The standard measures of teaching workload now in use at UC Berkeley are allocated
student full-time equivalents (FTE), average number of primary classes taught
by permanent faculty, and student credit hours (SCH). Until recently, SCH
was the most heavily used of these metrics, but the campus is now phasing
it out in favor of allocated FTE and primary classes taught. While SCH gives
departments credit for offering a course, allocated FTE and primary classes
taught both give credit to the departments that actually pay the instructors
of a course, a more useful framework from which to make budget decisions.
This document defines each of these metrics and discusses the algorithms we
use to compute them under different scenarios, while also providing an extensive
set of examples.
Allocated Student FTE
Definition of Allocated Student FTE
Allocated student FTE is a metric that gives credit for teaching workload
to the departments that pay the instructors of courses, regardless of which
departments actually offer the courses. We define undergraduate FTE as undergraduate
student credit hours divided by 15 (the standard full-time course load for
undergrads). For graduate students not advanced to candidacy, we use a divisor
of 12. Graduate students advanced to candidacy are counted as 1 FTE each (assigned
to each student’s major department) during the first six semesters of
their registration, regardless of how many credit hours they take, and as
0 FTE thereafter.
Rules for Assignment of Allocated Student FTE
The assignment of FTE for a course can be complicated in certain situations,
but it follows a well-defined set of rules developed by the vice-provosts:
I. If the instructor for a course has only one academic pay department, and that pay department matches the course-offering department, then all student FTE for that course goes to the pay/course-offering department. For example, if an instructor is paid by Astronomy and teaches an Astronomy course, all student FTE for that course goes to Astronomy.
II. If the instructor for a course has only one academic pay department, and it does not match the course-offering department, then all student FTE for the course goes to the instructor’s pay department. For example, if an instructor is paid by History and teaches a Political Science course, all student FTE for that course goes to History.
III. If the instructor for a course has multiple academic pay departments, and one of them matches the course-offering department, then all student FTE goes to the pay department that matches the course-offering unit. For example, if an instructor is paid by Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering and teaches a Civil Engineering course, all student FTE for that course goes to Civil Engineering.
IV. If the instructor has multiple academic pay departments, and the course-offering department doesn’t match any of those pay departments, then we allocate the student FTE among the instructor’s academic pay departments based on the payroll distributions. For example, if English pays 60% of an instructor’s salary and Comparative Literature pays 40%, and the instructor teaches a Rhetoric course, 60% of the student FTE goes to English and 40% goes to Comparative Literature.
V. If the instructor for a course is not paid by an academic department, then all allocated student FTE for the course goes to the course-offering department. For example, if an instructor is paid by the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research and teaches an Integrative Biology course, all student FTE for that course goes to Integrative Biology.
VI. For team-taught courses, we split the allocated student FTE equally among all instructors who are actually teaching the course, then assign each instructor’s FTE to academic departments based on the rules above.
VII. For cross-listed courses, we follow the same FTE allocation rules as for courses that aren’t cross-listed. In effect, for FTE allocation purposes, we treat each component of the cross-listed bundle as a separate course.
(See specific examples below.)
Again, keep in mind that these allocation rules apply only to undergraduates, masters/professional students, and doctoral students who are not advanced to candidacy. For doctoral students who have advanced to candidacy, we do not allocate FTE on a course-by-course basis. Instead these students count as 1 FTE in their major department(s) for their first 6 semesters, then as 0 FTE thereafter.
Examples
of FTE Assignment
FTE Example #1 -- For a single-instructor course, where the course-offering
and academic pay departments match, all FTE goes to that department:
•
ARCH 249X generated 42 SCH;
• Undergraduates generated 30 SCH and graduate students generated 12
SCH in this course, so (30 / 15) + (12 / 12) = 3 FTE;
• The course was taught by an instructor paid only by Architecture;
• All 3 FTE went to the Department of Architecture, because it paid
the instructor (per FTE Rule I).
FTE Example #2 -- For a single-instructor course, where course and academic pay departments don’t match, all FTE goes to the academic pay department:
•
GERMAN 160A generated 120 SCH;
• Undergraduates generated all 120 SCH in this course, so (120 / 15)
= 8 FTE;
• The course was taught by an instructor paid only by History;
• All 8 FTE went to the Department of History, because it paid the
instructor (per FTE Rule II).
