Faculty Workload Policy

Approved June 2025

Introduction

This policy outlines the workload expectations for faculty in the Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) department at the University of Washington. It aims to balance the diverse responsibilities of faculty, ensuring equitable distribution of duties across Research/Scholarship, Teaching, and Service. This policy differentiates between tenure-track, teaching-track, and research-track faculty, and considers the rank of faculty members (Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor).

Estimates for workload are calculated based on a 40-hour work week. Where weekly hours are presented in this policy, it is understood that faculty’s emphasis across responsibilities may vary week-to-week (e.g., some weeks may be more teaching intensive and some weeks may be more scholarship intensive) and across quarters (e.g., some courses require more time and others less). 

1. Summary of Responsibilities By Rank and Track

¹ We anticipate that ~10% of research FTE for research-track assistant professors will initially be department funded for research and professional development

2. Research / Scholarship

Workload expectations for research and scholarship reflect the different emphases of each track and generally increase in scale and scope at higher ranks. Faculty should develop specific plans for their research and scholarship as part of their Chapter 24 consultations with the department chair.

Consistently not meeting research expectations, as articulated in one’s Chapter 24 agreement, and as appropriate for rank and track, may have negative consequences for promotion and merit outcomes.

2.1 Tenure-Track Faculty

• Assistant Professors: Expected to dedicate approximately 50% of their time to research activities. This includes conducting original research, publishing in peer-reviewed journals, presenting at conferences, and pursuing external funding and securing resources necessary for one’s research agenda.
• Associate Professors: Expected to dedicate approximately 40% of their time to research activities. This includes maintaining an active research agenda (as described for assistant professors), mentoring junior faculty and graduate students, and contributing to the department's research profile.
• Full Professors: Expected to dedicate approximately 40% of their time to research activities. This includes maintaining an active research agenda (as described for assistant and associate professors), leading significant research projects, pursuing major grants, and providing leadership in research initiatives within the department and the broader academic community.

2.2 Teaching-Track Faculty

All Ranks: Teaching-track faculty are expected to do scholarship as it relates to their teaching (e.g., developing new courses, significant revisions to existing courses, integrating new techniques in their teaching, etc.). They are not required to engage in peer-reviewed research activities but may do so voluntarily if it does not interfere with their primary teaching responsibilities; any such activities will be considered as part of teaching faculty’s overall scholarship.

2.3 Research-Track Faculty

• Assistant Research Professors: Expected to dedicate approximately 80% of their time to research activities. This includes conducting original research, publishing in peer-reviewed journals, presenting at conferences, and securing external funding.
• Associate Research Professors: Expected to dedicate approximately 80% of their time to research activities. This includes maintaining an active research agenda  (as described for assistant research professors), mentoring junior researchers, and contributing to the department's research profile.
• Full Research Professors: Expected to dedicate approximately 80% of their time to research activities. This includes maintaining an active research agenda (as described for assistant and associate research professors) leading significant research projects,  pursing major grants, and providing leadership in research initiatives within the department and the broader academic community.

3. Teaching

In planning and managing teaching workloads, we strive to distribute the work to deliver and develop our educational programs according to both objective criteria and subjective considerations, with a goal of supporting faculty in thriving in their work over time and maintaining the highest quality educational programs.

Teaching includes courses, directed research groups and independent studies, mentoring doctoral students as an adviser or committee member, and participating in doctoral milestones.  Teaching preparation may, at times, be difficult to disambiguate with scholarship (e.g., preparing materials for future use, staying current in one’s field, engaging in research as part of a DRG or mentoring students).

3.1 Expected Workloads by Rank and Faculty Type

3.1.1 Tenure-Track Faculty

All Ranks: 40%, typically 3 courses + DRG(s) consisting of 25 student credit hours per year. This includes developing curriculum, teaching assigned courses, managing course TAs, CAs, and graders, and assessment/grading. Teaching also includes mentoring and advising of students, including advising doctoral students, serving on committees, and participating in doctoral milestones (e.g., prelims), and serving on doctoral student committees.

3.1.2 Teaching-Track Faculty

All Ranks: 70%, typically 6 courses per year. This includes developing curriculum, teaching assigned courses, managing course TAs, CAs, and graders, and assessment/grading. Teaching also includes mentoring of students. Teaching faculty can optionally teach 5 classes every other year in exchange for teaching DRG credits consisting of 25 student credit hours or greater.

3.1.3 Research Faculty

All Ranks: Research faculty are not required to teach courses but may do so voluntarily. Any teaching conducted should not interfere with their primary research responsibilities.

3.2 Course Assignments

3.2.1 Process and Principles for Course Assignments for Faculty

• Assign courses equivalent to entire load during the initial assignments
• Prioritize interests of new faculty members, junior faculty members
• A single instructor with a TA before assigning two instructors to a class
• Spread teaching assignments over the year preferred
• People teaching their full load get more of their preferences
• People teaching across all programs to the extent possible
• Minimize new preps

Strategic priorities, such as developing a new course, significant curriculum revisions, onboarding a new instructor, or adjusting for other workload imbalances, may also influence course assignments.

