Faculty Workload in a Research Intensive University: A Case Study

The literature on faculty workload reports differences in worked weekly hours and in the distribution of total time allocated to teaching, research, and service. Some differences are also reported concerning faculty workload by gender, academic rank, and disciplinary sectors. This study analyzes self-reported faculty workload in a Canadian research intensive university. It introduces a new way of measuring time on task by calculating it in a typical most loaded month an in a typical less loaded month. Results show an average weekly workload of 56.97 hours of which 44.1% is allocated to teaching, 35.2% to research, 5.8% to administrative tasks and 14.8% to service. There are few differences in faculty workload by gender, academic rank, and disciplinary sectors. Overall, self-reported faculty workload has increased in the last decade partly because of electronic communications and procedures and on-line pedagogical activities.