Academic Workload Allocation Policy

Academic Workload Allocation policy

ACADEMIC WORKLOAD ALLOCATION POLICY

1.Preamble

1.1The following policy, which has been produced by a Joint Working Group1,establishes the basic principles for fair, equitable and balanced distribution of work amongst academic staff.

1.2It is intended that this policy will provide Heads of Departmentand Deans with aframework within which models for workload planning will bedeveloped and operated.

1.3Whilst there is a clear expectation that all academic staff will make a fullcontribution to the goals of the University, Faculties and Departments, this policy does not seek to alter therelative flexibility of working time of academicstaff. It is also important to consider this flexibility in relation tomaintaining an appropriate work-life balance.

2.Working Time

2.1It is currently the case that hours of work are not specified within theemployment contract for academic staff. Therefore, there is an element of choice in the hours worked. Academic Staff are expected tomanage their own time to achieve the objectives of their position,based on a normal expectation of a 39 hour week.

3.Principles of workload management

3.1The University expects Heads of Departmentand Deans to endeavour to apply thefollowing principles when managing workload:

(i)Reasonable workloads will be fairly distributed between individual employees in an open and consultative way.

(ii)Employer-driven work will be contained within socially acceptable working hours, taking into account individual needs and circumstances.

(iii)Staff will be afforded the opportunity for regular, reasonable, daily, weekly and annual breaks from work.

(iv)Time should be made available during reasonable working hours for the full range of academic activities (i.e. teaching, research and service) as well as professional development as appropriate.

1 Joint Working Group consists of Executive Deans, representatives of Heads of Department, UNITE representatives and Human Resources.

(v)Staff will have access to reasonable development time (and resource) for training appropriate to their role. Training and development needs will normally be identified throughthe Performance Development Reviewsystem (PDRs).

(vi)Should any member of staff wish to challenge and dispute the distribution or volume of work as unfair or unreasonable, this should be discussed informally with their Head of Department as soon as possible. This may also be a matter for discussion at their PDRs meeting. If unresolved, academic staff should raise the matter either informally with their Dean or in accordance with the University Grievance Procedure.

4.Responsibilities of the Head of Department

4.1Heads of Department will ensure that each academic staff member has a balanced and reasonable workload in terms of activities and overall contribution relative to all academic staff in the Department.

4.2The expectation is that each Department will use the agreed andopen procedure set out in this document in order to consider the overalldistribution of work, which can be reasonably managed within theavailable resources.

4.3It is the responsibility of the Head of Department to collect and monitor datarelating to workloads.Distribution of the workloads should be made public within the Department and reviewed annually.

4.4All areas of relevant activity (e.g. teaching, research and service) shouldbe included in individual workloads whether performed within the Department itself, the Faculty, at University level or externally.

5.Application of this policy

5.1Academic staff

(i)When managing workloads, Heads of Department should take account ofthe need to provide the opportunity, during reasonable working hours, for academic staff to engage in the broad spectrum of academic work.

(ii)Academic staff can be expected to undertake scheduled teaching andexamining duties during the normal academic year except when alternative arrangements are agreed.

(iii)Employer-driven work will be carried out during reasonable workinghours. Duties outside of these times should be agreed with the member of staff.

5.2Newly appointed academic staff

The Head of Department/Dean will take full account of the demands on new academic staff during the first year of their appointment

6.Academic Activity

Teaching,Research and Service are all valued activities. The Head of Department/Dean will endeavour to ensure an equitable distribution across the range of these valued academic activities

6.1Teaching responsibilities require academic staff to achievea satisfactory standard of instructional competence, to contribute to their Departments/ Faculties curriculum diversity and richness, to foster students’ critical and creative abilities and to share equitably the annual instructional responsibilities of their Departments / Faculties

6.2Research responsibilities require academic staff to maintain a programme of research, scholarship and/or artistic creativity through which they should aspire to a national and international reputation as scholars. Academic staff will publish and aspire to disseminate research in high-quality, internationally prominent journals and books.

6.3Service refers to the annual contributions that academic staff make toUniversity governance,its various committees, its various leadership roles including course leadership, their profession,the development of their discipline locally, nationally and internationally,and to the furthering of positive relations between the University and its various communities.

7. Workload Allocation Models

7.1Examples of 3 workload allocation models are attached in the appendices (two of the models are available in excel format from HR).

8.Review

8.1Each Department and Faculty will monitor the operation of workload planningmodels annually.

