1. Acknowledgement and References

• 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
• University South Australia, School of Computer and Information Sciences, 1995-, revised 1997
• Queensland University of Technology, Computer Science, 1995-

Different Schools across Australia use different units of measurement. While some Schools measure hours over the entire year, some normalise them (1.0 for the entire year).

More importantly, older load models use only the contact hours, rather than the time including preparation, contact and support of the given duty. This works well where staff profiles are fairly similar and where contact hours scale uniformly into actual hours across the various duties and activities measured. With the increasing diversification in Universities this is now rarely the case.

Hours per week are used in this document as the most natural unit (for time management) but are then also presented in various conversions to facilitate comparisons with other Schools' load formulas and weights.

Load prediction, 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, initiatives under way etc.

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

• transparency: in a collegiate system everyone has access to the data and knows what is being done in the school by who;
• clarity of expectation: everyone (and particularly junior staff) get a sense of the load expected in connection with certain duties;
• facilitation of time management: for everyone (and particularly junior staff) the load spreadsheet contributes to helping in time management;
• sense of fairness: everyone can develop a sense of fair load distribution according to well-understood default principles and values;
• traceability and accountability: the management of the school knows what is going on and can reliably plan, manage and improve the processes;
• flexibility: the load model allows the department and staff to adapt to changes in teaching and research profiles, to new degrees or initiatives, and to do this in a visible and well-defined way;
• career development and documentation: the activities of individual staff are documented and agreed and the documentation supports the processes of staff development, appraisal and promotions.

3. The Load Process

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.

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.)

The 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 "risk subjects" at that time. Risk subjects may be cancelled or reallocated.

The final teaching load allocations for risk subjects or for reallocations due to exceptional circumstances are published as soon as possible but no later than one week before the respective semester.

A mixed quantitative and qualitative approach is used in Faculty. 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.

4.1 Time as Unit of Measurement

Quantitative teaching and research (supervision) load and also certain administrative duties are treated on an equal footing as hours per week.

Following the Sydney model, a week is calculated as 35 hrs, 43 weeks per year, or 1500 hrs work per year. This means 15 hrs work out as 0.01 in the normalised point system.

4.2 Baseline(s)

For fairness, staff should in general carry a roughly equal load. This is reflected in the baseline total, which is set each year. The current baseline is 18 hours. It may be appropriate for individual Schools to decompose the baseline and define component baselines for lecturing, supervision etc.

Note that the remaining 17 hours of socalled granted nominal load per week include general overhead times such as personal planning and time management, 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 a minimal amount of research! This includes also many informal interactions with students and staff of the School, the fabric of a live and thriving scholarly and research culture.

Only excess research such as justified and agreed to by the Head of School as part of large grants or Centres is counted towards the 18 hours baselined.

The definition of the baseline load must allow for a reasonable minimum of such activities.

Unlike some other Universities we feel that detailed identification of minimal research, administration, community service, and communication could be misinterpreted to unecessarily prescribe the times for the many minor duties of individual staff. Moreover the items accounted for will be reviewed periodically and it would be overly restrictive and controversial to attempt to define precisely the time required for all the minor duties.

	hours/wk	hours/yr	percent
Unit of measure	1h	43h	2.857%
Accounted Load (Baseline)	18h	774h	51.4%
Granted Nominal Load (indicative split below)	17h	731h	48.6%
Personal planning and organisation	2h	86h	5.7%
Communication and Initiatives	3h	129h	8.6%
Minimal Research or Scholarly Activities	5h	215h	14.3%
Consulting/Community Engagement (1d/wk)	7h	301h	20%
TOTAL	35h	1505h	100%

For some items there are caps. For example for some time the university capped the supervision load at 5.0 fulltime equivalent PhD students. This equates to 7.5 hrs per week capped. While this particular cap exists no longer, Schools may have their own baselines and caps or any additional constraints for balancing their research, teaching and administration profiles or that of individual staff according to their direction, plan and culture.

4.3 Load Claimed vs Load Agreed

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.

