The management of academic workloads: improving practice in the sector (original) (raw)

A perspective on university academic workload measurement

2008

Internationally, universities are increasingly seen as being part of the wider community, which has an impact on academic workload. This paper explains the im port ance of a model for investigating such academic workloads. Quantifying and reporting workloads are complex tasks. Despite this complexity, the model developed at the University of the Witwatersrand's School of Mining Engineering gives some insight into the three main components of academic workload, namely lecturing, research and administrative services. Today there is a better understanding of the meaning of workload, the problems to consider when quantifying workloads, the relationship between workload and performance and the issues to consider for staff development. This perspective concludes with lessons learnt over a five-year period.

Equitable workload and the perceptions of academic staff in Universities

International Journal of Educational Organization and Leadership

Workload is the overall assignments to be completed by individuals in a given time. In academia, the number of instructional hours, credit hours, contact hours, class sizes, non-instructional schedules, student-teacher ratio, scholarly activities, and administrative and community services will determine the workload of faculty members in a semester. Any discrimination, favoritism, partiality, or managerial biases in the distribution of the workloads would lead to misconceptions among the academic staff that will affect the work culture of educational institutions. In this context, this paper examines the perceptions of 256 academic staff chosen by stratified random sampling from ten universities in Saudi Arabia by using a questionnaire on the general practices of universities for the allocation of the equitable workload in three variables such as teaching, research, and academic administration. Study results revealed that the academic staff positively responded to all the practices in the three variables. This paper answered the questions of what are the significant differences and significant correlations in the perceptions of academic staff concerning equitable workload distribution in the three variables. Firstly, it was found that the academic staff as groups by gender, nationality, type of university, and tenure has a significant perceptional difference in the three variables. In Saudi Arabia, foreigners work on contract basis, therefore, this study revealed that foreign staff members place more emphasis on teaching instead of research and administration. This result was found in college faculty members in science, arts, and other college faculty members. The study further found a relationship among three types of faculty departments/disciplines as far as teaching and administrative work is concerned, but there is no relation between research and administrative work. In conclusion, the authors have recommended, some practical suggestions for equitable workload among academic staff.

Current practice in academic workload allocation processes in Australia

2015

Embarking on a large-scale research project to investigate aspects of academic workload management, it was first necessary to gain some understanding of current practice in that context within Australia. With that aim a pilot survey was conducted in 2013 that targeted Deans of Science on the one hand, and workload managers on the other. Survey questions covered three key areas related to workload management: models and rules; process and policy; and systems and software. Comparisons between different types of university, different allocation models for teaching, research and service components of academic workload, and different sizes of academic unit were explored. While the number of responses in absolute terms was relatively limited, and hence the outcomes were not always statistically testable or generalisable, broad trends were readily identifiable. This paper reports on the method and outcomes of the survey, and describes how the information that was obtained has informed the ...

WORKLOAD ALLOCATION, THE CASE OF THREE SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

ICERI2022 Proceedings, 2022

Equitable and transparent allocation of work and resources is a noble pursuit in any working environment. Attainment of such allocation can settle many disputes. Higher Education (HE) is no different to other sectors when it comes to this pursuit. Rumble's work [1] is this area is extensive and informative. The equitable allocation of work in the face of the expected functions of a typical University teacher/lecturer would go a long way in ensuring professional growth of the teacher and efficient service provision to the students. The main objective of this analysis is to focus on understanding what academics do and how their work context can be appropriately resourced to ensure quality of provisioning and appropriate student support that is needed for a Distance eLearning institution versus contact universities. This study uses the case of three Higher Education Institutions (HEls) in South Africa, to attempt at deriving a framework for such a workload allocation model. Our methodology shall follow case study analysis of all functions of university teaching staff at three HEls. Furthermore, a quantitative analysis of the academic work done including quantification of time spent and effort conducted, with a view of developing and recommending an improved/optimised model and framework for work allocation. Our results do indicate that without a clear and well-articulated work model it is difficult to ascertain what academics do. Outputs are usually some of the indicators that could be used as proxy critical outputs that define work of academics. Research and focus interviews pointed us to a need to understand how the academic work has changed with the advent of COVID-19 and the resultant lockdown and understanding how administration has creeped into their work. There was a call for the development of an appropriate workload model and framework to advance and support the academic project in a university. In a changing Higher Education context, issues of equity, transparency, quality, and transformation are critical matters to look at to understand what academics do. While teaching, research and engaged scholarship have been universally understood within the Higher Education space it is also critical to understand how the 'new normal' has disrupted this understanding, particularly in the context of the individual growth of academics as well as student support and success. Resolving workload allocation matters will go a long way in ensuring better productivity and service to our stakeholders, particularly the student.

