At the April 8, 1994, Board of Regents meeting, the UW–System Faculty Educational Workload Policy submitted by the UW–System was approved. This policy called for each UW institution to submit its own campus educational workload policy. Subsequently, the UW–Madison issued a document (2 May 94, OW-Madison Faculty Document) intended to describe the educational workload policy at our campus so as to provide guidelines whereby, each school, college, and department would create their own detailed policies.
Several caveats of this document are essential to consider as we seek to establish our own workload policy. First, as an educational workload policy, it must attempt to capture the interrelationships and the interdependency among the research, teaching, practice, and service activities of the faculty, so as to create a clear picture of our efforts at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional program levels. Next, the policy must recognize the diversity of instruction which occurs in the classroom, laboratory, and patient care setting, which is unique to the School of Pharmacy (SoP) in comparison to other units on campus as well as the other professional schools. In addition, the normal or expected educational workload and its type (lecture, lab, discussion, clinical, undergraduate, graduate, or professional) is expected to vary among individuals in the SoP in relationship to their contributions to our mission.
UW–Madison Educational Workload Policy
View UW–Madison Educational Workload Policy »
The Educational Workload Policy indicates that each FTE instructional position is expected to average two group instruction sections and two individual instruction sections each semester. A group instruction section is defined as a Timetable listed course designated as either a lecture, laboratory, discussion, or seminar. Individual instruction sections are defined from the Timetable listing as either a conference, field instruction, or independent study (x90-x99 course numbers).
School of Pharmacy Educational Workload Policy
- Each faculty member will teach two sections (group instruction) and two sections (individual instruction) each semester in the School of Instruction in other campus units through cross-listing as in the case of interdisciplinary courses/curriculums will be included but require the approval of the Dean. The working assumption is that instruction will be established based on a documented (DIR) reporting of 6 hours/week of group instruction and individual instruction of 6 hours/week.
- The minimum expectation is that every faculty member (legal, academic staff) will be responsible for teaching one group and one individual section each semester.
- Trade-offs for group instructional workload will be determined based on the following:
- External funding – research
- Individual instruction
- Administrative load
- Professional patient care responsibilities
Faculty who are interested in buying out of their instructional workload may do so by providing a percentage of their salary equivalent to their proposed buy out for that semester. For example, a 50 % salary buy out will reduce the instructional load by 50 % to 1 group and 1 individual per semester.
Individual Instruction
Extensive individual instruction beyond the established minimum of 2 students per semester either at the undergraduate or graduate level will provide for a reduction of a one group instruction using the exchange described below:- 4 graduate students per semester
- 2 full-time clerkship students or equivalent per semester. Defined as: one month equivalents (160 hours/month x 2 = 320 hours) 25% instructional contact time or 80 hours/ semester
- 8 undergraduate students (Advanced Independent Study – 699) per semester
- 4 postdoctoral/fellow students
- 4 residents full-time per semester
Associate Deans, Assistant Deans, Divisional Chairs, or those with heavy committee/administrative loads (as judged by the Dean) are permitted a trade-off for between 1 to 2 group instructions per year. The Dean is not expected to provide instruction.
Professional Patient Care Responsibilities
Patient care responsibilities are an expectation of clinical faculty. These activities typically account for approximately 30% of a clinical faculty member’s contribution. Levels in excess of these can be exchanged for a once per year trade off for group instruction using the external funding trade-off outlined earlier. - In all cases, alterations in teaching assignments, for whatever purposes such as described earlier or because of special educational efforts or extracurricular efforts, require approval by the Divisional Chair and Dean.