(I) Overview
An Academic Associate (AA) is an expert or specialist in a particular content area who is hired to assist with a course under the supervision of the Faculty. A successful Academic Associate (AA) must be available to respond to students, evaluate their work, and provide useful and timely feedback in accordance with the deadlines established by the Faculty. An AA does not teach. We may or may not be required, sporadically, to hold a few recitation/tutorial sessions to assist smaller groups of students. Other than this, teaching is not part of the job scope.
(II) Key Responsibilities
Think of an AA as an advanced and a more competent version of a Teaching Assistant but whose job description is beyond assisting the professors and students in class but also someone who is heavily involved in planning, preparing and ensuring the execution of a course from end-to-end. An AA is also involved in many administrative, management and research tasks which are both academic and management related.
An AA is the ultimate buffer/key person in terms of discussion between:
- professors and students
- Program Offices (MBA Full Time, MBA Working Professional, Master in Central Banking Offices), professors and students
- Departments (Faculty, Program Offices, AV/IT, etc)
(III) Education Background
- Master’s Degree holder is preferred and/or Bachelor’s Degree holder (from appropriately accredited institutions).
- Background of your Master’s and/or Bachelor’s and your expertise must include, some or a combination, of the following:
- Finance
- Managerial Finance
- Financial Statement Analysis
- Behavioural Finance
- Corporate Finance
- Entrepreneurial Finance
- Accounting
- Financial Accounting
- Managerial Accounting
- Banking
- Risk Management (related to financial institutions)
- Assets Management & Assets Pricing
- Reserve Management
- Big data and Block Chain
- Data & Digital Technologies
- Data Analytics and Modelling
- Financial Crisis Management
- Macroeconomy
- Economics
It would be an advantage if you have an earlier exposure or are open/willing to learn the following:
- Energy Policy
- Marketing (Brand, Digital, Services, Management)
- Statistics
- Political Economy
- Ethics
- International Law
- Entrepreneurship
- Negotiation
- Operations Management
- Communications
- Game Theory, Platforms
- Research Method
- Organizational Behaviours
(IV) Preferred Qualifications
3 to 5 years’ direct experience. Candidate with research and academic experience would be desirable. Strong interest in academic writing is also desirable.
(V) The Academic Associate assumes responsibility as allocated by the Faculty (and any other stakeholders), including the following tasks:
- Answer course and content-related questions.
- Facilitate discussion with students with the goal of contributing content expertise and practical experience.
- Grade assignments and provide individual constructive feedback to students in a timely manner (to be established by the Faculty and agreed upon by the Academic Associate).
- The AA is responsible for evaluating student work according to four central criteria:
Quality of assignment – did the student follow the directions (i.e., page length, line spacing, response to all assignment criteria which was established by the instructor) completely?
Content accuracy – did the student respond appropriately to the content, was it coherent?
Timeliness – was the assignment turned in on time (as posted by the instructor)?
Mechanics – evaluate the grammar, spelling, punctuation.
- Use any required rubrics to assess assignments when providing feedback.
- Feedback should be personalized.
- Feedback should provide both supportive and corrective comments.
- The amount and type (i.e., using a general rubric that is filled out and returned to the student, copying and pasting frequently repeated comments from a central template of sample comments, or writing more detailed, analytical comments on an assignment) of feedback provided to students should be proportional to the complexity of the given assignment.
- Be available to communicate with students at all times via live and remote methods such as email, chat, phone or video conference, including responding to student emails within 24 hours.
- Notify the Faculty if issues of academic integrity arise.
- Communicate and collaborate with the Faculty and other course Academic Associate with the goal of developing a cohesive Academic team and assuring a common student experience.
- Keep track of questions and issues during the course; work with the Faculty to propose revisions to materials for future class offerings.
- Maintain confidentiality about student performance and discuss confidential information obtained in a course or through the program only for appropriate professional purposes and only with persons clearly concerned with such matters.
(VI) Competencies Required in addition to the above
- Excellent organizational skills and a high level of attention to detail.
- Interest in working in a very high pace and dynamic environment.
- Ability to communicate complex information with substantial impact.
- Work on multiple projects at the same time.
- Excellent research skills with proven record.
- Capacity to conduct research independently.