8.2The development of individual workload allocations may be aligned to the annual Performance Development Review process.

8.3Data emerging from this review will be retained within the Department and Faculty for a period consistent with the University’s record retention policy in compliance with current Data Protection and Freedom of Information legislation

8.4This policy will be reviewed at least every three years.

Appendix 2 (Example 2 – Detailed Academic Workload Model)

Workloads and Resource Allocation in the Department

It is Department practice to try to allocate resources and control the amount of hours that full-time staff members have to teach, as far as budgetary constraints allow, so as to facilitate research development and output. In order to identify where support is needed the Department uses a workload model to assess what faculty are doing.

The objective of the model is to ensure that, within the Department, the work undertaken is seen to be reasonably evenly distributed. The scores are used to direct resources, in particular teaching support, to where they are most needed.

The approach is to compute the total workload for the Department. This total is then divided by the number of faculty to produce an average departmental load. Where staff are significantly above this load they should receive more help with teaching assistance, where they fall below it less help will be the norm. Allowances will be made for staff who are new to the institution, starting their careers, and who have some other major extenuating circumstance (for example time out for maternity, career breaks, sabbaticals etc).

Process

Information for the model is gathered at the start of the spring semester when faculty are asked to fill in forms on their activities, and calculate what they think their contribution to departmental workload is. When this information has been collected faculty meet with the Head of Department to plan their teaching for the coming year, and to assess the number of hours of teaching assistance that they will receive.

Weightings

Each activity that we do is accorded a score: teaching, research, service. These are added together to give the total Departmental score and this is divided by the number of faculty to give the departmental average.

For teaching: all the modules delivered are given a score, with extra weight for large groups, and first year modules. Supervision of FYPs, taught MA dissertations, MA theses by research and PhD theses is also scored.

For research: nominal units are assigned for publications. Publications for the last five calendar years are counted, divided by five to give a rolling average that smoothes out the peaks and troughs of output. Co-authored pieces are divided by the number of contributors. Management of a post-doc or a research assistant is also given weight in the research score.

For service: units are assigned for UL duties, eg HOD, Course directorships (MA/GradDip combinations count as one CD), Departmental Directors, etc, and for Faculty and University functions. Some external functions are also included. Ex officio memberships are not to be included, as they are already counted in the score for the relevant post.

30 January 2009 LmxA

Teaching weightings(Co-taught modules ÷ by no. of faculty teaching the module)

Normal module (less than 60 u/g, 25 p/g)4.0

Large modules. Up to 100 u/g or 50 p/g4 x 1.5

Large modules. Up to 200 u/g4 x 2.0

Large modules. Over 200 u/g4 x 2.5

Module convenor on co-taught module0.2

For each module taught at 1st year u/g level0.2

Research MA supervision FT (max 3 years) 1.0

Research MA supervision PT (max 5 years) 0.6

PhD supervision FT (max 5 years)1.5

PhD supervision PT (max 8 years)0.9

Supervision of FYP0.25

Supervision of taught MA dissertation (2007)0.4

Marking of MA dissertation (2007)0.1

Research weightings

Management of post-doc/RA1.0

ConsultancyTo be agreed with HoD

Publications, five year average calculated using the following scales:

Book4.5

Each chapter in own authored book0.75

Refereed article3.5

Non-refereed article1.5

Edited book2.0 x 0.1 for each chapter

Book Chapter in edited collection1.5

Working paper/internet publication1.0

Conference paper1.0

Book review0.25

Seminar/invited lecture0.5

Newspaper/magazine article0.75

Research report2

Editor of journal special issue2.75

Reader’s reports (book proposal)0.25

Reader’s reports (journal article) 0.1

Co-authored pieces÷ by no of authors

Service

Course Director u/g(either active or in validation process)4

Course Director p/g(either active or in validation process)3

Head of Department 12

Centre director6

ADR/ADAA6

Chair, Teaching Committee4

Chair, Graduate Committee4

Chair, Research Committee4

Working papers editor2

Senior Advisor (Department)2

Mentoring new staff member0.5

ADR or ADAA in College6

Dept or College Rep to Univ. committee (where not ex officio)0.5

University rep to national committee 0.5

Membership of University committee (where not ex officio)0.5

Membership of course boards (where not ex officio)0.1

Membership of College Committees (where not ex officio)0.2

Membership of Centre Management C’ttee (where not ex officio)0.1

External examiner (PhD or coursework)0.5

PhD internal examiner0.25

Selection committee participant0.25

Main writer or principle invesigator, successful funding proposal2 (1 for unsuccessful)

Collaborator in successful funding proposal0.5 (0.25 for unsuccessful)
Workload calculation exercise, 2011

Please complete the forms below and return them to Linda or Tracey in both hardcopy and electronic form by 4pm on 3rdFebruary 2011. Please retain copies for your own records and bring them with you to your meeting with the Head of Department in the Spring Semester.