FTE Example #3 -- For a course taught by a single instructor with multiple academic pay departments, where one of them matches the course-offering department, all FTE goes to the academic pay department that matches the course-offering department:
•
ASTRON 160 generated 120 SCH;
• Undergraduates generated all 120 SCH in this course, so (120 / 15)
= 8 FTE;
• The course was taught by an instructor paid 75% by EECS and 25%
by Astronomy;
• All 8 FTE went to the Department of Astronomy, because it was one
of the units that paid the instructor, and it offered the course (per FTE
Rule III).
FTE Example #4 -- For a course taught by a single instructor with multiple academic pay departments, where none of them match the course-offering department, FTE gets prorated among the academic pay departments based on the payroll distributions:
•
GEOG 199 generated 60 SCH;
• Undergraduates generated all 60 SCH in this course, so (60 / 15)
= 4 FTE;
• The course was taught by an instructor paid 75% by Landscape Architecture
and 25% by City & Regional Planning;
• Since neither pay department matched the course-offering department,
we prorated the FTE to the pay departments. The Department of Landscape
Architecture got (4 * 0.75) = 3 FTE and the Department of City & Regional
Planning got (4 * 0.25) = 1 FTE (per FTE Rule IV).
FTE Example #5 -- For a course taught by a single instructor who is not paid by an academic department, all FTE goes to the course-offering department:
•
AST 299 generated 12 SCH;
• Graduate students generated all 12 SCH in this course, so (12 /
12) = 1 FTE;
• The course was taught by an instructor paid only by the Howard Hughes
Medical Institute, which is not an academic department;
• All 1 FTE therefore went to AST (Other Engineering), since it offered
the course (per FTE Rule V).
FTE Example #6 -- For a team-taught course, we split the FTE equally among the teaching instructors, then assign each of those FTE allocations to an academic department using the same set of rules as for single-instructor courses:
•
ETH STD 103A generated 120 SCH;
• Undergraduates generated all 120 SCH in this course, so (120/15)
= 8 FTE;
• The course was team-taught by two instructors, one paid only by
Ethnic Studies and the other paid jointly by Ethnic Studies and English;
since the two were team-teaching, each got half the FTE generated in the
course: (8 / 2) = 4 FTE each (per FTE Rule VI);
• For the first instructor, all 4 FTE went to the Department of Ethnic
Studies, since it paid that instructor (per FTE Rule I);
• For the second instructor, all 4 FTE also went to the Department
of Ethnic Studies, because it was one of the units that paid that instructor,
and it offered the course (per FTE Rule III);
• In total, all 8 FTE thus went to the Department of Ethnic Studies.
FTE Example #7 – In another example of a team-taught course, we still split the FTE equally among the teaching instructors, then assign each of those FTE allocations to an academic department using the same set of rules as for single-instructor courses:
•
BIOLOGY 001B generated 1320 SCH;
• Undergraduates generated 1200 SCH in this course and graduate students
generated 120 SCH, so (1200 / 15) + (120 / 12) = 90 FTE;
• The course was team-taught by three instructors, one paid only by
Integrative Biology, one paid only by ESPM, and the other paid only by Plant
Biology; since the three were team-teaching, each got one-third of the FTE
generated in the course: (90 / 3) = 30 FTE each (per FTE Rule VI);
• For the first instructor, all 30 FTE went to the Department of Integrative
Biology, since it paid that instructor (per FTE Rule II);
• For the second instructor, all 30 FTE went to the Department of
Environmental Science, Policy, & Management, because it paid that instructor
(per FTE Rule II);
• For the third instructor, all 30 FTE went to the Department of Plant
Biology, because it paid that instructor (per FTE Rule II);
• In total, 30 FTE went to Integrative Biology, 30 FTE went to ESPM,
and 30 FTE went to Plant Biology.
