Information Technology Staff Load Calculation - A proposal
|
Heinz Schmidt
Created: 20.4.98
Last revised: 09.03.99 previous version
The following proposal is based on established load calculations that have stood the
test of time:
- Monash, Software Development, 1995-1997
- Monash, Econometrics, since at least 1994
- Monash, Mechanical Engineering
- University New South Wales, Computer Science and Engineering, 1992-
- Sydney University, Computer Science
- Australian National University, Computer Science, 1992-, revised 1997
- Queensland University of Technology, Computer Science, 1995-
All existing load formulas quoted include teaching and research
student supervision load in a weighted sum. Some include
administration duties. For ease of comparison we normalise the
respective weights to measure hours per week averaged over two
semesters, which is the most commonly used unit of measurement. (Some
calculations measure the entire year load as 1.0; others measure the
total hours for the year).
Both teaching and research load are curently computed in the faculty
or in central databases such as MUSIS (student supervsion,
timetabling information, School load coordination etc).
Load predication, monitoring and performance improvement require a well-defined
load model, capturing load partly quantitatively (measured in hours per week)
and partly qualitatively (listing expected duties and roles).
The Monash Staff Engagement Profiles formally require listing teaching and
research student supervision load explicitly as the minimum quantitative
information required.
Ultimately, the allocations and workloads are the responsibility
of the Head of School. In most Schools, this is delegated to a load
coordinator (often per campus). Across Australia and in the faculty,
in most Schools load recommendations are participatory processes, with
groups (by year or area) feeding recommendations into the load allocation.
Fairness and openness of the process requires a well-defined baseline
(such as the number of subjects, or hours, or supervised students per staff
on average).
From the load formulas quoted from other universities, this number is
typically in the range of 17 to 23 hours per week, varying by year, student load, problems.
Staff generally accept that a perfect system is not possible, that the
quantitative measurements are relatively coarse grained.
Staff expect rightly that special credits are given for high performance in
prior semesters such as extra industry projects, extra publications (DETYA classified),
or for staff development such as staff PhD or the induction of junior staff.
General requirements to a load model include
The faculty aims at a fairly transparent and open load allocation
process, which respects preferences and capabilities and allows peers
to help improve the quality of teaching and the administration
process. At the same time, load conflicts may have to be resolved and
are ultimately a responsibility of the Head of School, or her
delegate, within the constraints of load principles and the load
process set out below.
Preliminary load allocation are published by the beginning of the
year for the entire year. At the start of the year the administration
roles of staff are typically defined, competitive research grants
outcomes and repeating research students are known, and, preliminary
teaching allocations have been made. New research students and grants
and also critical subjects that may or may not run can be factored in
tentatively to be confirmed at a later stage.
Teaching load recommendations are developed by areas of expertise. At the
third year and postgraduate levels these are typically formed around
research groups. For earlier years they are formed around the core of
teaching programs (degrees).
Recommendations should respect interest and capabilities of staff but also should
aim at achieving economies of scale. For instance, a lecturer should teach the same
subjects at least 4 times in a row in the interest of amortising the efforts invested
into developing the subject, and in order to improve its quality incrementally.
For smallish subjects (under 100), a lecturer will take at least one tutorial, etc.
At most 20% (in term of projected enrollment) of subjects are planned as new or
low enrollment subjects (if at all).
If tutors are allocated multiple tutes they are preferably in the
same subject. (The structure of teaching assistant packages and tutors
wages is to be reviewed periodically to make sure it does not work
against this principle.)
Prelimiary load allocation is published to all staff by the middle
of the preceding semester. A "departmental day" or "weekend" is used
to discuss plans for subject revisions and new subjects, so that
feedback can be gained from prerequisite, corequisite or dependent
subjects' lecturers, from the respective course and year coordinators,
and overall subject sequences remain in-tact.
Load allocation for "stable" subjects are finalised and published
at the end of the preceding semester. Potentially low-enrollment
subjects, such as Honours subjects or some third year electives are
flagged as "critical subjects" at that time. Critical subjects may be
cancelled or reallocated.
The final teaching load allocations for such critical subjects or
for reallocations due to exceptional circumstances are published as soon
as possible but no later than one week before the respective semester.
At the same time supervision load allocations are finalised.