Life at the academic coalface: validation of a holistic academic workload estimation tool

Higher Education

This paper reports on research exploring the academic workload and performance practices of Australian universities. This research has identified a suite of activities associated with teaching, research and service, each with an associated time value (allocation). This led to the development of the academic workload estimation tool (AWET). In 2020, to validate the findings, we contacted academics willing to participate further and conducted interviews. We used the AWET to estimate workload for each individual for the previous year and compared it to the workload allocated according to their institutional workload model. Discrepancies were then discussed to ascertain to what extent the AWET was able to capture their work. In general, the participants thought the AWET provided a more realistic estimate of their actual work and highlighted how much is underestimated or unaccounted for by the workload models used within their institutions. It also showed how academic performance policie...

Solving Problems of Inequity in Academic Staff Workload Distribution

2013

The main goal of the paper is to elaborate recommendations on academic staff workload schemes, ensuring fair workload allocation, efficient use of academic personnel resources and promotion of professional development of academic staff. The regulation of the academic workload has become a key management issue for quality assurance departments of Higher Education Institutions because it is one of the main regulatory mechanisms for educational quality enhancement. The quantitative survey of academic workload schemes for 2011 year in 19 public Georgian Higher Education Institutions has been carried out. The data about the components of the faculty work-Teaching, Research, and Service was analysed and summarized in the form of charts, tables, percentages and averages, showing the general principle of distribution of time between these components of the workload at the institutions. The analysis revealed a number of inequities, discrepancies and problems. On the basis of survey findings ...

Academic administration and service workloads in Australian universities

The Australian Universities' review, 2019

This paper addresses the important and linked questions of how to manage academic performance and workload effectively. It highlights the need in a modern, corporatised university to consider the nature of academic work and optimal ways to develop workload allocation and performance management processes. This paper complements two previous papers on time associated with teaching and research components of academic work by exploring service/administration workloads. Data were collected from 665 academics with recent administration experience through a nation-wide survey in 2016 and 2018. The data were analysed to understand the median annual work hours for a range of internal and external service activities, and for a range of formal administrative roles. The analysis showed a further categorisation of academic service into operational and strategic activities. Together, the three papers underpin holistic academic workload model development using empirical annual hour allocations fro...

Challenges and Opportunities in an Alternative Approach for Academic Workload in the New Normal

Diversitas Journal, 2024

COVID-19 challenged the delivery of quality education as it abruptly altered in-person schooling in all educational institutions across the globe. College administrators were compelled to design and adopt a scheme that suits the environment of remote learning but safeguards quality teaching and learning. This quantitative-descriptive research evaluates the alternative approach to academic workload adopted by a local college in Batangas City, during the pandemic, when in-person classes were called-off. The adopted workload scheme aimed to ensure effective and efficient delivery of remote instruction so that quality learning will be sustained. The evaluation focused on the challenges and opportunities of the adopted system called the "two-term academic workload scheme." Data were gathered through a content-validated questionnaire distributed to two hundred and seventy-seven (277) respondents via Google form. The respondents were full-time teachers and students in the College of Education. Data gathering happened in the first quarter of 2022, a year and a half after the adopted scheme was implemented. It was found that teachers and students shared similar views, especially on the opportunities that resulted from the scheme but slight contrasting views on the challenges were observed. This, however, did not result to a significant difference in responses. The study revealed that the adopted scheme created more opportunities than challenges and hence has served the purpose of sustaining excellent delivery of instruction and the expected quality output was achieved.

Towards a methodology to determine standard time allocations for academic work

Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 2017

An online survey of workload activities was circulated to academics across Australia seeking estimates for the time to undertake a range of academic-related tasks associated with teaching, research and service. This article summarises the most important findings from the teaching data of the 2059 respondents. This detail of workload data has not been reported before across the Australian university sector. The findings showing that most academics work more than 50 h per week are consistent with previous studies. Although the estimates of the individuals varied greatly, statistical inquiry indicated the median time required does not vary by experience and online teaching generally requires more preparation time than on-campus teaching. The paper proposes this methodology as a credible means to derive realistic time-based standards for other aspects of academic work and will assist university managers by providing an external benchmark upon which to develop local academic workload models.