How much work is too much work? Academic workload and the accountability culture

On 7th May 2015, the University Grants Commission released a circular, entitled Ethics and Academic Accountability for Academic Staff in the Sri Lankan University system.

- BY FARZANA HANIFFA

The circular was prepared by the Quality Assurance Council of the UGC and included a section called Academic Freedom and accountability for mapping of workload and work norms.

Accountability has been a cornerstone of quality assurance that has institutionalised itself as a compliance process that mainly asks if universities are “fit for purpose” as in whether they respond to market needs and employability requirements, whether programmes are consistent in their content delivery and designed in a manner that is recognisable to accreditation agencies and to standardised qualification frameworks. Quality assurance has been introduced into the Sri Lankan context through World Bank loan cycles that have been in operation since 2003. Compliance has institutionalised an audit culture, self-assessment processes and formalised organisation of syllabi. Part of this accountability, in the Sri Lankan context, has been to ensure that academics adhere to the minimum hours as stipulated in the Quality Assurance circular mentioned above and other similar documents.