Working hours of academic staff

The purpose of this Agreement is to ensure a balance between research and teaching tasks, so that the Faculty can always offer research-based teaching and conduct research as well as knowledge exchange and talent development, cf. the provisions of the Danish University Act. The agreement will help to ensure academic staff at SDU-HUM uniform conditions and transparency in relation to the work carried out at the individual departments and courses of study. In addition, the agreement contains standard working hours for academic staff with teaching and administrative duties, but no obligation to carry on research.

Finally, the agreement seeks to establish simple guidelines, allowing managers and employees – in dialogue with each other – to agree on the optimal distribution of tasks at the departments as a whole.
This Agreement lays down standards for
- Teaching and preparation, including feedback, guidance and examination.
- Administrative tasks, including tasks specifically related to teaching and research.
The other working hours of academic staff are expected to be spent on research, research dissemination and other research related activities.

The set of standards is made on the following grounds:
- to establish hourly compensation that clarifies the expected average number of hours spent on performing the various tasks.
- to establish hourly compensation for teaching and preparation, including feedback, supervision and examination activities, in a transparent manner.
- to establish hourly compensation for administrative tasks in a transparent manner.
With the conclusion of this working hours agreement, no local agreements can be introduced at departmental level beyond what this agreement specifically provides for. If local changes in the specifications of standard working hours are needed due to conditions of an unusual, lasting nature, any changes shall be agreed with the dean and convener, and SU is informed.

The FTE for academic staff (when taking five weeks of annual leave and one week of special holidays) is calculated as 1,642 hours per year, corresponding to 821 hours per semester. One teaching lesson is equivalent to a scheduled hour of 45 minutes. The compensations are calculated in working hours.

It is the responsibility of the departments to keep an account of the employees’ hourly status and to send out a current balance statement to each employee once every semester. Any excess or deficit of hours must be discussed at least once a year, e.g. in connection with the performance and development review, with a view to ensuring balance over a period of time. It is the duty of the head of department to ensure that the account of hours of each employee are in balance (0 hours), however, allowing for the fluctuations mentioned below.
Each lecturer’s account of hours is a tool that allows them to shift the weighting between teaching and research, so that a deficit of hours is seen as deferred teaching commitment, and an excess of hours is seen as deferred obligation to carry on research. Thus, the employee cannot receive reimbursement for an excess of hours in the statement and any deficit cannot be recovered by the institution. In the event of an excess/deficit of hours, the head of department and the employee must enter into an agreement that in the long term ensures balance. Among other things, the agreement must seek to ensure that there is no systematic accumulation of hours.

An individualised temporary agreement may be entered into on a different distribution of working hours than that which is mentioned below. This may be done in connection with the transition to employment on senior terms or in other situations where a different distribution of hours for research and teaching/administrative tasks may be appropriate. The possibility of such an agreement can, for example, be discussed during the performance and development review. For associate professors, an agreement must be entered into with the involvement of the union representative. Professors may enter into agreement themselves, but are encouraged to involve their union representative.

Savings schemes may be introduced at a department to ensure the possibility of systematic saving for semesters with no teaching. The savings scheme is voluntary for the individual employee. Agreements about the placement of semesters with no teaching are negotiated with the head of department, taking into account the department’s overall task portfolio.
For associate professors and professors, the distribution of hours for tasks related to research and knowledge exchange generally constitutes 45 percent of the total working hours (742 hours per year), while tasks related to teaching, including supervision, talent development and other teaching-related and administrative tasks, including assessment work and research management tasks (see item 5.1 below), in principle make up 55 percent of the total working hours (900 hours per year).

A teaching hour surplus may be appropriate, e.g. with a view to saving for periods with little or no teaching. However, the surplus must not exceed 900 hours. Likewise, the deficit must not be greater than 450 hours.

Externally and internally funded releases for research and/or development tasks have an impact on the distribution of working hours between teaching and research. How the release affects the employee’s other research or teaching tasks is agreed with the head of department during the application phase, taking into account the employee’s overall portfolio of tasks, the project’s demands and the department’s tasks. It is possible to make agreements for entire teaching-free semesters, but requests for exemption from teaching for more than one year must be submitted to the dean. Releases for research management will always be releases from teaching time.

The same work obligation applies for fixed-term associate professors as it does for professors and associate professors. Since it is not always possible to meet the teaching obligation exactly, a fluctuation of 60 working hours, either in positive or negative terms, at the end of the employment period of a fixed-term associate professorship is acceptable.

For assistant professors, the distribution of hours for tasks related to research and knowledge exchange usually represents 63 percent of the total working hours (1,042 hours per year), while work tasks related to teaching and, to a limited extent, administration comprise 37 percent of the total working hours (600 hours per year). There is no separate compensation for participation in higher education pedagogy.

