School of Social and Political Science

Guidance for Tutors

Tutoring in the School of Social and Political Science is a Student Experience post, giving our PhD students the opportunity to develop their teaching skills during the course of their degree. 

Key Guidance Documents

Please note: Some of these documents were last updated in 2023 but remain accurate. Any updates to this guidance will be advised to current SPS tutors and published here. 

If you require any of these documents in an alternative format, such as large print or coloured background, please contact sps.tutoring@ed.ac.uk 

DocumentDescription
Our quick guide provides the key information you need to begin as a course tutor. 
These documents cover topics such as contracts, pay issues, sick pay, annual leave, and line management. You can also refer to the University's Conditions of Service.
These outline the agreed tutorial models within the School, including tutor activities and payment hours associated with each model, as well as information on payment for marking and training activities.  

This provides details of how you will be paid for your tutoring work. 

Please note: You will be paid monthly, retrospectively, by direct transfer to your bank or building society account. For example, hours worked in October will be paid in November, and so on. Payments are made on the 28th of the month (unless this falls on the weekend or Bank Holiday).

 

SPS Job Descriptions & Rates of Pay

Tutorial Models & Paid Hours (Job Descriptions)

The below document outlines the agreed tutorial models within the School and what tutor activities and payment hours are associated with each model:

Senior Tutor (Tutorial Coordinator) 

The below document outlines the agreed activities and payment hours associated with the role of Senior Tutor (Tutorial Coordinator) on some large courses within the School:

 

Tutor Payment Within SPS

The below document provides details of how you will be paid for your tutoring work:

 

Please note: You will be paid monthly, retrospectively, by direct transfer to your bank or building society account. For example, hours worked in October will be paid in November, and so on. Payments are made on the 28th of the month (unless this falls on the weekend or Bank Holiday).

 

Marking Rates of Pay

The below documents detail the hours that can be claimed for marking assessment work within the School:

Versions for the 2025-26 academic session: Marking Rates 2025-26 Final.docx

SPS Tutor Payment Request Form

Please use the below form to claim payment for course meetings, training and development hours, absence cover. 

Your other hours will be entered on your behalf by professional services staff.  

Training & Course Meetings Payment Form

Training & Continuing Professional Development

SPS Tutor Training Learn Page

All SPS tutors will be added to the SPS Tutor Training Learn Page, which details training requirements for tutors in SPS, along with resources on several key topics.

If you are experiencing issues accessing this Learn page, or you were not added at the beginning of your employment, please get in touch with sps.tutoring@ed.ac.uk


UK GDPR Training

To comply with updates to the General Data Protection Regulation, 2018 (GDPR), all staff who handle personal data must complete our two online training courses:

  • Information Security Essentials
  • Data Protection Training

Guidance on how to access these courses can be found in our Compulsory Training for UK GDPR document:

Compulsory Training For UK GDPR

Institute for Academic Development (IAD)

The Institute for Academic Development offer a number of training workshops, support materials and courses for tutors and demonstrators.

For tutors we recommend:

Recording Student Attendance

Attendance Monitoring

Attendance is monitored by the School as part of our more general monitoring of student engagement and progress. Keeping attendance helps alert staff to any additional pastoral or academic support needs students might require. Staff can then provide advice, guidance or support in a timely and useful manner.

Attendance must be taken at all small teaching events (tutorials or seminars). If a class has less than 51 students and has no tutorial or seminars, attendance must also be taken at the lecture. Attendance is taken using the Student Engagement Monitoring System created by Student Systems (more details of the system are below). 

The course administrator will create and upload course registers at the end of teaching week 2. Please note that until this has been completed you will not be able to view any of your group information.

Students can still transfer in and out of their courses and tutorials in Week 2 so there may be some changes to your tutorial groups. When your course administrator has uploaded your register information you can access these by following the guidance below.

Tutors must take attendance in all of their tutorial groups. Guidance on how to access this system, take attendance as well as video demonstrations can be found here:

The College also has a guide for tutors taking attendance where for tutorials are held on Collaborate, Teams and Zoom. Please see the Student attendance tips and tricks document for full details: Student attendance tips and tricks

Accessing Your Registers

  • You must use your staff account to log into your staff EASE account
  • You must ensure your browser (Firefox preferred) settings allow for pop-ups
  • The first time you login to your Staff MyEd, please follow the guidance on the Student Systems webpages
  • All attendance must be electronically entered into the EUCLID system within 24 hours of the teaching activity taking place
  • Login via MyEd using your staff login details. (See Teaching tab and select Student Attendance Recording)

Note for New Tutors

If you are a new tutor and have not tutored for SPS before, it may take us a few weeks to get your UUN into the system that allows you to access the online attendance monitoring system.

Please use the paper template for taking attendance and make sure you input this information into the online system as soon as you are able. Paper templates can be found below:

Please keep checking regularly to see if you have access to the online system. If you do not have access by week 3, please contact sps.tutoring@ed.ac.uk

Teaching Office