3.2.2 Minimum Expectations to Count toward Teaching Load

“One course” in a faculty member’s teaching load should correspond to approximately 13 hours/week of work or 170 hours/quarter. This can vary week-by-week and there may also be quarter-to-quarter differences (e.g., a particularly time-intensive teaching assignment one quarter may be offset with a less time-intensive teaching assignment in another quarter).

We strive to use a combination of total student enrollment, credit hours, and teaching supports (e.g., teaching assistants and course assistants) so that most courses align with this constraint. Some courses may not (e.g., courses with fewer credits and smaller enrollment), and these smaller courses may be aggregated to make up “one course.”

Faculty who experience that a course is taking less than the 13 hours/week, especially if not offset by courses taking more than the anticipated time in other quarters (or the same quarter), should look for opportunities to expand their teaching. They might consider if there are opportunities to further invest in the course (e.g. to develop it further for extra years) or discuss this with the chair, associate chair for academic affairs, and/or mentors to assess if there are other teaching needs they can support.

When faculty teach a course with much higher time demands, this may be offset with a course with lower time demands in another quarter. If a course is taking substantially more than 13 hours/week across multiple weeks, and this was not planned for in teaching assignments, faculty should talk with the chair, associate chair for academic affairs, and/or mentors about mitigations, including strategies the instructor might take to reduce the time they are spending on the course. If the added workload is a consequence of teaching or course assistant performance, faculty may also wish to consult HCDE guidance on working with TAs and steps for support when TAs are unable to meet expectations. However, faculty should not put more time into a course on the assumption that this will result in reduced assignments in the future. 

3.2.3 Course Cancellations

Courses may be cancelled for various reasons. 

• When cancellation occurs well in advance of the quarter, the chair and associate chair for academic affairs will work with the affected faculty and program directors to re-assign teaching.
• When cancellation occurs imminently before the quarter or after the start of the quarter, such as due to the low enrollment policy, faculty will, consistent with the low enrollment policy, be reassigned to help teach or support another course that quarter or teach a course in a future quarter. When a mutually agreeable adjustment cannot be found in the same academic year, the additional teaching may carry forward to a future year. Faculty in this situation may also be allowed an extra buyout, if research funds are available, at the discretion of the chair.

Faculty proposing and assigned to teach a special topics course share responsibility for promoting it to ensure that the course reaches an appropriate size.

There may be times when a low-enrollment course proceeds, e.g., because it is a must-offer course for student degree progression, in which case faculty should follow the guidance about what to do if one’s teaching of a course is <13 hours per week described in 3.2.2.

4. Service

The department relies on faculty participation in service and shared governance to assure that we are meeting our teaching and scholarship mission. Faculty should not assume that service external to the department will result in reductions in departmental service; if a reduction in department service is necessary to participate in external service, please initiate a conversation with the chair to determine what may be feasible.

4.1 Expected Workloads by Rank

• Assistant Professors: 10%, typically 1–2 department committees
• Associate Professors: 20%, typically 2 department committees
• Full Professors: 20%, typically 2–3 committees, including leadership roles

4.2 Types of Service Roles Expected

• All voting faculty are expected to attend and vote in faculty meetings and participate and vote in the review of faculty including merit review, peer teaching evaluations, promotion and tenure decisions, faculty hiring, preparing recommendation and nomination letters for students and colleagues.
• All professorial ranks are expected to serve on departmental committees unless they have current, significant administrative responsibilities at the UW (e.g., Associate Dean) that replaces departmental salary.
• All tenure-track and research-track faculty are expected to serve on some combination of (1) college and/or university committees, (2) professional society committees, (3) grant and journal reviewing and (4) organize sessions/symposia at national or international conferences. Associate and Full faculty also write external review letters as invited and workload permits.
• Teaching-track faculty are expected to serve on departmental, college, or university committees. Contributions through external service to professional societies, scholarly communities, and outreach and public scholarship will be evaluated as part of overall service contributions.
• Significant leadership roles in the department may come with additional compensation. See the HCDE Service Support for Additional Service policy for details.
• Some examples of activities that represent significant service contributions beyond the standard 20% effort listed the above bullet points include: (1) running research centers, (2) leadership positions at the UW, (2) leadership positions in professional societies (e.g., General Chair of a large conference, professional society president), and (3) journal editor.
• The distribution between UW (department, college and university) and outside service activities can vary with each faculty member as long as UW service obligations (e.g., committee responsibilities and application reviews) are met.

5. Conclusion

This workload policy aims to ensure that all faculty members in the HCDE department have a clear understanding of their responsibilities and are supported in their professional development. The policy will be reviewed periodically to ensure it meets the evolving needs of the department and its faculty.