Calculating target loads#

The size (in hours) of a target teaching load is set relative to the size of a full load.
To account for, and damp, fluctuations in the teaching hours required (resulting e.g. from fluctuations in admissions numbers) the full load is relative to the average full time equivalent (FTE) normalised teaching load of academic staff members. This is calculated from the list of academic staff on non-zero weightings, by summing up the total workload of all staff and dividing this total by the sum of the weightings of all members of staff.
Hence, for $n$ members of staff, each with a weighting $L_i$ (where $0 < L_i \leq 1$), with an allocated workload of $W_i$ hours, the workload of a member of staff on a full load $W$ is calculated as

$$W = {{\sum_{i=1}^n W_i}\over{\sum_{i=1}^n L_i}}$$

So, for example, if the total summed workload of all staff in this part of the spreadsheet is 30000 hours, and the sum of all staff weighting in that same section is equivalent to 40 full loads, then the average full workload is 750 hours.
The target loads for staff with buyout are then set as a fraction of this full workload depending on the size of their weighting.

When logging into SWAMP (https://swamp.dmaitre.phyip3.dur.ac.uk/activities/) in addition to a comparison of tariffed activities compared with CRT split you should be able to see where your FTE normalised teaching load sits in comparison to the distribution within the department.

Last updated 2026/02/29