A mixed quantitative and qualitative approach is proposed. All items
are described in sufficient detail for the summary to be used by staff
as a basis for promotion applications or as a basis for staff engagement
profiles and their required attachments.
For quantified load the relevant figure is factored into a weighted
sum using the table below. Some administration duties will only be
listed by the tasks or roles a staff has in the department and a classification
into heavy or medium administrative load will determine the load figure to be used.
The list and classification of administrative roles and duties are
reviewed by Schools annually.
Quantitative teaching and research (supervision) load and also
certain administrative duties are treated on an equal footing as hours
per week.
The baseline is 18 hours per week. In general staff should carry a
roughly equal load. Note that the remaining 17 hours per week include
general overhead times such as telephone, mail processing, project and
department meetings, consultancies, conference committee and
organisation duties, various unaccounted minor administrative duties,
new degree and research proposals,
and last but not least research!
For some items there are caps. For example the university caps the supervision
load at 5.0 fulltime equivalent PhD students. This equates to 7.5 hrs per week
capped. Schools may have additional constraints for balancing research, teaching
and administration profiles of staff with School needs.
It is often relevant to distinguish load claimed from load
allocated by the School. For example, in one year, the School may not
wish to run Honours subject with 3 students, yet the staff may decide
to run this subject without allocated load, for example in the hope to
attract a PhD student. In the load summary, this subject will not
enter the formula. However it is still worthwhile to record the
qualitative data for promotion, reference letters etc, and in general for
performance planning and evaluation.
In some cases the School may wish to allocate a subject with low enrollment
for reasons of developing an area of scholarship, or a new degree etc.
The proposed weights table below is structured similar to that of
the old Software Development load model. However the weights account
for hours per week including related duties rather than just counting
contact hours. The weights are still "tougher" than those of UNSW and
Sydney.
The load calculation remains coarser grained than that of UNSW and
Sydney. We try to avoid a controversial formula for research
performance and also a detailed accounting of hours per administrative
role.
Subject lecturing and coordination are separated. Coordination includes
tutor managment, assignment and exam setting and marking, representation
of the subject in School or faculty committees etc. Lecturing itself is just
a small portion of the effort.
Where the effort is split between staff, the points are split pro rata.
Similarly tutorial time distinguishes preparation, contact, consultation and marking.
Staff allowances protect new staff and help them manage their time
by allowing for an extra 5 hours per week (roughly one subject). The
allowances also reward staff for DETYA category C1 and E1 (in the
prior year publication data collection) in excess of a moderate
average of 2 papers per year.
Leave or secondment (full or part time) is reflected on a pro-rata
basis. For example, if the faculty appoints a staff member 0.4 as Associate Dean (Teaching)
and reimburses the School at 0.4 of the salary costs incl overheads, 0.4 x 20 = 8.0
enters the weighted sum.
In the following scenario, a lecturer teaches (for the second
time) one medium size core subject of 180 students in both semesters
including all cordination for this subject (2.5+4.0). One of the subject
runs is taught as a night class (add 1.0). Additionally a 2hr Honours
subject with 11 students is taught by the same lecturer in semester 1 (2.25). She supervises 2 honours
students (2.0) and 3 PhD students full-time (4.5) and manages a large ARC grant of $70,000
in the current year (2.0). Beside this she is on the equipment and school liaison
committee (1.0).
This adds up to: 7.5+2.25+2.0+4.5+2.0+1.0 = 19.25
This lecturer has load in excess of the expected baseline of 18
hours. The excess points of 1.25 will be carried forward into the next
year.
