to the work done.

No unauthorised deductions from your wages, so unpaid marking hours you were required to do can be pursued as unpaid wages.

Protection from discrimination and, if you raise concerns about underpayment or unlawful practice, protection from detriment for doing so.

If you are an employee rather than a casual worker, you additionally gain rights such as statutory notice, potential redundancy pay, and unfair dismissal protection subject to the qualifying rules.

Practical next steps

1. Find and read your contract or engagement letter, your offer of the teaching role, and any scholarship or studentship terms. Note how you are described and whether marking and preparation are expressly covered by the pay.

2. Keep a contemporaneous record of every hour you actually work, split into teaching, preparation, marking, feedback, office hours, meetings and training. This is the single most useful piece of evidence for any minimum wage or unpaid wages question.

3. Work out your effective hourly rate by dividing total pay by total hours in the relevant period, and compare it to the current national minimum or living wage for your age band.

4. Raise it informally first with the module leader, department or HR, ideally in writing, setting out the hours and the figures. Many universities will correct genuine underpayments once shown the calculation, and check whether your institution recognises a trade union such as UCU, which can represent and support you.

5. If informal resolution fails, use the university’s formal grievance procedure in writing.

6. If that does not resolve it, an unpaid wages or national minimum wage complaint can be pursued through Acas early conciliation and, if necessary, the employment tribunal. Be aware that tribunal claims for unlawful deductions and holiday pay are subject to strict time limits, generally three months less one day from the deduction or the last in a series, so do not let matters drift. You can also report suspected minimum wage breaches to HMRC.

Key missing facts

To give you a firmer answer, it would help to know which university this is and exactly how you are engaged, whether you receive a separate stipend or scholarship as well as teaching pay, whether your pay is per contact hour or per activity, whether marking and preparation are expressly paid, and what your total hours and total pay look like over a typical period. Those facts determine both your status and whether there is an underpayment to recover.