Staff wonder what the new (really new) teaching and research time allocations are

In May management told academics they would have to do way more teaching, up to 80 per cent of their time, at the expense of research due to the “significant financial pressure” the university faces. “Everyone is expected to make a significant contribution,” management stated (CMM May 6).

How this would work in terms of the income and publication targets set last year for research-active staff (CMM October 4) was not clear to all staff then. Still isn’t.

Grant O’Neill, PVC for arts, business, law and social sciences tells staff that those who had a research workload hour allocation in the first half of the year will now receive 45 per cent of what they would originally have received for July-December. The full earned research workload for June is reinstated.

This will “impact overall workloads for the remainder of 2020” Professor O’Neill says and will “change casual staff utilisation.”  Tough  for staff who scaled back on research in June and wonder if they will now have to catch-up and concerning for those who want to know what, if any, per centage of the October research targets are back in place.  And possibly confusing for staff who took on extra teaching commitments, starting next week.

There are discipline meetings in the next few days, where undoubtedly all will be made clear.