| Lecture (1hr/week full year) |
|
|---|
| Lecture new subject | 2.0
|
| Lecture with revision | 1.25
|
| Repeat lecture | 1.0
|
| Subjects run as mostly seminars | 0.5
|
| Normal subject converted to reading | 0.1
|
| Subject coordination (full-year) add: |
|
|---|
| Smallish subject (50-100) | 2.0
|
| Medium subject (100-200) | 4.0
|
| Large subject (> 200) | 6.0
|
| Honours subject (> 10) | 2.0
|
| Masters subject (> 10) | 2.0
|
| Admin assistance in medium/large subject (*) | 1.0
|
| Night lecture | 1.0
|
| Tutorials |
|
|---|
| Tutorial contact | 1.0
|
| Tutorial preparation | 1.0
|
| Tutorial marking and consultation | 1.0
|
| Research supervision |
|
|---|
| F/T HDR (PhD or Masters Research) full year | 1.5
|
| F/T Honours full year | 1.0
|
| Course Masters (50%) minor thesis full year | 0.5
|
| Course Masters (25%) minor thesis full year | 0.25
|
| Allowances |
|
|---|
| New staff allowance | 5.0
|
| Staff PhD or Master's research | 2.5
|
| Per intl C1 or E1 papers in excess of 2 (prior year) | 1.0
|
| Research allowance per $25K grant per year | 1.0
|
| Leave or secondment (full year) | 18.0 (baseline)
|
| Administration |
|
|---|
| Head of Department | 12.0
|
| High load | 4.0
|
| Medium load | 2.0
|
| Minor load | 0.5
|
First year core subject
coordination; deputy head; chair of main departmental committees: education,
research, load and audit, with associated representation at the
faculty committee level; Postgraduate coordination, Honours
coordination; Final year industry project coordination.
Year coordinator; Major coordinator
Chair of minor departmental committee such as equipment committee;
school liaison committee etc; newsletter editor.
The model of the SD department used the weights of the
Econometrics Department
at Monash and adds to that some elements of the UNSW model
including allowances for new staff and staff development. In addition some bonuses
were given for ARC grants to encourage grant applications.
Similar to the Econometrics load model, the points equate to contact hours per week
rather than hours per week. This assumes that associated efforts are uniformly dependent
on contact hours irrespective of the duties such as research supervision, lecturing etc.
With an average of 3 2-hour subjects per year, four research students, one honours student
and a mixed administrative load of 2.5 say, one would end up at a figure of 6+4+1+2.5=13.5.
5.1 Teaching Load Calculation
The basis for the calculation is the contact time in hours per week. 1
point of subject includes various related duties and does not readily
equate to 1hr per week. The normal subject obtaining 1.0 points
requires some revisions.
For large subjects, such as first year subjects or Java electives (with 270 students in 1997)
extra points are added as subject administration which accounts for extra student
counselling, tutors management etc.
5.2 Research
For research supervision load we follow Prof. Max King's model (Monash Econometrics, Clayton)
equating an hour lecture over the full year with
the supervision, reading, joint writing etc in connection with one
equivalent full-time HDR student.
5.3 Administration
Administrative duties are simply categorised in light to heavy load. A list of such
duties is published. Such duties include year coordination, Honours coordination etc.
Administration duties are reviewed yearly.
| Lecture (1hr/week full year) |
|
|---|
| Lecture new subject | 1.5
|
| Lecture with revision | 1.0
|
| Repeat lecture | 0.9
|
| Tutorial | 0.75
|
| Subjects run as mostly seminars | 0.5
|
| Normal subject converted to reading | 0.1
|
| Subject coordination add: |
|
|---|
| Medium subject (100-200) | 1.0
|
| Large subject (> 200) | 2.0
|
| Admin assistance in medium/large subject (*) | 1.0
|
| Staff development allowance |
|
|---|
| New staff allowance | 1.0
|
| Staff PhD or Master's research | 1.5
|
| ARC small grant | 0.35
|
| ARC large grant | 1.5
|
| Research supervision |
|
|---|
| F/T HDR (PhD or Masters Research) full year | 1
|
| F/T Honours full year | 0.5
|
| Course Masters (50%) minor thesis full year | 0.5
|
| Course Masters (25%) minor thesis full year | 0.25
|
| Administration |
|
|---|
| Head of Department | 4.0
|
| High load | 1.0
|
| Medium load | 0.5
|
| Light load | 0.125
|
High load administration items
First year core subject coordination;
BComp coordination; Credits committee; Curriculum coordination (incl.
new degree initiatives); Deputy HOD;
Faculty education committee; Faculty Research Committee; HOD (4x high);
Honours coordination; IE project coordination; Malaysia program
coordination; Major studies coordination; On-line course coordination;
OOSIG coordination; Postgraduate course coordination;
postgraduate research coordination (including FRC);
research projects and grants coordination;
Medium load admininistration items
2nd year core subjects coordination; medium subject coordination (> 100);
Newsletter; Open day coordination; TOOLS organisation;
Year 1, 2, 3 coordination;
Light load administration items
Help desk coordination;
Quoth Max King email, 1995...
