Truth behind figures 2

The articles "20 per cent of staff now just teach" and "Onward march of the no-research regiment" (June 24) are extremely misleading.

The figures reflect only a small number of staff on teaching-only contracts or who teach on a casual basis as associate lecturers. What they do not reflect is the increasing number of us who are employed in full-time posts by "new" universities and who, although on research and teaching contracts, have teaching loads that preclude us from engaging in research.

In my department, where I am a senior lecturer in psychology, all academic staff have teaching and research contracts. But those at lecturer and senior lecturer level have 14 to 16 hours of contact time per week during term time. With preparation, marking and associated administration on top of this, we are in effect teaching-only staff.

Teaching loads are typically much lower for staff in old universities than in new universities. Given that in most cases both employ lecturers on teaching and research contracts, the figures are meaningless without some indication of the proportion of staff who can do research, and the balance between the teaching and research duties in any given department or institution.

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