A teaching hour surplus may be appropriate, e.g. with a view to accumulation for a teaching-free semester. The surplus must not exceed 400 hours, and the deficit must not exceed 300 hours during the period of employment. The overall planning of teaching for an assistant professorship must strive to ensure that the assistant professor has a teaching-free semester and that this semester is placed in the middle of the employment period.

Since it is not always possible to meet the teaching obligation exactly, a fluctuation of 60 working hours, either in positive or negative terms, at the end of the employment period is acceptable for a fixed-term assistant professorship.

When transitioning from tenure track assistant professorship to associate professorship, any excess or deficit of teaching hours will be carried over.

PhD fellows are obliged to carry out work tasks for the institution at which they are employed equivalent to 840 working hours over three years. A maximum of 660 of these may include working hours for the department (teaching, exams and external examining). The remaining work obligation may consist of dissemination, research, library work or other academic tasks (other than tasks of an administrative nature), which are planned together with the supervisor and the head of the PhD School and are written into the PhD plan.
For teaching assistant professors and teaching associate professors without obligation to carry on research, the total working hours amount to 1642 hours per year. Of the total working hours, 15 percent (corresponding to 246 hours per year) is allocated to professional development (e.g. professional and social meetings, intro meetings about new IT systems, updating of teaching portfolio, pedagogical and didactic competence development) and administrative work related to teaching which goes beyond the general organisation of courses (the tasks may include, but are not limited to, coordination of subjects with several lecturers, sparring with and supervision of academic part-time staff, study start activities or the like). The remaining working time per semester amounts to 698 working hours.

The head of department must ensure that the full-time lecturer’s remaining work obligation of 698 hours per semester is fulfilled, but if this is not possible the work obligation will be considered fulfilled if the hourly load in a semester is between 650 and 698 hours. If the hourly load in a single semester is more than 698, the surplus is transferred to the next semester. A deficit below 650 hours will be transferred to the next semester. In exceptional cases, the head of department may approve that a work obligation has been fulfilled even if the hourly load is less than 650 hours. It is the responsibility of the head of department to ensure that the working hours are in balance with the individual employee. Since it is not always possible to meet the teaching obligation exactly, a fluctuation of 100 hours, either in positive or negative terms, is acceptable for teaching associate professors and teaching assistant professors.

The above rules for working hours also apply to research assistants. If the research assistant is employed part-time, the teaching load is calculated as a fraction corresponding to part-time employment.

Teaching assistant professors are compensated for the completion of higher education pedagogy with 270 hours spread over two semesters.

Any excess or deficit of teaching hours is transferred in the transition from teaching assistant professor to teaching associate professor.
‘A special hourly fund (departmental pool of funds) will be established to compensate for significant operational and development tasks that fall outside the compensations stipulated in the standard agreement. Tasks that can be compensated for may include, but are not limited to, subject coordination, other coordination tasks, research management, editorial work, committees appointed at department level, major revisions of programme regulations, study environment-promoting activities, project applications, competence development and initiatives related to the department’s strategy.

It is not possible to compensate for tasks from the departmental pool of funds that are already standardised in the existing agreement.

The guidelines and principles for distribution of the funds are determined by the head of department with the involvement of the department council and the department’s union representative. The funds are administered and distributed by the head of department. It will be possible for the employee to apply for the funds him/herself and to recommend colleagues. Similarly, agreements about apportionment of the funds can be agreed in advance with the head of department.

In the pool of funds, 25 hours per semester are allocated for each professor and associate professor at the department, and 10 hours for each assistant professor. Hours from the pool of funds are primarily allocated to staff with obligation to carry on research but may be allocated to other job categories for specific tasks.

The funds are allocated once per semester. As a rule, all hours from the pool of funds must be allocated at each distribution session, but an excess or deficit of 15 percent is accepted.

The head of department must ensure that an overview of the allocation of funds is prepared once a year. This must be available to the department's staff and must be presented in the department council and the liaison committee with a view to an evaluation of whether the pool is functioning as intended.

Basic compensation is awarded to employees with obligation to carry on research. Basic compensation is set aside in advance for 30 working hours per semester for administrative work related to teaching that goes beyond the normal organisation of courses and that is not separately compensated for below. The tally of hours should be perceived as an average consumption of hours over a number of years. Compensation is independent of the specific teaching obligation in the semester in question.

The tasks may include, but are not limited to, course responsible researcher for subjects, coordination of subjects with multiple lecturers, sparring with and supervision of academic part-time staff in connection with course responsibility duties, study start activities or the like.

A course responsible researcher is attached to all research-based courses offered at the Faculty. Together with the head of studies and the board of studies, the course responsible researcher is responsible for the course description in the programme regulations and must be consulted if the board wishes to change the wording. Likewise, the course responsible researcher is the contact person for the academic part-time staff who will teach the course.

