Teaching: statement of the current situation

PhD students have  to teach in order to obtain their degree. I want to outline the background to this here and discuss possible issues. I will discuss possible steps in a later post.

Clearly, the university needs teaching.This is done by employees of the university, being professors, graduate students or undergarduate students. These have contracts that state their teaching duties and the salary they receive for their important work. But PhD students are also routinely used for teaching, often without contracts, clear rules and even without payment. I do not want to discuss the reasons here, but the rules according to which this takes place.

The faculty homepage mentions for applicants to PhD studies:

These candidates are requested in addition to print out the excerpt from the faculty regulations for doctoral studies and the teaching requirements for graduate students, and to submit these documents, signed, together with their application. (faculty page)

Whatever the homepage says, relevant are the documents signed by applicants and the implications of these. Applicants sign an application form (here) where, among others, they declare to do their PhD studies according to the faculty redulations, specify their dissertation topic and their advisor. Concerning teaching, the document states:

I declare that I will perform the required teaching, as listed in the Attachment “Teaching Requirements for Doctoral Students” which I have received with this form and will provide proof of this as part of the admission to my final doctoral examinations. (here)

What does this tell us about teaching? 
1. The faculty regualtions for doctoral students ("Promotionsordnung") http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/imperia/md/content/studium/download/stud_pruef/promotionsordnung_nawi_ma.pdf do not state teaching explicitly. The only relevant paragraph for making students teach is §6(3):

Sofern ein Doktorandenprogramm in dem betreffenden Promotionsfach existiert, sind die Doktoranden bzw. Doktorandinnen aufgerufen, zu ihrer fachlichen Fortbildung an diesem teilzunehmen. Durch Regelungen der einzelnen Fakultäten wird festgelegt, in welchem Umfang der Kandidat bzw. die Kandidatin zur Teilnahme verpflichtet ist. Den Verpflichtungen der Doktoranden bzw. Doktorandinnen in interdisziplinären Doktorandenprogrammen und Graduiertenkollegs ist hierbei Rechnung zu tragen.  

Saying that students being part of a PhD program or graduate school need to follow its regulations.

2. But the applicant signed that he/she will perform the required teaching as explained in the attachment
“Teaching Requirements for Doctoral Students” (http://www.physik.uni-heidelberg.de/studium/graduierte/pdf/2_Teaching_Requirements_for_Doctoral_Students_Dekanat.pdf)
Now this document is much more explicit. It states:

1) It is assumed that every student, during the course of his/her doctoral studies, will participate in teaching. This teaching requirement is independent of the mode of financing that has been made available for the doctoral study.
... 

3) The Department of Physics and Astronomy expects that, independent of the internal regulations of each Institute for the required duties of the student with regard to teaching, each student performs at least one teaching activity of one “Semester Unit*” during the course of his/her doctoral studies and provides proof of this in order to register successfully for the final examination.

Wow. Everybody has to teach at least one semester, the rest is decided by the institutes. This seems to settle the issue and put the faculty on the safe side.

But, looking at the specific situation of various students raises several important questions:

1. Insurance: Is a student without any contract with the university protected by an insurance while teaching. This can definitely by an issue in lab courses. 
2. Legal status. Can the university force students to work for the university (by teaching) without any contract? 
3. Contradicting funding contract. Many students have external funding (DFG, EU, or other scholarships) that forbid explicitly a) other activites than research and/or b) using university facilities. How can these students teach when their funding explicitly forbids it?

Note that these points concern many students. About half the students of the HGSFP do not have contracts but scholarships. This means at least about 100 students in Heidelberg.

The legal situation and the reasons for these teaching requirements given by the faculty will be discussed in other posts.