Faculty Workload

This policy establishes guidelines for faculty workload using the teacher-scholar model as its foundation and aligns with the University of Central Missouri’s promotion and tenure policy. The teacher-scholar model recognizes three critical components of engagement in higher education (teaching, scholarly/creative activity, and service). All three forms of engagement are crucial for academic excellence and are required for successful promotion and tenure of tenure-track faculty and may be considered in the promotion of instructional track faculty. Consistent with UCM’s focus on educating students and meeting specialized accreditation requirements, all full-time faculty at UCM must devote at least 50% of their time to teaching or professional librarianship.

Professional Development Plan (PDP)

Each faculty member will create a professional development plan (PDP) for the following academic year in consultation with their department chair by May 15. The PDP will serve as the basis for evaluation in the following academic year in the areas of instruction, scholarly/creative activity, and service. PDPs will be maintained at the department with copies submitted to the college dean using a shared folder.

Teaching Workload

Teaching (instructional) workload shall balance traditional workload inputs with average productivity expectations appropriate to the discipline defined by two-digit CIP codes. Each two-digit CIP code will be mapped to an academic department. Department chairs will strive to create a balanced work environment that considers the contractual status of each faculty member and meets the needs of the academic department in a cost-efficient manner.

The standard annual teaching workload for instructional faculty on a nine-month appointment shall be 24 credit hours. The standard annual teaching workload for tenured/tenure-track faculty on a nine-month appointment housed in a department that meets or exceeds its productivity target shall be 18 credit hours, with 24 credit hours teaching loads assigned as warranted for individual contribution towards departmental averages. The standard annual teaching workload for tenured/tenure-track faculty on a nine-month appointment housed in a department that does not meet its productivity target shall be 24 credit hours, with lesser teaching loads assigned as warranted in recognition of individual faculty members’ contribution towards departmental averages. For twelve-month faculty, an additional six credit hours are required, outside of the standard academic year, to meet teaching workload expectations. Chairs may balance a faculty member’s schedule of instruction if the faculty member instructs fewer credit hours in one semester with more credit hours in another semester (i.e., asymmetrical loading). For purposes of workload calculation, a credit hour aligns with the UCM definition for direct faculty instruction found in the syllabi policy (i.e., one credit hour equals one hour per week).

For tenured/tenure-track faculty assigned an 18-credit hour nine-month teaching load, six credit hours of additional annual workload is expected to be designated toward scholarly/creative activity and six credit hours toward service. For tenured/tenure-track faculty assigned a 24-credit hour nine-month teaching load, three credit hours of additional annual workload is expected to be designated toward scholarly/creative activity and three credit hours toward service. 

Since curricula, class sizes, scholarly/creative activity, and service can vary widely, reassignments of workload responsibilities may be made by the department chair with oversight by the college dean. Consistent with their contractual status, all tenure-track/tenured faculty shall perform some amount of teaching, scholarly/creative activity, and service each year, and instructional faculty may optionally engage in scholarly/creative and/or service each year.

In all cases, the total annual workload for all faculty on a nine-month contract shall equal 24-30 credit hours depending on appointment type. The total annual workload for faculty on a 12-month contract shall equal 30-36 credit hours depending on appointment type.

 

Productivity Expectations

Acceptable mean annual faculty teaching workload ratios (student credit hours per faculty FTE) are expected to be maintained in the creation of course schedules by each department. Average teaching workload ratio internal targets by department will be used to inform the assignment of each individual’s faculty workload. Teaching workload ratios will be established by the provost in consultation with Faculty Senate leadership and communicated by October 15 each year for the following academic year.
A rolling three-year average ratio will be used to inform internal targets.

Annual Evaluation

Department chairs evaluate faculty instruction, scholarly/creative activity, and service workload annually. Evaluations and PDPs will be maintained at the department with copies submitted to the college dean and their official personnel file.