Number

/

Weighting

/

Totals

TEACHING academic year YYYY/XXX

Co-taught modules÷by no. of faculty on the module
Normal module (less than 60 u/g, 25 p/g)
Details: 5072, 5112, 4032, 4041 / 4.0
Large modules up to 100 u/g or 50 p/g
Details: / 4 x 1.5
Large modules up to 200 u/g
Details: 4011 / 4 x 2.0
Large modules over 200 u/g
Details: / 4 x 2.5
Module convenor on co-taught module
Details: / 0.2
For each module taught at 1st year u/g level
Details: 4011 / 0.2
Research MA supervision FT (max 3 years)
Details: / 1.0
Research MA supervision PT (max 5 years)
Details: / 0.6
PhD supervision FT (max 5 years)
Details: Hu, McCorley / 1.5
PhD supervision PT (max 8 years)
Details: Lee / 0.9
Supervision of FYP last year / 0.25
Supervision of taught MA dissertation last year
(completed only) / 0.4
Marking of taught MA dissertation last year / 0.1
Sitting on a PhD Panel / 0.1
Teaching sub-total:

RESEARCH

Management of post-doc/RA
Details: / 1.0
Publications, average of the last five years (Jan ’05 to Dec ’09), please give details on a separate sheet / 71.8
Research sub-total:

SERVICE as of 31 December 2010

Course Director u/g (incl: under validation)
Details: LM022 / 4
Course Director p/g (incl: under validation)
Details: / 3
Head of Department / 12
Centre director
Details: / 6
Teaching Director / 4
Graduate Director / 4
Research Chair / 4
Working papers editor / 2
Mentoring new staff member
Details: / 0.5
ADR or ADAA in Faculty / 6
Dept or College Rep to University committee (where not ex officio)
Details: / 0.5
University rep to national committee
Details: IARCEES / 0.5
Membership of University committee (where not ex officio)
Details: / 0.5
Membership of course boards (where not ex officio) Details: / 0.1
Membership of College Committees (where not ex officio)
Details: / 0.2
Membership of Centre Management Committee (where not ex officio)
Details: / 0.1
External examiner (PhD or coursework) / 0.5
Internal examiner (PhD) / 0.25
Internal examiner (MA by research) / 0.1
Successful funding proposal: principle investigator or main writer. Ent ireland / 2
Successful funding proposal: collaborator / 0.5
Unsuccessful funding proposal: principle investigator or main writer. / 1
Successful funding proposal: collaborator / 0.25
Editor of an academic journal / 1
Service sub-total: / 11.7

Research Output 1/Jan/2006 to 31/Dec/2010

(Five year period, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)

Please remember to divide co-authored publications by no. of authors

*NB: total per book not to exceed 10 points.

Publication / Weighting / Total
Books
1.
2.
3.
4. / x 4.5*
Chapter in own authored book
Chapters in 1.
Chapters in 2.
Chapters in 3.
Chapters in 4. / x 0.75*
Refereed articles
1.
2.
3.
4. / x 3.5
Non-Refereed articles
1.
2.
3.
4. / 1.5
Edited books
Publication details plus number of chapters
1.
2.
3.
4. / 2.0
x 0.1 for each chapter
Book Chapter in edited collections
1.
2.
3.
4. / 1.5
Working paper/internet publication
4. / 1
Conference paper
1.
2.
3.
4. / 1
Book review
1.
2.
3.
4. / 0.25
Seminar/invited lecture
1.
2.
3.
4. / 0.5
Newspaper/magazine article
1.
2.
3.
4. / 0.25
Research reports with ISBN number only
1.
2.
3.
4. / 2
Reader’s report/review of a book ms (name publisher and give date)
1. / 0.25
Reader’s report/review of an article ms (name academic journal and give date) / 0.1
Editor of a academic journal special edition
1.
2.
3.
4. / 2.75

Overall total

Average over 5 years (overall total /5)

Academic Workload Allocation Policy Page 1 of 22 Document Number HRD017.1