Is it common to ask students to help the teacher in the teacher's normal duties?

Confucius once said (in a rough translation) "It's student's job to serve the teacher when the teacher needs help." (the source in Chinese)

I think in most places, where Confucius's principle is still being followed, helping the teacher in his normal duties is considered normal.

However, help marking the sheets is not normal as far as I understand. At least, Confucius never graded his students. He did have comments about his students, though.


It is highly unusual for students to be asked to take part in teaching duties such as the ones you have ascribed. It would be unusual to ask someone to help with "mundane" or "brute force" tasks—although you could see asking anyone to help out in such circumstances, so I wouldn't think much of being asked to move books or other materials, if the individuals just happened to be standing there at the time.

As for grading and more "official" tasks, I think it would be highly inappropriate to ask a student to prepare the list of grades, or to assist in grading, if the student is actively enrolled in the course. That is because you are then placing those students in a position of authority over their fellow students, and potentially creating a conflict of interest. Note that this does not preclude the use of "graders," as they are not also enrolled in the class at the time.


I can only provide anecdotal value from the 3 european universities I attended up to this date and from what I heard from others.

It is not common at all to do this here.

It would however not be a problem to ask for help occasionally either. If a professor did this regularly, especially if it would affect the grading process, problems would arise very soon as students would not be fine with this and intervene by talking to other professors or the director etc etc.

I believe this can only work in cases where the students massively respect or depend on the professor, right? Because if a professor was known to ask students to help them outside of the classroom, most students would probably have better things to do and find an excuse when asked.