Dear colleagues,
We know from the 2022 staff survey that workload remains a significant concern for both academic staff and professional services staff across Directorates and Schools. The current financial challenges and consequent reductions in staffing makes more urgent the need to do things differently to reduce the volume of work.
I am writing now with an update following the Academic Workload Engagement Exercise, the results and recommendations from which were published last year. A parallel consultation exercise was also undertaken within Professional Services Directorates and School Administration teams to identify their pressure points and any potential changes to processes or systems that might help to address those workload issues.
Full details of the outcomes of the Workload Engagement Exercise including a summary of actions that have already been taken forward or are underway, and the key priority areas for action which will be taken forward are available online.
While recognising that there is much to do, I thought it might be helpful to summarise some key areas that have already been addressed with regard to the delivery of education. These include:
- The programme approval process has been streamlined to a one stage process including increased approval by circulation and chair’s action, and further steps are underway to align the work of the Programme Management Committee and the Quality Assurance Committee (QAC) to speed up the process and prevent delay with approvals. Streamlining paperwork associated with this will also reduce workload. Increasing the transparency of progress through the approval process will allow more efficient time management for course and programme planning / development.
- There is a presumption that courses with fewer than 15 students will not run. Clear guidance has been provided to all Schools on course withdrawals to support their work on reducing workload for delivery of education.
- Schools have been encouraged to reduce the workload related to assessment and provided with guidance on doing this. Reducing and consolidating assessment burden will lead directly to reduction of workload associated with assessment setting, marking and provision of feedback. The latest date for making any proposals to QAC to change or remove assessments are end of June (for term 1 delivery) and end of November (for term 2 delivery). In addition, QAC is meeting monthly to expedite the review of course proposals and amendments.
- It has been made clear where the personal tutor role begins and ends, and what support students can expect from academic staff and when referral to professional support is appropriate
- A number of IT enhancements to My Timetable and Student Records System identified by School monitoring leads that will reduce workload associated with C6/C7 monitoring processes are in development and will be available for AY 2024/25.
- Streamlined Internal Teaching Review processes are in place so that we are continuing to meet external QA requirements whilst reducing the associated workload.
- Policy changes are being taken forward which will:
- introduce a competency test to determine if an appeal or complaint is competent. This will reduce the volume of cases heard by the Schools, reducing time spent in considering cases which need not be progressed. Appeal routes relating to C7 are also being considered with a view to reducing workload;
- create a consistent and streamlined approach for extensions and non-submissions;
- reduce the extent of double marking whilst maintaining QA requirements bringing both reduced workload for academic staff and associated benefits for school admin teams.
As set out on the webpage, work is underway in other areas, including research (including Postgraduate Research School processes, and ethics), and administration, to include enhancements to our digital systems, and presumptions against the use of paper-based systems, and I will provide further updates on these in due course.
Best wishes
Karl
Karl Leydecker
Senior Vice-Principal
Chair of the Workload Review Group