Following many months of consultation involving UCU, Deans and HR we are very pleased to launch a new UAL-wide Academic Workload Planner (AWP). The overriding purpose of the Planner is to seek equitable academic workloads across the University and ensure that all aspects of academic contribution are appropriately recognised.
We are launching the AWP now so that it can be trialled for this round of PRA. Even though extensive work has gone into its design, there may be further tweaks needed and we will jointly gather feedback in the coming months. One area we will work on now – but we didn’t want this to delay the launch – is more detail about research outputs and relative levels of teaching remission. This is particularly important for our preparations for five years’ time: the next REF.
The AWP is designed in Excel so it is accessible to all staff. We have produced the following information for academic staff to use:
- A template AWP form for each individual to use and discuss with their manager
- A guidance note on what the terms and definitions mean
- A tutorial video showing you how to use it
These can be found here: https://myintranet.arts.ac.uk/staffonly/hr/support/academic-workload-planner/
We also hope to provide joint presentations in Colleges by the Summer to explain the key principles of the AWP and answer any questions.
We expect all salaried academics to use the AWP as part of planning their workloads. Familiarisation will of course take time but any initial queries about the use of the AWP in your area should be sent to your local Dean (see contacts below). General feedback should be sent to Clive Holden in HR at c.holden@arts.ac.uk
We hope you will find the AWP useful. College contacts who played a significant part in the development of the AWP are as follows:
Simon Betts, Dean of College, Wimbledon College of Arts
Mark Dunhill, Dean of Academic Programmes, CSM
Andrew Hughes, Dean of School of Management & Science, LCF
Lawrence Zeegen, Dean of the School of Design, LCC
Nick Rogers Kyran Joughin
Director of Human Resources UCU Secretary
8 May 2014