The allocation of teaching duties#

The allocation of teaching duties is the responsibility of the Director of Education (DoE), on behalf of the Head of Department (HoD), in consultation with all affected staff. When allocating duties the following principles are taken into account:

  • Suitability: who has the skillset and knowledge, or the potential to develop the skillset and knowledge, to make a success of the role in question
  • Workload: who needs to pick up hours in order to get closer to their target load
  • Availability: who is available at that time, i.e. in Durham and not overloaded with other tasks
  • Balance: as far as possible, to give staff a range of roles in different types of teaching

Process of allocation of teaching duties#

The process of allocating teaching duties begins with the DoE asking staff and PDRAs to their teaching preferences at (or soon after) the end of Epiphany Term. Specifically, a form is provided in the database for those involved (or who will be involved in teaching to express a preference for teaching activities they would like to retain, to relinquish (if possible) and take up (if possible). The DoE then advertises available roles in a subsequent e-mail and requests expressions of interest to ensure transparency: all colleagues have an opportunity to know which activities are available and can indicate their interest in them. For that reason, colleagues should not promise or otherwise directly arrange swaps with others as these will not necessarily be honoured.

Once information on available roles and interest is determined the process follows the principles described above are used to fill all with roles the right person for the job (`round peg in a round hole’). If a suitable colleague has not expressed an interest in an available role the DoE will approach appropriate candidates starting with those with the lowest normalised loads. In some cases reorganisation of activities may be needed to ensure the teaching allocation principles are successfully met. This is always done with some level of consultation with the staff members in question, to ensure they are able and willing to pick the task up, and to ensure they have a manageable portfolio of duties for the year in question.

The DoE also reserves the right to reallocate duties in cases where colleagues have consistently received poor student feedback, in order to ensure a high quality teaching programme.

Last updated 2026/03/29