From: Max.King@monash.edu.au
> # The teaching formula is fairly simple:
> # 1 point for each contact hour for an entire year
> # I.e. 2hours for one semester (half year) gives one point.
> # Tutorials get weigthed as 0.75 because of their nature.
> # 4th and 5th year classes get a weight of 1.25 because
> # of their more difficult content.
> # Graduate research supervision is 1 for full-time M.Ec. or Ph.D.
> # where the staff member is the only supervisor. Part-time is
> # .5 and shared supervision means the points get shared.
> # Kind regards Max King
Quoth John Sheridan email, 09 Mar 1999
The process is fairly transparent and open.
In general there is an attempt to balance all primary teaching evenly
i.e. all lecturing. Thus, most people in Mechanical Engineering lecture
in about 3 subjects, spread over the full year (26 weeks). The exception
is where people are part-time, in which case their load is divided by
their fraction e.g. if
they are half-time their load is divided by 0.5 (or X 2). The units are
"hours" over the year.
Weightings are applied if the lecturer is giving
the subject for the first time or it is a large class. The weightings
are 1.3, where a large class is considered to be one with over 100
students enrolled.
| Lecture (1hr/week full year) |
|
|---|
| Regular subject | 1.0
|
| New subject | 1.3
|
| Large subject | 1.3
|
| Tutoring |
|
|---|
| Tutorial/Lab 1 hour/week | 1.0
|
| Projects |
|
|---|
| Final year project supervision (1 student) | 1.0
|
| Final year project supervision (> 1 students) | 1.5
|
| Research Supervision |
|
|---|
| full-time higher degree research student | 1.0
|
We seem to do less secondary teaching now i.e. tutoring or
demonstrating in subjects we are not lecturing in. If we do, the credit
is 1 hour per hour in the class/lab. We give 1 hour/week for supervision
of final year thesis projects if one student is involved and 1.5
hours/week if there are 2 or more students working on the project.
Similarly we give one hour/week for full-time p/g student supervision
and half this if part-time.
Overall, the numbers can look quite horrendous if one does all this.
Typically, we had annual (26 week) load of 450+ hours i.e. over 17
hours/week, but this is with loadings and p/g supervision, which might
be considered research rather than teaching.
From information gathered in the US: MIT, Princeton, Michigan, Cornell
and Chicago all seem to have a typical load of about 2-3 subjects per
year. However, they have a different level of involvement with students
due to the greater concentration on "homework" and their use of Teaching
Assistants.
The formula quoted in the table below is a transcription from a 1992 document. This
was confirmed as current in 1995 and again in 1997:
From: Bill Wilson
Subject: Workload formulae
Date: Mon, 08 Sep 1997 09:29:14 +1000
To: geoffw@cse.unsw.edu.au, Heinz.Schmidt@fcit.monash.edu.au
Geoff: A couple of years ago while TimM was at Monash he contacted
me for a copy of the School's Workload formula as input to a possible
formula for use at Monash.
...
Heinz: we still use the same model. 1.0 points = 1 hour of work per
week.
...
Regards,
Bill Wilson
Note that the weights below are normalised per hour lecture,
where the original table lists the weights per subject or tutorial (each 2 hours of contact).
Unlike
most of the other models the repeat lecture is credited as the basis
with 1 point per lecture hour. Minor revisions are explicitly factored
in under the default ``lecture'' which counts 2.5 hours per week.
Also tutorials are calculated at 1 point per hour, as opposed to the
0.75 per hour at Monash.
The overall result of this formula appears to be two-fold. Firstly,
lectures get a little more credit for the actual work outside direct contact.
Secondly, the target per staff may be a little over 20 hours per week.
