Training Postgraduates for Teaching: considerations for programme planning and development

With the publication of the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) report, Review of Postgraduate Education (1996), much interest is focusing on the quality of course provision for graduate students. This paper reviews several rationales for supporting postgraduates in their roles as graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) and considers content areas that might be included in the design of training programmes. The paper builds on the author's involvement in a university‐wide study that reviewed current practice, and that examined how graduate students and hourly paid lecturers are deployed, and what might be done in order to make training support work most effectively. Future roles of GTAs and suggestions for introducing and managing change in general and gaining support for the introduction of GTA training are also briefly explored.