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Planning the academic's workload: different approaches to allocating work to university academics

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Abstract

This paper examines workload planning of academic staff in UK university departments. Two case studies are presented and links made to a third, previously published, case. The first case is located in the department of, what was at the time, a polytechnic business school and describes a workload planning system based on teaching contact. The second, more recent, case is situated in an “old” university and features an approach to planning academic workloads in actual hours. The previously published case focuses on workload planning principles in a business school of an established university. Drawing from these cases discussions centre on a number of major areas. These include workload planning principles, computerised decision support, the institutional contexts, the political dimension of workload planning and the management of change. Some comments are made on further opportunities for research.

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  1. School of Business and Economic Studies, University of Leeds, Blenheim Terrace, LS2 9JT, Leeds, UK

    T. F. Burgess

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  1. T. F. Burgess
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Burgess, T.F. Planning the academic's workload: different approaches to allocating work to university academics. High Educ 32, 63–75 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00139218

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