Abstract:

The European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) allows quantifying the student effort in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Each ECTS involves between 25 and 30 hours of work by students. These hours include both hours developed in classroom or laboratory under the direct intervention of teachers, as well as the autonomous activity by the student. In annual average values, students take 60 credits a year, representing between 1500 and 1800 hours of academic activity.

On the contrary, there is not a direct measure that relates the credits taken by students with the effort that represents in hours of work by the teaching staff. The workload of the teachers is a crucial element from the economic point of view because an important part of higher education costs is dedicated to maintain its human resources.

In this communication we propose a quantitative model that can determine the faculty human resources which are necessary to develop a program of studies in higher education. Some parameters of different types intervene in the model:
a) Academic features such as its duration, the number of students entering each year, graduation, dropout and efficiency rates, etc.
b) Parameters that allow intervening on the quality of higher education, for instance the average size of the groups in the different activities, and the percentage of contact hours existing for students in the ECTS.
c) Parameters of education and labor law, as the number of hours available annually by the faculty for the exercise of the activities.

The model will be illustrated with examples and can be considered a useful tool for university faculty vice-rectors in defining the faculty staff requirements for the different programs of high education studies.

Keywords:

Faculty workload.