Last year I either spent my days in court (as a clerk, not a criminal) or applying for every award I could find. Attending a university as an international student is a very expensive undertaking, with fees being up to three times that of home students. And I was successful, winning a Graduate Teaching Assistantship and, at the last minute, a College Studentship. The studentship meant a significant part of my costs would be covered by the university, but the opportunity to teach is too great an opportunity to pass up.
I began leading seminars on British History One, a first-year survey course covering four centuries, in September. I teach 3 seminars per week, ten students per seminar. Over the year there's 22 seminars to plan, prepare and lead, 4 2000 word essays to mark per student, and a final exam to mark. Its a significant time commitment. And I love it. Plus its a great chance to brush up on my British political history.
The problem lies in the award itself. This is the first year the School offered teaching placements as an award. Instead of being an employee, we're award winners and are therefore paid a set amount monthly, rather than hourly at a set wage. I don't have to pay tax or get a National Insurance Number. But I also wasn't getting paid.
In September I filled out standard tax forms for Human Resources. These included sections on personal information, bank account information, and proof of my address and the UK visa terms in my passport. This was submitted to the first secretary responsible for postgrad students. In October I was given a Disclosure form to access police records from the second secretary, which is standard practice for anyone working with young or old populations and if yours doesn't pass you can't work and certainly can't get paid. Of course, by this time I had been working for 4 weeks. It took 6 weeks for the results to come through and be submitted to the university.
In mid-October I was given a timesheet to fill out on a monthly basis. Having missed September's deadline by weeks, I've since submitted it the last week of every month to the third secretary, this one being for undergrad courses like the one I tutor for. By the beginning of November I contacted her to find out more information about my award, and she referred me back to the second one who said she'd email me the necessary form that night (a Monday). On Wednesday I went to her office and asked her for the form -- she was "too busy" but said she'd email it me it the next day. On Friday I emailed her again and cc'd my supervisor in the hopes that she'd take my request seriously. It worked. She sent me a form that afternoon.
Unfortunately this form did not seem to apply. It was for a one-time payment to compensate a worker for ad hoc work. This was far more than disappointing. Ignoring it and her "help," I began speaking with other students in the hopes of getting some actual information. Another Canadian first year PhD student who'd won the same award and had filled out the same forms for the first secretary let me know that she'd been getting paid since October. I was shocked and worried.
I checked in with the first secretary, who assured me that the problem was that HR doesn't accept anything after the 5th of the month. Since my disclosure hadn't come through until the 15th of November or so, I wouldn't get paid until the end of the month. I felt better.
On Tuesday I noticed an email in my Hotmail account's Junk folder. Secretary two had sent out the same odd ad hoc work form to me again, as well as to the other award recipients, but for some reason used our old informal email addresses rather than our official university ones. I sent back questions about the information she wanted, as it was the same as on the forms for secretary one and the timesheets regularly submitted to secretary three. What I got in response was a notification that she had gone on holiday until the deadline of the forms, so I filled them out.
Today a mysterious amount of money was deposited into my bank account that was similar to the monthly amount my peer had received. I was so relieved. But questions still remain. When will I be paid for the other two months I've worked? Why did I have to fill out the weird ad hoc form, which hasn't been processed and yet I've started getting paid? And what is the full amount of the award? No one has ever been able to answer that for me. Having three secretaries be responsible for one award which no one person understands seems like an obvious mistake for the school and a stressful one for its students.
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