FTE Example #8 – For a cross-listed course bundle taught by a single instructor, we follow the same FTE allocation rules as for a single-instructor course that isn’t cross-listed. In effect, we simply apply those rules separately to each course within the cross-listed bundle:
•
SCANDIN C108 and THEATER C108 were cross-listed;
• 15 students enrolled under the SCANDIN code, generating 60 SCH;
• 30 students enrolled under the THEATER code, generating 120 SCH;
• Undergraduates generated all 60 SCH under the SCANDIN code, so (60
/ 15) = 4 FTE;
• Undergraduates also generated all 120 SCH under the THEATER code,
so (120 / 15) = 8 FTE;
• The cross-listed bundle was taught by a single instructor paid only
by Scandinavian;
• All 4 FTE generated under the SCANDIN code went to the Department
of Scandinavian, because it paid the instructor (per FTE Rules VII and I);
• All 8 FTE generated under the THEATER code also went to the Department
of Scandinavian, because it paid the instructor (per FTE Rules VII and II);
• In total, all 12 FTE went to the Department of Scandinavian.
FTE Example #9 – For a team-taught cross-listed course bundle, we follow the same rules we would use for separate team-taught courses. So, for each course within the bundle, we first split equally among the instructors the FTE generated by that course, then we assign each of those FTE allocations to an academic department using the same set of rules as for single-instructor courses:
•
ASTRON C290C and PHYSICS C290C were cross-listed;
• 21 students enrolled under the ASTRON code, generating 42 SCH;
• 6 students enrolled under the PHYSICS code, generating 12 SCH;
• Undergraduates generated 30 SCH under the ASTRON code and graduate
students generated 12 SCH, so (30 / 15) + (12 / 12) = 3 FTE;
• Graduate students generated all 12 SCH under the PHYSICS code, so
(12 / 12) = 1 FTE;
• The cross-listed bundle was taught by two instructors, one paid
only by Physics, and the other paid only by the Space Sciences Lab, which
is not an academic department;
• For the first instructor (paid by Physics), half of the FTE for
each course within the bundle goes to the Department of Physics: (3 / 2)
+ (1 / 2) = 2 FTE (per FTE Rules VII, VI, and I);
• For the second instructor (not paid by an academic department),
half of the FTE for each course within the bundle goes to the course-offering
department. So, this instructor’s FTE allocations are:
Department of Astronomy = (3 / 2) = 1.5 FTE (per FTE Rules VII, VI, and
V)
and
Department of Physics = (1 / 2) = 0.5 FTE (per FTE Rules VII, VI, and V);
• In total, 2.5 FTE went to the Department of Physics, and 1.5 FTE
went to the Department of Astronomy.
FTE Example #10 – Finally, here is a very complicated team-taught cross-listed course bundle. Notice, however, that we simply follow the same rules as above; we just have to do that several times:
•
AMERSTD C112F, ESPM C191, HISTART C189, and UGIS C136 were all cross-listed;
• 30 students enrolled under the AMERSTD code, generating 120 SCH;
• 15 students enrolled under the ESPM code, generating 60 SCH;
• 13 students enrolled under the HISTART code, generating 52 SCH;
• 3 students enrolled under the UGIS code, generating 12 SCH;
• Undergraduates generated all 120 SCH under the AMERSTD code, so
(120 / 15) = 8 FTE;
• Undergraduates generated all 60 SCH under the ESPM code, so (60
/ 15) = 4 FTE;
• Undergraduates generated 44 SCH under the HISTART code and graduate
students generated 8 SCH, so (44 / 15)+(8 / 12) = 3.6 FTE;
• Undergraduates generated all 12 SCH under the UGIS code, so (12
/ 15) = 0.8 FTE;
• The cross-listed bundle was taught by two instructors, one paid
only by Art History and the other paid by several units under several different
title codes. After working through everything, we find that ESPM pays 40%
and Landscape Architecture pays 60% of the second instructor’s teaching
positions;
• For the first instructor (paid by Art History), half of the FTE
for each course within the bundle goes to the Department of Art History:
(8 / 2) + (4 / 2) + (3.6 / 2) + (0.8 / 2) = 8.2 FTE (per FTE Rules VII,
VI, II, and I);
• The second instructor also gets half of the FTE from each course,
because it’s team-taught. Since multiple departments pay this instructor,
however, the FTE allocation is somewhat different. The FTE allocation from
the AMERSTD course gets split 40/60 between ESPM and Landscape Architecture
(FTE Rule IV); that from the ESPM course goes entirely to ESPM (FTE Rule
III); that from the HISTART course gets split 40/60 between ESPM and Landscape
Architecture (FTE Rule IV); and that from the UGIS course also gets split
40/60 between ESPM and Landscape Architecture (FTE Rule IV). So, this instructor’s
FTE allocations are:
ESPM = (8 / 2 * 0.4) + (4 / 2) + (3.6 / 2 * 0.4) + (0.8 / 2 * 0.4) = 4.48
FTE
and
Landscape Arch = (8 / 2 * 0.6) + (3.6 / 2 * 0.6) + (0.8 / 2 * 0.6) = 3.72
FTE;
• In total, 8.2 FTE went to the Department of Art History, 4.48 FTE
went to ESPM, and 3.72 FTE went to the Department of Landscape Architecture.
