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It's
Not Easy to be a Graduate Assistant
By
Sylvia Lam
Every year, many fourth year students of the University of Macau
(UM) who want to continue to study Master degree programs wish to
obtain studentships. However, the competition is very keen.
UM
offers a postgraduate studentship scheme for post-graduate students
to study their Master's degree. Students who successfully obtain
the studentships automatically become graduate assistants. They
don't have to pay for the tuition fee and get paid MOP7, 500 monthly.
However, they must finish their Master's degree within two years,
otherwise they have to pay for themselves.
The
quota for the studentships is limited and each major has its own
quota. For instance, the Department of Electronics and Electrical
Engineering, Faculty of Science Technology (FST) has only one quota;
the Faculty of Law (FLL) and Faculty of Education (FED) have two
quotas each, and the Department of English Communication, Faculty
of Social Science and Humanity (FSH) has two quotas. The Faculty
of Business Administration (FBA) has the most places, about 23.
There are about 40 graduate assistant places altogether in UM.
To
apply for the studentship, a student applicant has to submit two
recommendation letters, one from a university academic and the other
of the applicant's choice, both of them are able to judge the applicant's
academic qualification, character and so on. Students with GPA 3.3
or above are eligible to apply for the studentship. However, they
have to compete with other students since the available quota of
the studentship is limited.
"Every applicant of the studentship is a top student. So the
competition is very keen," said Hong Sio Ian, 24, a teaching
assistant in FST. Normally, one quota is competed by four students
and they are all best students in their major. The GPA grade is
an important factor to decide whether a student would be awarded
a studentship or not, but it's not the only one. Other factors also
count, e.g. the performance of a student during the past four years.
"If a student actively attended activities on or off campus,
it's an advantage," added Hong.
Mak
Keng Ieng, 23, a current teaching assistant in Economics, FSH said,
"Being a teaching assistant is not easy because I'm also a
student, so I have to have a well planned schedule to arrange my
work and my study." A teaching assistant usually has classes
in the evenings, and works for professors or a department in the
daytime. "Sometimes, it will be very busy when there is a project
or research to finish, I need to do the contact and preparation
work beforehand and also solve problems that would appear during
the progress," Mak said.
"I
have enjoyed being a graduate assistant in the past two years, although
I have to study and take up duties in teaching and research works
at the same time," Hong added.
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