Hilfswissenschaftliche Tätigkeit

I promised to help a Praktikant at my office translate his CV into English, but I'm having trouble finding a corresponding term for the word "Hilfswissenschaftliche Taetigkeit" and was wondering if anyone could help? The context is position held; in this respect, as a student working for a University department chair. The closest term that springs to my mind is research assistant but I'm not sure if that is the correct term. Does anyone have any experience using this term? Thanks loads if you can help!!

I'm a wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft and call myself a research assistant. I've also heard the phrase used by german colleagues...