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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol. 37, No. 19. July 31, 1974
Worried about workloads ?
Worried about workloads ?
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| 1) | It was assumed that a reasonable work-load for a student, including formal contact, averaged over the lecturing year might be 40 hours a week (the average academic year being taken as 25 teaching weeks). | ||||||||
| 2) | That each level has had its limits set. Those were (for each 12 credit course): At the 100 level, 13 hours per week = 325 hours per year. At the 200 level, 14 hours per week = 350 hours per year. At the 300 level, 16 hours per week = 400 hours per year. | ||||||||
| 3) | Maximum requirements have been established, both of formal staff-student contact, and of set work. These requirements were based on the following assumptions.
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| 4) | Work which is optional is omitted [unclear: but] work that is required to be done before a course begins (including vacation reading) has been included. |
With the above assumptions in mind, the following conclusions about maximum workloads were reached.
| (a) |
3 lectures per week 1 tutorial per week 6 essays per year 6 exercises per year 322 hours per year |
| (b) |
2 lectures per week 2 hours language lab per week 1 prose translation per week 3 essays per year 324 hours per year |
| (c) |
3 lectures per week 2 hours practical per week 2 essays per year 6 exercises per year 323 hours per year |
| (a) |
3 lectures per week 3 hours practical per week 2 essays per year 8 hours field work Report on field work 3 tests 348 hours per week |
| (b) |
3 lectures per week 1 tutorial per week 8 essays per year 346 hours per year |
| (c) |
2 lectures per week 4 hour language laboratory per week 1 prose translation 350 hours per year 3) |
| (a) |
3 lectures per week 3 tutorials per week 4 essays per year 2 seminar papers per year 398 hours per year |
| (b) |
3 lectures per week 3 hours practical per week 3 essays per year 12 exercises per year 396 hours per year |
| (c) |
4 lectures per week 2 hours practical per week 2 essays per year 20 hours field work per year 402 hours per year |
As the committee stressed, this report is by no means final, but rather is intended to serve as a basis for further dicussion. It was agreed by those present at the faculty meeting that some regulation of workloads is required, and noted that already 35% of courses are exceeding these tenative limits. Further discussion is proposed, this time including a number of student representatives, whose names are given below, who would appreciate very much some ideas from other students about this whole question. Some of the following points about the report might serve as a basis for further comment.
| 1) | The questionnaire about student workloads on which the report was based was sent to members of the staff. Instead of directing it to students themselves, the staff were asked to estimate how much time they thought students spent doing their work work. The results in some cases were quite ridiculous, e.g. a high proportion of staff thought that student at 200 and 300 levels in doing major essays would spend five to eight hours! That's including background reading and so forth. |
| 2) | It is assumed in the report that no time is spent preparing for tutorials — yet surely this is not the case. Admittedly, two hours is given for support work in lectures, which seems to be excessive, but on the other hand, almost any tutorial that is to be successful requires a certain amount of preparation. In fact it is frequently the case that regular tutorial assignment are demanded. Thus, allowing no time for preparation surely understates the amount of time students spend on tutorials. |
| 3) | On a different level the assumption that a reasonable work-load for a student might be 40 hours a week can be challenged. Why 40 hours? Surely this is quite an arbitrary sort of figure, and in fact relates only to the wider idea that knowledge is a commodity, itemised and dished out at university between the hours of 9—5. It was mentioned at the faculty meeting by a staff member that this whole process of setting limits to teaching and teaching hours, is attempting to quantify something that is essentially unquantifiable. It seems in many ways that the university is getting itself into an increasingly deeper and more farcical situation when the whole process of learning is being regulated, and dissected in such a fashion as is attempted by this report. |
Some students already feel that the suggested maximums are excessive. For instance, if a student was doing two 200 level courses, and one 100 level course, quite a common situation, then he would have 22 essays in that year, and would therefore be churning out essays at the rate of almost one a week. Fortunately, however, at this stage the report has not been finalised, and further staff-student discussion is to follow. The following student representatives on the faculties of arts and languages and literature would welcome any sort of suggestion or co-operation whatever:
Roger Miller 795-327, Pip Desmond 49-797. John Ryall UP86396. Pat Martin 557-661.
They may also be contacted through Contact or the Studies Office.