Primary Classes Taught by Actual Permanent Faculty
FTE
Definition
of Primary Classes Taught by Actual Permanent Faculty FTE
For this metric, we calculate the average number of primary classes (not
independent study) by course level, taught by actual (not budgeted) permanent
faculty FTE. Actual permanent faculty FTE is a year-average of the Fall
and Spring semesters, using payroll data from October and April, respectively.
It represents only those regular permanent faculty who are available to
teach (i.e., not on sabbatical) and who have non-zero faculty appointments.
The permanent faculty designation includes professors, associate professors,
assistant professors, lecturers with security of employment, some health
sciences faculty, and supervisors of physical education, regardless of whether
these faculty members also hold administrative titles (see a complete list
here). Finally, for units in the College of Natural Resources, the FTE figure
combines both the faculty and agronomist FTE for individuals who hold both
titles.
Assignment of Primary Classes Taught by Actual Permanent Faculty FTE
To calculate the primary classes/actual permanent faculty FTE ratios, we
assign the classes to the pay departments of the instructors, using the
same rules as with allocated student FTE (see the rules above). For team-taught
classes, instructors receive equal shares of that class when they are allocated
back to the pay departments; cross-listed course bundles count as a single
class in total. We group these classes by course level and only count those
taught by permanent faculty.
Examples
of Counting Primary Classes
Counting Primary Classes Example #1 -- For a single-instructor primary
course section, where the instructor is paid by a single academic department,
the class counts as 1 under that pay department:
•
GERMAN 160A was taught by an instructor paid only by History;
• The Department of History received credit for 1 class, because it
paid the instructor.
Counting Primary Classes Example #2 -- For a single-instructor primary course section, where the instructor is paid by multiple academic departments and one of them matches the course-offering department, the class counts as 1 under that department:
•
ASTRON 160 was taught by an instructor paid 75% by EECS and 25% by Astronomy;
• The Department of Astronomy received credit for 1 class, because
it was one of the units that paid the instructor, and it offered the class.
Counting Primary Classes Example #3 -- For a single-instructor primary course section, where the instructor is paid by multiple academic departments and none of them match the course-offering department, the class gets prorated among the academic pay departments based on the payroll distributions:
•
GEOG 199 was taught by an instructor paid 75% by Landscape Architecture
and 25% by City & Regional Planning;
• Since neither pay department matched the course-offering department,
we prorated the class to the pay departments. The Department of Landscape
Architecture got 0.75 of the class and the Department of City & Regional
Planning got 0.25 of the class.
Counting Primary Classes Example #4 -- For a primary course section taught by a single instructor who is not paid by an academic department, the class counts as 1 under the course-offering department:
•
AST 299 was taught by an instructor paid only by the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute, which is not an academic department;
• AST got credit for 1 class, since it was the offering department.
Counting Primary Classes Example #5 -- For a team-taught primary course section, we split the class equally among the teaching instructors, then assign each of those percentages to an academic department using the same set of rules as for single-instructor classes:
•
BIOLOGY 001B was team-taught by three instructors, one paid only by Integrative
Biology, one paid only by ESPM, and the other paid only by Plant Biology;
since the three were team-teaching, we split the class equally among them;
• For the first instructor, the Department of Integrative Biology
received credit for 0.333 of a class, since it paid that instructor;
• For the second instructor, the Department of Environmental Science,
Policy, & Management got credit for 0.333 of a class, because it paid
that instructor;
• And for the third instructor, the Department of Plant Biology got
credit for 0.333 of a class, because it paid that instructor.
