Teachers in institutions of higher learning have lower professional titles than lecturers. In principle, teaching assistants can't teach alone, or they can't teach all the courses of a subject. He will follow the lecturer or professor to correct homework and assist in teaching. The titles of teachers are teaching assistant, lecturer, associate professor and professor in turn.

In universities in Chinese mainland, teaching assistants are the lowest-ranking titles among university teachers. Generally speaking, if a master's degree holder gets a position in a university, his first title is teaching assistant.