Training, Managing and Supporting Sessional Teaching Staff

The Training, Managing and Supporting Sessional Teaching Staff Project was funded by the Australian Universities Teaching Committee (AUTC), a national body aimed at improving teaching and learning in Australian universities, through the identification of emerging issues in teaching and learning, supporting the identification of effective strategies for enhancing learning, and encouraging the dissemination and adoption of these methods across the sector. For more details about how the project was conducted, see about this project.

Sessional teachers

For current purposes, sessional teachers are defined as any university instructors not in tenured or permanent positions. This may include part-time tutors or demonstrators, postgraduate students or research fellows involved in part-time teaching, external people from industry or professions, clinical tutors, casually employed lecturers or any other teachers regularly employed on a course-by-course basis.

Intended audiences

The resources on this site are intended for a variety of audiences and include:

• university administrators and managers
• heads of department and heads of schools
• course/subject coordinators and supervisors of sessional teachers
• sessional teachers

While some of the resources on this site are relevant for anyone concerned with the management, training or support of sessional teachers, other resources are tailored for specific audiences, such as the teaching ideas page, which is expressly included for sessional teachers and their supervisors.

For university administrators, heads of school and subject coordinators, a key resource is the guidelines section. Three analogous sets of guidelines exist for each of these audiences. The guidelines are also supplemented by checklists at the school and subject levels, which represent abridged versions of the guidelines. A checklist for sessional teachers is also included, and aims to empower sessional teachers to proactively improve or enhance their own working conditions.

Other resources developed as part of this project can be found by visiting the resources and case studies sections of this site. These sections include a variety of information, including a review of the relevant literature, related reports, examples of best practice and links to other practical and helpful sites.