(Note that staff on leave get 25h which could be interpreted as the maximal target).
| | Lectures (1hr/week full year) |
|
|---|
| NL | Lecture (new series) | 2.0
|
| L | Lecture | 1.25
|
| RL | Repeat Lecture | 1.0
|
| PL | Parallel Lecture (0 load) | 0.0
|
| | Tutorials (1hr/week full year) |
|
|---|
| T | Tutorial | 1.0
|
| TC | Tutorial, Consultation, Marking | 0.75
|
| | Labs (1hr/week full year) |
|
|---|
| LS | Lab Supervision | 0.5
|
| LT | Lab/Tutorial (lab with marking or add'l
responsibilities | 0.75
|
| | Consultation |
|
|---|
| C | Consultation not subject specific | 1.0
|
| XM | Add'l marking not counted in subject | 1.0
|
| | Subject coordination |
|
|---|
| IS | Smallish subject (<100) | 2.0
|
| IM | Medium subject (100-200) | 4.0
|
| IL | Large subject (> 200) | 6.0
|
| AA | Admin assistance in medium/large subject (*) | 1.0
|
| SA | School admin (*) | 1.0
|
| | Supervision |
|
|---|
| SU | Ungraduate thesis | 1.0
|
| SP | Coursework masters thesis | 1.0
|
| SR | Postgraduate research student | 1.5
|
| | Special Duties |
|
|---|
| SL | Study leave | 25
|
| ST | Study time (formal courses only) (*) | 1.0
|
| SD | Special duties as authorized (*) | 1.0
|
| | Allowances |
|
|---|
| NS | New staff allowance | 5.0
|
| NS2 | New staff allowance, 2nd session | 5.0
|
| E | Evening class allowance | 1.0 |
| RA | Research allowance per intl paper last year | 1.0
|
(*) any appropriate number of these may apply.
as of 20 July 1992
The department developed a load policy to enable staff to more accurately identify their workloads per year.
An attempt is made
Each academic staff member is assigned load for various activities
under three general headings, Administration, Research & Teaching.
All figures are intended to reflect time spent (or needing to be
spent) based on a nominal rate of a full load of 35 hrs week, 43 weeks
per year, or 1500 hrs work. This means 15 hrs work out as 0.01 in the normalised
point system.
Experience shows that the load is over 1.0 for all staff in most years
(quoth John Rosenberg).
When someone has more or less than the 1.0 total load, the difference
is carried forward. Deficit must be made up the following year, while
surplus can only be "cashed in" (by having a reduced load) when the
Department can manage to share the burden. Accumulated surplus is
limited to 0.5. New staff begin with a carry forward equal to the
average of the carry forwards for all staff from the previous year.
Staff on sabbatical, leave without pay, or fractional appointment,
receive the complementary fraction as "other load" and other loads are
adjusted as reported in each section below. e.g. Staff on .75
appointment (either explicitly, or by being on leave for 3 months) get
0.25 "other" load, in addition to the amounts detailed below.
For tutorials, it is expected that each contact hour will give rise to 1 hr
marking/consulting, but note that the load for these activities goes
to whoever does it, who may not be the contact tutor. Preparation
time = 1 hr prep for each DIFFERENT tute (i.e. not for repeats) given
in any course except one where the staff member is lecturing (where no
prep load is allowed).
A subject with a 1 hour contact time means 13 or 14 hours of lectures
prepared and delivered by the same person three times. The subject load includes
preparation of the appropriate fraction of the year's tutes,
assignments and exams, plus discussions with other staff to keep the
year coherent. It also includes reporting to Departmental evaluation
meeting. (Lecturing contact is only a small part of the responsibility
- preparation is far more expensive in time taken).
This is counted as 0.12.
Similarly, a 28 lecture module, each lecture given 2 times, counts
0.22. Load includes preparation of the exam, tutorials, assignments,
marking schemes; also marks processing, attendance at departmental
examiners meeting, reporting to evaluation meeting, etc.
If a lecturer has not taught a similar
course in recent years, the load allowed is the base value multiplied
by 1.25.
If any duty is delegated to another staff member, the load is
shared appropriately. Fractional appointments are awarded the full
rate for any duty taken.
The Large Programming Project, including preparation, practical
exam, and all machine marking, attendance at departmental examiners
meeting, reporting to evaluation meeting, is counted as 0.05.
A third year Project Module involves preparing and delivering: 2 hrs
lectures per week for a semester, preparing a 1 hour tute per week
(questions and solutions), preparing assignments and exam (questions
and solutions), marks processing, module administration, attending
department examiners meetings. This is counted as 0.15. Extra points
are awarded for project module coordination (0.01) and project module
supervision (0.01 per group of 4 students).
The fourth year Colloquium organisation (including giving
introductory lectures at the start of semester) counts 0.02 per stream
(including selecting stream papers, attending presentations, advising
students before, and reading the stream reports at the end).
