There's no such thing as a comprehensive guide to academic workloads.
There are non-comprehensive guides. There are models. There are principles. But, here it is again, there is no such thing as a comprehensive guide.
So, if there isn't a crank to turn that will automatically deliver reasonable, and equitable workloads, what can you have? You should expect all of the following:
- Transparency — You can't make informed judgements about how workloads stack up unless you know what's happening to everybody.
- Equity — Equity is important, but only if it doesn't allow universal (albeit equitable) suffering.
- Enforceable maximums — Where these are meant to ensure against worst cases, they must not become de facto standards.
- Timeliness — If the process is left too late, the opportunities for changes slip away.
Most union agreements provide workload guidance and many have better provisions than just the principles above. You should know those provisions inside-out.
If you have special circumstances not anticipated or not appropriately addressed in your faculty's Utopian vision, then it's up to you to make those matters known early in the process, preferably in writing (email will do). It's much easier to raise such circumstances as issues before the fact, than as complaints after. (See my post about horse trading.)
And, please, spare a thought for the timetabler, it's the worst job around.
Then, if it's still not working contact your Union.
The educational policies of the last decade
have done for [Australian] universities
what Las Vegas did for weddings.
—Yllib Ybnad (b. 1948)