When transferring existing hour banks, hours already accumulated in the hour bank (up to and including 6 SKT) are converted to 75 working hours per SKT, and additional SKT is converted to 68 working hours. For full-time lecturers, the accumulated hour bank, up to and including 12 SKT, is converted to 75 working hours per SKT, and additional SKT is converted to 68 working hours.

Already concluded agreements about the placement of non-research semesters sustain. For transferred hour banks that exceed 900 hours, an agreement is made between the employee and the head of department about how the number of accumulated hours can be reduced with consideration for the department’s total portfolio of tasks.

PhD students/assistant professors with 2 years or less left of employment and other fixed-term employments entered into before the agreement came into force follow the old standard agreement until the employment expires.
It has been agreed that in connection with the implementation of the standard agreement, a contact meeting will be held once a semester between side A and side B to monitor the use of the standard agreement in practice.

The first contact meeting will be held in March 2022.

The agreement will be evaluated in spring 2025.

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Bachelor project	1st examination attempt	Subsequent examination attempts
1 student	10 working hours	1 working hour
2 students	15 working hours	1 working hour
3 students	20 working hours	1 working hour
Master’s thesis	1st examination attempt	Subsequent examination attempts
1 student	20 working hours	5 working hours
2 students	30 working hours	5 working hours
3 students	40 working hours	5 working hours
Master’s project	1st examination attempt	Subsequent examination attempts
1 student	12 working hours	1 working hour
2 students	18 working hours	1 working hour
3 students	24 working hours	1 working hour

Project-oriented courses	1st examination attempt	Subsequent examination attempts
10 ECTS credits	6 working hours	No further compensation
15 ECTS credits	8 working hours	No further compensation
20 ECTS credits	10 working hours	No further compensation

ECTS credits scope	Compensation per student enrolled on the course
Courses with a scope of up to and including 7 ECTS	30 minutes
Courses with a scope of between 7.5 ECTS up to and including 10.5 ECTS	50 minutes
Courses with a scope of between 11 ECTS up to and including 15 ECTS	60 minutes
Courses with a scope of between 15.5 ECTS up to and including 20 ECTS	70 minutes

ECTS credits scope	Compensation per student enrolled on the course
Courses with a scope of up to and including 7 ECTS	30 minutes
Courses with a scope of between 7.5 ECTS up to and including 10.5 ECTS	50 minutes
Courses with a scope of between 11 ECTS up to and including 15 ECTS	60 minutes
Courses with a scope of between 15.5 ECTS up to and including 20 ECTS	70 minutes

Supervision
PhD supervision: If a second supervisor has been appointed, the compensation is distributed between the main and second supervisors.	30 working hours per semester (180 hours in total regardless of the duration of the course)
Assistant professor supervision:	15 working hours per semester (30 hours in total regardless of the duration of the course)
Assessment of assignments/dissertations
Assessment of prize papers:	20 working hours
PhD thesis (chair):	30 working hours
Doctoral dissertation (chair):	60 working hours
Doctoral dissertation (internal member):	30 working hours

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Working hours of academic staff

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Assessment work in connection with hiring
PhD appointment:		3 working hours per applicant
Associate professorship and assistant professorship (chair) (also includes postdocs and DIAS assistant professors):		7 working hours in administration + 7 working hours per shortlisted applicant
Professorship (chair):		7 working hours in administration + 10 working hours per shortlisted applicant
Appointment committee for advertised full-time positions without obligation to carry on research:
Teaching associate professor, teaching assistant professor:	3 working hours for administration + 3 working hours per applicant.
Research assistant:	1 hour of work in administration + 1 working hour per applicant

Appointment committee for advertised academic part-time positions:
Part-time lecturer, assistant lecturer:	1 working hour for administration + 1 working hour per applicant
Employment in non-advertised academic part-time position:
Part-time lecturer, assistant lecturer:	1 working hour for administration + 1 working hour per employee

Other assessment tasks
Assessment when transitioning to teaching associate professorship:	3 working hours
Assessment when transitioning to associate professorship (includestenure trackand DIAS assistant professors):	14 working hours
Assessment when transitioning to professorship:	17 working hours

Function	Working hours per semester
Collective union representative for the humanities:	170
Department union representative	If no FTR (collective union representative) 40
Liaison committee, vice-chair:	35
Liaison committee, ordinary member:	If no TR (union representative) 10
Health and safety representative	35
Academic council, chair	70
Academic council, ordinary member	6
Academic council, representative for the Heads of Study	6
PhD committee, ordinary member	10
Study board, ordinary member	15
Department council, vice-chair	15
Department council, ordinary member	6
Gender equality committee, ordinary member	6
IT committee, chair	15
IT committee, ordinary member	6
HUM representative SDU-UP	65
HUM representative REC	25
HUM Representative library committee	6
SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) committee, ordinary member	5
Head of campus	65
Philosophy of science, facilitator	10
University history committee, day-to-day manager	30