4.4 Teaching Load Weights

	hrs/wk	hrs/yr	percent
Lecturing (1hr/week full year)
Lecture new subject	2	86	5.71%
Lecture with revision	1.25	53.75	3.57%
Repeat, parallel or night lecture	1	43	2.86%
Admin assistance medium/large subjects, multiples of	1	43	2.86%
Subjects run as mostly seminars	0.5	21.5	1.43%
Normal subject converted to reading	0.1	4.3	0.286%
Subject coordination (full-year) add:
Smallish subject (50-100)	2	86	5.71%
Medium subject (100-200)	4	172	11.42%
Large subject (> 200)	6	258	17.14%
Honours subject (> 10)	2	86	5.71%
Masters subject (> 10)	2	86	5.71%
Tutorials, Practicals, Laboratories and Projects (1hr/week full year)
Tutorial/Lab contact	1	43	2.86%
Tutorial preparation	1	43	2.86%
Tutorial marking and consultation	1	43	2.86%
Final year industry project	1	43	2.86%

4.4.1 Lecturing

Subject lecturing and coordination are separated. The weight calculates a lecture hour per week for the entire year, or equivalently 2 hours of lecture for one semester. Nominally, the time is allocated through all 43 weeks of the year and accomodates any lecture related duties beyond the contact hours proper. This includes minor revisions of the lecture material to accomodate new knowledge or new versions of software etc.

Lecturing includes

• the preparation of lecture material including electronic course material (for web-intensive subjects, some web assistance may be provided by the School);
• the setting of assignments and exams and other assessment material;
• the preparation of tutorial or practical material;
• representation of the subject in School or faculty committees such as year coordination committee, curriculum committee, on retreats etc.

4.4.2 Subject Coordination

• tutors' management including regular tutors meetings (for large subjects assistance with tutorial enrollment is provided by the School);
• student consultation before subject enrollment throughout the semester, electronically or face-to-face (although in the first instance tutors will provide that contact);
• exam marking and subject grading (for large subjects assistance is provided by the School);
• representation of the subject on examiners meetings.

4.4.3 Tutorials, Practicals and Laboratories

Similarly tutorial time distinguishes preparation, contact, consultation and marking. When the subject lecturer takes tutorials the tutorial preparation is not counted - it is already contained in the development of the lecture. However the time for contact, consultation and marking are counted as usual.

Practicals and Lab classes are counted accordingly, depending on whether preparation, marking etc. is relevant.

The Schools review all subjects annually as to the hours of tutorials, labs relevant for the subject and define the relevant load weights in an appendix to this document.

4.4.4 Sharing and Splitting

Where the effort is split between staff, the points are split pro rata.

When subjects share material, the respective points are counted once only. For instance assume a fourth and fifth year subject share the same course material and lecture hours, but run different labs and require separate assignment and marking. Then the lecturing accounts for one subject and the coordination for the respective two subjects.

4.5 Research Load Weights

4.5.1 Research Training

Supervision of students including HDR students is regarded as research training. Joint work with students on papers is logically part of the research time (subsumed under the nominal minimal research load or the research reward time). Similarly the supervision of research assistants is contained in the weights for grant research.

4.5.2 Research Activities

Allowances for research active staff extend the minimal nominal research/scholar time as defined in the nominal load. Such allowances reward DETYA audited publications (notably category A1, B1, C1 and E1) as accounted for in the previous publication data collection. Publications in excess of a nominated minimal number of papers per year "classify" research activity by publications. If publications are co-authored, the points are split pro-rata according to the publications data collection.

In addition, research time is allocated by grant income, or, to grant projects to provide time for successful outcomes for grants accepted by the School.

6. Monash University, Econometrics Department

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

7. Monash University, Mechanical Engineering

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: 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

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.

• to keep the load equal between all staff in any year;
• to respect differing preferences and abilities;
• to give a lecturer the same lecture for four years

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.

9.1 Teaching Load

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

9.2 Research Load

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

9.3 Administration Load

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

10. Australian National University, Computer Science Department

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 The 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.

The tricky bit of teaching release for percentage of CRC research is not shown in the formula. Basically staff nominated for CRC research reserve a specified small portion (e.g. the first 10%) of their time for interactions with the student and staff community in the school, to actively participate in the research life of the School irrespective of CRC plans and deadlines. Any remaining research time is dedicated to the CRC and/or grants research. Any further nominated CRC research time is negotiated and allocated from time to time by the Head of School as appropriate for the School's direction and plan.

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

Each full-time academic is required to undertake, per year,

• 4 teaching / research / development quanta, plus,
• 12 units of tutoring and/or supervision and/or administration.

The buyout approval process requires:

• A case for buyout similar to that for a PEP Leave application must be submitted to the Head of School and must cover the following areas:
  • Outline of activities to be undertaken
  • Relationship to School's Missions and Goals
  • Equipment requirements
  • Assessable outputs (papers, presentations, teaching materials etc.)
  • Expected followup activities
• Each case is subject to approval by the Head of School on the grounds of resource implications and appropriateness, and will normally require a minimum notice of one semester.
• For buyout related to research activity, agreement must be reached in advance regarding the research plan to be conducted and the benefits to the individual, the School and the Research Centre.
• Staff are limited to buying out of 1 quantum plus 6 units per year.

12. Queensland University of Technology, Computer Science

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.