Professors and Lecturers

Professors and lecturers are members of the faculty who have earned advanced degrees, usually doctorates. While both professors and lecturers teach courses, professors are also required to conduct research, supervise the research of graduate students, write grant proposals, and serve on various departmental and university committees. UCSB sometimes has visiting professors (members of the faculty of another college or university) who come to teach here for a specified length of time. This provides your student with the opportunity to experience a wide variety of professors with different specialties. All professors and lecturers are required to hold weekly office hours during which time they are available to meet with students and answer their individual questions. Most also encourage interaction and questions via e-mail.

Guest Lecturers

Guest lecturers are graduate students, professors, or community members who have been asked to speak to your student’s class because of their knowledge or experience in a certain area. An instructor invites a guest lecturer to speak to their class to tie the concepts of the course to people and events in the real world. A guest lecturer could be a minister from the community or a scientist from NASA. The guest lecturer may even be famous!

Teaching Associates

Teaching Associates are graduate student instructors. These graduate students have already earned a Master’s degree and have displayed expertise in their academic field. Working as temporary members of the UCSB faculty, teaching associates teach small seminars as well as large introductory lecture courses. A few come from other universities for a quarter to teach one or two classes.

Teaching Assistants (TAs)

Teaching Assistants (TAs) are graduate students who, while pursuing an advanced degree, are employed part-time by the university to assist faculty and provide supplementary instruction. They work closely with professors to teach discussion sections or laboratories, write examinations, conduct review sessions, grade tests and papers, and hold office hours. Discussion and laboratory sections with TAs provide the opportunity to discuss course material or gain hands-on experience in small groups. UCSB is committed to helping TAs prepare for their teaching responsibilities. The training begins with a university-wide orientation and continues with ongoing department-based TA training. TAs work hard to be effective instructors and many plan to research and possibly become professors.

International TAs

International teaching assistants are TAs from other parts of the world. The graduate programs at UCSB attract talented individuals from around the world, which offers students the opportunity to interact with people from other countries. The Graduate Division requires international TAs to demonstrate English language proficiency before teaching. While language problems are unlikely, an international TA may have an interesting accent to which your student will adapt quickly. It is always important for your student to ask for clarification on course concepts that he or she doesn’t understand.

Readers/Graders

Readers are usually graduate students who are hired to grade some or all of the tests or assignments for a course. They are often used for upper division courses which do not have TAs, but have too much grading for one person. Instructors provide readers with specific grading standards and often the reader has already taken the class. Readers may hold office hours so students can get help or information.