Counting Primary Classes Example #6 – For a cross-listed course bundle taught by a single instructor, we prorate each component class so that the entire bundle counts as 1 class:
•
SCANDIN C108 and THEATER C108 were cross-listed and taught by a single instructor
paid only by Scandinavian;
• The Department of Scandinavian, as the instructor’s pay department,
got credit for 0.5 of a class, for SCANDIN C108, because it was one of two
courses in this cross-listed bundle.
• Using the same logic, Scandinavian also got credit for 0.5 of a
class for THEATER C108.
• In total, the Department of Scandinavian got credit for 1 class.
Counting Primary Classes Example #7 – For a team-taught cross-listed course bundle, we count the entire bundle as 1 class and prorate it among the pay departments of the instructors (using the standard allocated FTE rules above):
•
ASTRON C290C and PHYSICS C290C were cross-listed and taught by two instructors,
one paid only by Physics, and the other paid only by the Space Sciences
Lab, which is not an academic department;
• We counted the bundle as 1 class and split it equally among the
instructors, so that each got credit for 0.5 of a class;
• For the first instructor, the 0.5 of a class went to Physics, since
that was the instructor’s pay department;
• For the second instructor, who was not paid by an academic department,
the 0.5 of a class went to the course-offering department. Since this was
a cross-listed situation, 0.25 went to Physics and 0.25 went to Astronomy;
• In total, the Department of Physics got credit for 0.75 of a class,
and the Department of Astronomy got credit for 0.25 of a class.
Student Credit Hours
Definition
of SCH
SCH is a metric that gives credit for teaching workload to the department
that offers a given course. Because this metric does not consider the pay
department of the course’s instructor, the campus is now phasing out
the use of SCH for budget planning purposes, and replacing it with allocated
student FTE and primary classes taught by permanent faculty.
We define SCH for a course as the sum of the credit units received by the students enrolled in that course. For example:
•
ASTRON 160 is a 4-unit course;
• 10 students enrolled in the course;
• So the total SCH generated was the sum of 10 instances of 4 units,
or 40 SCH.
The same approach applies to the relatively few courses that give individual students a variable number of units:
•
ARCH 249X is a variable-unit (1 to 4 units) course;
• 9 students enrolled in the course, 2 for 1 unit, 1 for 2 units,
3 for 3 units, and 3 for 4 units;
• The total SCH generated was (2*1)+(1*2)+(3*3)+(3*4) = 25 SCH.
Assignment of SCH
As noted above, we use student credit hours as a measure of the workload
involved in offering a course, although the campus is now phasing out the
use of this metric for budget planning. All of the SCH generated in a given
course always goes to the unit (e.g., an academic department) offering that
course. This rule applies to all courses, whether single-instructor, team-taught,
or cross-listed, and regardless of what unit actually pays the instructor.
In the case of a cross-listed course bundle, students must choose to register
under one of the course-offering departments; each offering department then
receives all the SCH generated by the students who enrolled under that department
code. (See examples below.)
Examples
of SCH Assignment
SCH Example #1 -- For a single-instructor course, all SCH goes to
the course-offering department:
•
ARCH 249X generated 25 SCH;
• The course was taught by an instructor paid only by Architecture;
• All 25 SCH went to the Department of Architecture, because it offered
the course.
SCH Example #2 -- For a team-taught course, all SCH still goes to the course-offering department:
•
ETH STD 103A generated 112 SCH;
• The course was team-taught by two instructors, one paid only by
Ethnic Studies and the other paid jointly by Ethnic Studies and English.
• All 112 SCH went to the Department of Ethnic Studies.
SCH Example #3 -- For a cross-listed course bundle, SCH generated by a student goes to the department under whose code that student registered for the course:
•
CIV ENG C154 and CY PLAN C114 were cross-listed;
• The course was taught by an instructor paid only by City & Regional
Planning;
• 16 students enrolled under the CIV ENG code, generating 48 SCH;
• 30 students enrolled under the CY PLAN code, generating 90 SCH;
• The Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering received
48 SCH (16 students at 3 credit units each) and the Department of City &
Regional Planning received 90 SCH (30 students at 3 credit units each).
SCH assignments for team-taught cross-lists work exactly the same as for single-instructor cross-lists. The number and pay departments of course instructors have no bearing on the assignment of student credit hours.
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