Academic Workload News Today

A video of a teacher in China and her students who dance before each class to clear their minds and boost energy levels has trended on mainland social media.

Academics described their universities as exploitative, oppressive, toxic and fiscally driven. They felt themselves being dehumanised and demoralised by management. Most reported feelings of burnout.

When working from home, women struggled more than men to find time for the sustained effort needed to produce good, publishable research. Lack of thinking time is a problem for all knowledge workers.

Changes to National Employment Standards have done little for casual staff hoping for conversion to ongoing positions. A comprehensive review of university work and employment is long overdue.

The definition of "academic workload" was one of the issues presented at Thursdays University of Kansas Faculty Senate meeting.

Some Fac-Ex members brought up concerns regarding a new draft of a university-wide academic workload policy during the Faculty Senate Executive Committee meeting Tuesday.

Academics are increasingly expected to share their research widely beyond academia. However, our recent study of academics in Australia and Japan suggests Australian universities are still very much focused on supporting the production of scholarly outputs. They offer relatively limited support for researchers’ efforts to engage with the many non-academics who can benefit from our research. One reason engagement is expected is that government, industry and philanthropic sources fund researc...