Workload Guidelines
The Department of Psychology is a research-intensive department in the Faculty of Social Science, with a strong commitment to excellence in graduate and undergraduate education. Faculty members contribute to the Department, Faculty, and University in a variety of ways, including conducting scholarly research and communicating the results through publication, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses and supervising undergraduate and graduate students, and participating in the administrative life of the Department, Faculty, and University.
The present guidelines apply to Full-Time faculty members, who are normally expected to contribute to each of research, teaching, and service. The guidelines are established in accordance with the conditions of the UWO-UWOFA Collective Agreement. For the purpose of performance evaluation, faculty members will be given a rating by the Annual Performance Evaluation Committee for each of research, teaching, and service, as well as an overall rating reflecting a 40:40:20 weighting of the three categories. Although some variation in Normal Workload is expected and appropriate, any significant deviation in activity across the three areas of academic responsibility should be reflected in an agreement regarding Alternative Workload or Reduced Responsibility as provided for in the Collective Agreement.
Research
The UWO Psychology Department is a research-intensive department and among the most productive psychology departments in Canada. All Full-Time faculty members are expected to be active in scholarly research and to communicate their findings through such avenues as publications and conference presentations. A definition of research is provided in Sections 3-5 of the Academic Responsibilities of Members article in the Collective Agreement.
As a normal research workload, faculty members should:
- maintain an active research program
- obtain funding for research as necessary
- publish in peer-reviewed journals or in books (typically 1 or 2 per year)
- make regular presentations at scientific conferences or in other ways disseminate results of scholarly work
Teaching
The Psychology Department has important teaching responsibilities at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Our goals are to maintain or enhance the current level of educational quality as well as maintain enrolment approximately at its recent levels. All Full-Time faculty members are expected to be involved to some extent in the education of undergraduate and graduate students. A definition of teaching is provided in Section 2 of the Academic Responsibilities of Members article in the Collective Agreement.
As a normal teaching workload, faculty members should:
- teach up to the equivalent of 1.5 full undergraduate or graduate courses per academic year
- supervise graduate students (typically between 1 and 3 at any given time)
- supervise honours thesis students (typically 1 per year)
- serve on advisory or examining committees for graduate students
- participate in the comprehensive examination process
It is recognized that the teaching demands of a course can vary based on such things as the size of the class; the requirements for laboratory or tutorial sessions; the need for additional preparation for a course that is new to a faculty member or to the Department; the availability of teaching assistants; the level of the course (e.g., introductory vs. upper year vs. graduate); and the type of instruction involved (e.g., lecture vs. seminar). These factors might be taken into account when assigning teaching responsibilities to individual faculty members.
Service
The successful and efficient operation of the Psychology Department in fulfilling its research and teaching responsibilities depends on the willingness of faculty members to participate in the administration of the Department, Faculty, and University. All Full-Time faculty members are expected to contribute to service, with duties distributed on a fair and equitable basis when possible. A definition of service is provided in Sections 6-7 of the Academic Responsibilities of Members article in the Collective Agreement.
As a normal service workload, faculty members should:
- serve on committees in the Psychology Department (typically 1 or 2 per year)
- serve on Faculty or University committees (typically 1 every year or two)
- provide ad hoc reviews of journal submissions and grant applications
- serve in scientific or professional organizations, provided such involvement does not interfere with service duties within the University.
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