Workload management for academics within higher education settings has been and continues to be heavily contested and cited by some as a challenge that has proved impossible to satisfactorily decipher. This is especially problematic within postgraduate contexts where academics have multilayered roles and responsibilities that include teaching,…

In the Nordic context, transnational discourses influence recontextualisation of ideas and discourses, and thus, how local actors negotiate around values imbued with ideas and discourses. In Sweden, the idea of teacher assistants has been prompted -- through policy discourses on teacher professionalism -- under imperatives of reducing teachers'…

Using the rights contained in the Freedom of Information Act, we collected data on the teaching undertaken by staff at 52 UK universities. In contrast to workload modelling, our data reveals the extent of the variation in contact hours by institution, subject, and seniority. We provide for the first time an accurate measure of the teaching…

A large body of scientific literature has highlighted the gendered division of academic work, particularly the undervalued and invisible tasks that make up the less prestigious dimension of the academic professions. Informed by the concept of 'academic housework', this paper explores the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the gendered…

The promotion of blended learning has not only enhanced instructional quality but also increased the workload, pressure, and professional challenges faced by university teachers. This study aims to identify patterns of work-related behavior and experience pertaining to successful blended instruction. From the perspective of conservation of…

This paper shows how system-level data can generate useful insights into the profile of first-year graduates who are teaching out-of-field (OOF). Understanding in-school demand and impacts on first-year graduates teaching OOF is important, especially when the first years of teaching are complex, busy, and involve a steep learning curve. A mixed…

The nature of academic appointments in Australia has changed. Given the recent emergence and growth of teaching focused academics roles across countries and contexts, in this conceptual paper we begin by parsing the language and role descriptions used for these academic appointments. Then, we consider what we know about teaching focused academics…

Against the backdrop of teaching being downplayed in higher education, this study unravels how the university faculty members' implementation of teaching excellence is influenced by the interplay of objective structural conditionings and subjective internal deliberations, drawing upon Margaret Archer's social realist framework and her distinction…

Doctoral education and supervision have changed in recent decades. The increasing prevalence of co-supervision has been a notable aspect of this, but change also includes stricter accountability and quality assurance measures, such as the quantification of workload allocations in supervision as well as of academic work more broadly. This paper…

This paper reports on research exploring the academic workload and performance practices of Australian universities. This research has identified a suite of activities associated with teaching, research and service, each with an associated time value (allocation). This led to the development of the academic workload estimation tool (AWET). In…

Higher Education frameworks have a strong focus on increasing students' satisfaction. This vision increases expectations on academic performance that often derive from stringent output measures for staff. The combination of internal and external demands for workers, such as those derived from their interaction with society, could create inadequate…

Dimensional comparisons--i.e., comparisons between achievements in different domains--have to date been examined particularly between students' achievements in different school subjects. Numerous studies have documented that dimensional comparisons between mathematical and verbal achievements significantly affect students' mathematical and verbal…

Research has often focused on which teaching-related stressors might undermine teachers' effectiveness, with spillover effects on students' performance. This connection makes studies on teacher well-being crucial, as well as the search for variables that can act as a buffer for unavoidable job stressors. The present study investigates whether the…

The article presents an analysis of Brazilian teaching work and its different expressions in the face of the neoliberal drive of the last three decades. The aim is to understand how market dynamics consolidate a new materiality through the consequences of neoliberalism on/for teaching work. The analysis is based on a Marxist perspective, through…

Purpose: In recent times, universities have been faced with the challenge of implementing neoliberal ideas as a survival tactic. For instance, there is increasing pressure on academics globally to publish because of performance funding and other metrics like global rankings, which consider where and how much academics publish. This study explores…