Fourth year lectures are 18 hrs lectures, plus all marking = 0.04 +
0.004*min (x, 10), where x equals the number of students in the
module. (Thus if there are more than 10 students, the load is 0.08,
while if there are 5 , the load is 0.06 and if only 2 students, the
load is 0.048. Note that auditors are not counted in this
calculation; also no load is allowed for a module with zero or 1
student. (Unlike other years, neither of these loads is increased
when it is a new responsibility)
| Lecturing | year | hrs/week
|
|---|
| 1st year, 2hrs twice | 0.22 | 7.7
|
| 2nd/3rd year, 2hrs twice | 0.22 | 7.7
|
| 3rd year project lecture | 0.15 | 5.25
|
| Honours subject (> 10) | 0.08 | 2.8
|
| Honours seminar stream | 0.02 | 0.7
|
| Subject novelty, multiply | |
|
|---|
| new subject | 1.25 | 1.25
|
| Tutorials 1hr | |
|
|---|
| Contact | 0.0286 | 1.0
|
| Marking | 0.0286 | 1.0
|
| Preparation | 0.0286 | 1.0
|
Research student supervision counts as 0.05 per student, whether Honours or
higher degree research.
Beside accounting for research student supervision, the research load
is determined as a compound of publications and grants. Lecturers
& above are given a research load of at least 0.3 for the first
three years of appointment, as are Associate Lecturers enrolled in
a research degree.
Staff are expected to publish 2 papers average per year. Publications
are counted for the purpose of determining research load. Full papers
count 1 point per paper in refereed journal, or paper in conference
with published proceedings, or chapter in book. (Not unpublished
workshop, or dept. tech report). Books count 3 points per book
(authored or edited). Each member of academic staff has this measure
aggregated over the past 3 years (as recorded in the Departmental
Handbook); the measure is adjusted inversely for partial employment
(e.g. fractional or unpaid leave) during the period.
The median value of this measure among all staff (Lecturer &
above) is calculated. For each staff member, if the ratio of their
measure to the median is greater than 2 (the expected average number
of publications), the research load is 0.4. For each other staff
member where the ratio is at least 0.5, or where the staff member is
either at Lecturer or above and in their first 3 years or at
Associate Lecturer level and enrolled in a research degree, then the
research load is 0.3. For other staff, the research load is 0.2.
Note that for the purpose of counting the average number
publications, each author (or co-authored work) gets the full
credit. Papers are counted as soon as they are accepted for
publication.
The additional research load for an individual is calculated as the
Income / 75K (with maximum value of 0.15). The income equals the
direct overhead income to the Department arising from the individual's
research grants and research contracts. Overhead income for each
grant will be distributed equally among the principal investigators
unless agreed otherwise. These overheads will be counted in the grant
year.
Note that 75K is approximately the average cost of a member of
academic staff, including overheads.
For example, a staff member entitled to a 0.3 (publications) load
who is sole principal investigator for an ARC grant of $50K in 1997
would receive a research loading of 0.3 + 5K/75K = 0.37.
| Research Supervision | year | hrs/week
|
|---|
| Honours | 0.05 | 1.75
|
| Masters (Research) | 0.05 | 1.75
|
| PhD | 0.05 | 1.75
|
| Publications | |
|
|---|
| approx. > 2 | 0.4 | 14
|
| approx. 1 paper or new researcher | 0.3 | 10.5
|
| < 1 paper | 0.2 | 7.0
|
| Grant income | |
|
|---|
| min(0.15, Income / 75) | 0.15 | 5.25
|
Various administrative duties are spelled out and accounted for in detail.
In general these are heavy administration duties of least 0.05, ie. 75 hrs, i.e.
in excess of 2 weeks of work.
For example chairing of various committees includes incidental duties such as
membership of relevant Faculty committees.
Chairing the Education (Course) Committee includes international student matters
and teaching quality audit.
Overhead load is included for all staff for meeting attendance, mail, phone and
6 hrs advising/registering and 20 hrs exam marking per semester plus one
Faculty examiners meeting.
Professional development of 0.1 can be claimed.
Lecturers A may claim this for a maximum of 5 years.