 

Scholarly/Creative Activity Workload

The normative level of scholarly/creative activity should result in production of discipline-specific inquiry or creative activity based on the university and college promotion and tenure requirements for a full-time tenure-track/tenured faculty member. The scholarly/creative activity workload will approximate 6 credit hours of scholarship per academic year. Twelve-month faculty members are expected to perform 3 credit hours of scholarship outside of the standard academic year. Evidence of scholarship and future direction is to be discussed by the faculty member and the chair during the annual evaluation and included in the PDP. The department chair with the approval of the dean will define minimum appropriate credit hour equivalence for scholarly/creative activity output expectations. Other approved activities to maintain faculty professional qualifications may be substituted where allowed by specialized accreditation.

Instructional faculty are not required to, but may agree to, perform up to 6 credit hours of scholarly/creative activity or service per academic year. Evidence of scholarly/creative activity is considered during the instructional faculty promotion process.

Service Workload

The normative level of service shall be based on the university and college promotion and tenure requirements for a full-time tenure-track/tenured faculty member. The service workload will approximate 6 credit hours of service per academic year. Faculty are expected to serve their program, the university/college, their profession, and the community at large. Service to their program and the university/college may include mentorship of students, service on, and leadership of, committees, councils, task forces, and other working groups. Service to their profession may include membership and regular activity in professional organizations and participation in working groups and committees at the regional, national, or international level. Service to the community at large may include discipline-related advising of local groups aimed at improving the lives of citizens. Select faculty who take on chair-approved major service activities that will significantly increase service workload may obtain a reduced instruction or scholarship workload, as negotiated with their chair and approved by the dean. The department with the approval of the dean will define minimum appropriate credit hour equivalence for service output expectations. Other approved activities to maintain faculty professional qualifications may be substituted where allowed by specialized accreditation.

Instructional faculty are not required to, but may agree to, perform up to 6 credit hours of scholarly/creative activity or service per academic year as negotiated with the chair and the dean. Evidence of service is considered during the instructional faculty promotion process.

Overload Assignments

Overload assignments for full-time faculty are governed by the Faculty Compensation & Formulas Policy in Section 6.II. Overloads (full-time faculty).

Summer Assignments

Summer teaching assignments for full-time faculty are governed by the Faculty Compensation & Formulas Policy in Section 6.III.B Full-time Faculty (Summer Term).

 

Redress

Department chairs will establish workload assignments in consultation with the faculty member using the PDP. It is the obligation of the department chair to assign faculty loads based on department need and faculty status as tenure-track/tenured or instructional. If there is a disagreement regarding workload assignment, faculty members should attempt to resolve the disagreement informally with the department chair followed by, if still unresolved, their dean. If the disagreement is still unresolved and the workload assignment is inconsistent with these guidelines, the faculty member may initiate formal grievance procedures through the Faculty Senate Committee on Dispute Resolution and Grievance.

Policy 2.2.040 Faculty Classification (establishes definitions of faculty ranks)

Revision History:

Established and archived prior to 1999 Edited byHuman Resources 2010.

Reviewed by Human Resources December 2014.

Edited for web links, formatting, and plain language. Approved December 2015.

III.A.1. Employment: Nondiscrimination/Equal Opportunity Statement – removed duplicate language
retaining link to original language in Board of Governors Policy 1.2.150 December 2016

III.A.2 Employment: Procedures for Employment of New Faculty/Academic Staff – removed reference
to AP&R 1 and 2 and redirected using a link to Human Resources’ Faculty Search Guidelines
document December 2016

III.A.5. Faculty Identification Card - information available through Human Resources. This section
deleted from the Academic Policy and Procedure December 2016

III.A. Employment – Table of Contents expanded to reflect the subsections of this section in order to
improve transparency of the content of this section December 2016

Previously annotated as III.A.4. Teaching Workload Guidelines. Renamed Teaching Workload
Guidelines for alphabetical listing, grammar and spell check, and transitioned into policy library
April 2017

March 2025. Revised entirely, former internal headings removed.