Yesterday we looked at ways to get the teaching budget down. Today, we’re going to look at the other half of the cost equation: all that overhead. And we’re going to look at it by asking the question: how big a cut in overhead would it take to equal the effect of replacing 20% of your credit hours with sessionals (which, as we saw yesterday, reduces overall teaching loads by 17%)? Recall the equation: X = aϒ/(b+c), where “X” is the
(If you’re just tuning in today, you may want to catch up on Part 1 and Part 2) Back to our equation: X = aϒ/(b+c), where “X” is the total number of credit hours a professor must teach each year (a credit hour here meaning one student sitting in one course for one term), “ϒ” is average compensation per professor, “a” is the overhead required to support each professor, “b” is the government grant per student credit hour, and “c” is
Yesterday, I introduced the equation X = aϒ/(b+c) as a way of setting overall teaching loads. Let’s now use this to understand how funding parameters drive overall teaching loads. Assume the following starting parameters: Where a credit hour = 1 student in 1 class for 1 semester. Here’s the most obvious way it works. Let’s say the government decides to increase funding by 10%, from $600 to $660 (which would be huge – a far larger move
One of the things that clouds mutual understanding of higher education systems across the Atlantic is the nature of the Arts curriculum. And in particular, the degree to which they actually have them in Europe, and don’t over here. When students enroll in a higher education program in Europe, they have a pretty good idea of the classes they’ll be taking for the next three years. Electives are rare; when you enter a program, the required classes are in large part already
So I see the Laurentian faculty union is threatening to strike. The main issues are “workload” (they’d like to have lower undergraduate teaching loads to deal with an influx of graduate students) and pay (they’d like to “close the gap” with the rest of Ontario). This is where the entire system would be well served by having some understanding of what, exactly, everybody is getting paid for. Obviously, if you’re doing the same amount and type of work as someone
One Thought to Start Your Day is our founder and CEO Alex Usher’s popular daily blog, brimming with up-to-the-minute insights and informed opinions on today’s higher education industry.
