Productivity 101: Increase teaching load of university professors who aren't active researchers

TORONTO, March 11, 2014 /CNW/ - If professors who are not active researchers taught more, the teaching capacity of full-time professors in Ontario's universities could increase by 10%, equivalent to adding 1,500 additional faculty members across the province, according to a new report from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO).

The report, Teaching Loads and Research Outputs of Ontario University Faculty: Implications for Productivity and Differentiation, conservatively estimates that approximately 19% of tenure and tenure-track economics and chemistry faculty members at 10 Ontario universities sampled demonstrated no obvious recent contribution of scholarly or research output, although universities generally adhere to a faculty workload distribution of 40% teaching, 40% research and 20% service.

Extrapolating from that sample, the authors say that Ontario's university system would be more productive and efficient if research non-active faculty members compensated for their lack of scholarly output by increasing their teaching load to double that of their research-active colleagues - for an 80% teaching and 20% service workload distribution. Currently, research non-active professors teach approximately a third more than active researchers.

"The Ontario government says that our publicly funded universities need to improve productivity while protecting access and quality," says HEQCO president and CEO Harvey Weingarten.  "By better understanding the workload of faculty members, we can create the conditions and practices that enable them to do their best work, improve the student experience and help institutions operate more efficiently. As noted in our 2013 report on postsecondary productivity, the deployment of faculty resources may be one of the most promising opportunities for universities to increase their productivity."

Using publicly available data including university websites, the new study focused on a sample of teaching workloads, research volume and impact, and remuneration for assistant, associate and full professors in the economics, chemistry and philosophy departments at Brock, Carleton, Lakehead, McMaster, Ottawa, Queen's, Toronto, Western, Wilfrid Laurier and Windsor. The institutions were selected to reflect the range of universities in the province - from research-intensive to undergraduate-focused.

Although all Ontario universities present themselves as research-intensive and typically subscribe to the 40-40-20 workload distribution, they have different workload expectations. Faculty members in the most research-intensive universities tend to teach the least, while faculty members in universities that are less engaged in research tend to teach more.  The average course load during the 2012 academic year was slightly under 3 courses -equivalent to two courses in one semester and one course in a second semester.

The authors acknowledge data limitations, noting that there is little publicly available that documents teaching and research outputs of faculty -- particularly teaching.  "The best information with which to conduct an examination of faculty workload and impact resides with the universities themselves," say the authors. "They are also well positioned to... assemble a complete picture of what faculty do, what they contribute and how much they are paid… We understand that the Ontario university system has initiated an exercise to collect a more comprehensive data set."

About the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario
HEQCO is an agency of the Government of Ontario, established in 2005 to contribute to the improvement of Ontario's postsecondary education system. HEQCO is mandated to conduct research, evaluate the postsecondary education system and provide policy recommendations to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities on improving system quality, access and accountability.

Check out HEQCO online at www.heqco.ca
Twitter: @HEQCO
Facebook: www.facebook.com/HEQCO

SOURCE: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario

Matt Ross
Research Communications Officer
Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario
[phone] / [email protected]