Lecturers B may claim for first year only.
| Administration | year | hrs/week
|
|---|
| HOD | 0.40 | 14.0
|
| Ugrad Director & Tut Manager | 0.30 | 10.5
|
| Ugrad Admin, Timetable, Exam admin | 0.20 | 7.0
|
| Honours Director & Seminars | 0.20 | 7.0
|
| PDR course Director (BIT, MInfTech) | 0.10 | 3.5
|
| Program Marketing | 0.15 | 5.25
|
| Chair of Departmental Committee | |
|
|---|
| Resources & Space | 0.20 | 7.0
|
| Research (Also responsible for P/g students) | 0.20 | 7.0
|
| Education | 0.20 | 7.0
|
| Other Administration | |
|
|---|
| Overhead load | 0.10 | 3.5
|
| External Relations & Summer School | 0.20 | 7.0
|
| Professional Development Load: | 0.10 | 3.5
|
From my time at ANU (92-94) and discussions with ANU colleagues, only teaching
load was allocated by formula. The department is small and everyone is equally
into research, although some are taking a larger admin burden than
others.
At the time, on average, 2 subjects were taken each year, i.e. 1 subject per
semester, and admin burden was negotiated with the HOD in part
and in part discussed and agreed at annual retreats.
Since 1997 teaching load has increased slightly to three 6 credit
point units average (6 credit points equal 1/8 of a year),
with approximately 20 lecture hours per unit per semester.
Major admin items are now figures in as well. So are honours and
research student supervision. Additional weight is given to units new to the
lecturer and (more weight) entirely new subjects.
Large units such as first-year have a extra post of subject coordinator,
which is credited appropriately.
From discussions with the HOD:
"Everyone is DEEMED to be equally into research, but in fact they are not equally so. The
discrepancy is now becoming so evident that I am bing asked to give
some consideration to weighting the previous year's research output
contribution and I propose to use a formula equivalent to that for research
quantum publications."
Major administration duties, such as year coordination are now explicitly counted.
Small admin tasks are not included yet.
The ANU formula used is a weighted sum using the following weights
(excluding the tricky bit of teaching release for percentage of CRC
research). These weights for lecturing load reflect the stable class
sizes in each year across the subjects and may have to be adapted with
changing student load / quotas.
| Subject (6 credit point, 1 semester, 20 lectures) |
|
|---|
| 1st year | 6.0
|
| 2nd year | 5.0
|
| 3rd year | 4.0
|
| 4th year (Honours) | 4.0
|
| Subject novelty, add |
|
|---|
| repeat | 0
|
| first time for this lecturer | 1.0
|
| new subject | 2.0
|
| Tutorials |
|
|---|
| Tutorial | 0.75
|
| Teaching administration |
|
|---|
| 1st year coordinator | 2.0
|
| 2nd year coordinator | 1.0
|
| 3rd year coordinator | 1.0
|
| Head of School | 10.0
|
| Supervision |
|
|---|
| Honours student | 1.0
|
| Postgraduate research student | 2.0
|
"The result is that most loads on this model are between 19 to 23".
Source: personal communication, 20 Apr 1998, Dr. Chris Johnson, Head of Department, ANU DCS.
The School of CS is organised in teaching areas (Foundations, Systems, Software Engineering etc).
Areas are loosely (self-)organised, recommend lecture allocations, curriculum review, student surveys etc.
Ultimately the load allocation is the responsibility of the Head or delegate.
Load is measured in lecture hours per week. In addition the following
hours are calculated. Note that small numbers of students e.g. in
postgraduate units are to a fair degree compensated for b ythe nature
of the material which is typically more advanced. Funded small
research projects are credited by an appropriate small number of hours
as part of the load caculation.
The baseline per week is 15 to 17 hours.
| Lecturing |
|
|---|
| Subject 1hr/week full-year | 1.0
|
| Add subject hours |
|
|---|
| New unit (preparation) | 1.0
|
| Medium subject (100-200 ) | 1.0
|
| Large subject (> 200) | 2.0
|
| Teaching administration |
|
|---|
| Area coordinator | 2.0
|
| Major coordinator | 2.0
|
| Supervision |
|
|---|
| Higher degree research student | 1.0
|
| Teaching Release |
|
|---|
| previous sem project | 1.0 per 3 students
|
| staff PhD | 2.0
|
| research project | 1.0 - 2.0 per project
|
Source: personal communication, 09 Apr 1998, A/Prof George Mohay, Head of Department, QUT DCS.
Acknowledgement