Apart from highlighting the inadequacies of workload formulae across every level of academic life, it’s also one of the best reports I’ve read showing the impact of online technology on academic work.

The figures are stunning enough. Number of those surveyed who worked on weekends: 100%. UWS staff/student ratio: 1:23. And be sure to check out the pie chart comparing Level A appointments.

A sample of quotes:

- “It is now 5.15pm. I have been up since 4am marking assignments and I still haven’t finished”

- “I had to turn around 86 hours of marking in 10 days. 86 hours is what I actually get paid presuming I can mark 1,000 words every 20 minutes, which I can’t…”

- “In 2008 I have taught 7 different units none of which I have taught before”

- “This year I travelled to other campuses twice per week. I had a WLA for 7 return trips but had to undertake 13 return trips to see students and collect exams. $300 in tolls”

I came across this amazing research while trying to find out about the union’s recent campaigns – part of ongoing preparations for the State of the Industry conference happening in November. We may yet hear more about this, and hopefully one of the study’s research team will agree to speak on Day 1. But so far, in spite of numerous emails and phone calls, the NTEU President doesn’t seem available, or at least hasn’t told us one way or another over the past 3 months. I’m quite disappointed about this, since so much anecdotal evidence would suggest the NTEU’s profile could do with some boosting. I had thought the conference offered a timely opportunity for the industry’s peak representative body to prove its relevance to a significant part of its constituency.

Maybe I’ve just gone about asking the wrong way. If the report is any indication of the wider experience of contemporary worklife, our President is probably drowning in email and can’t imagine any way of handling the amount of communication requests she receives…

The State of the Industry:
The future for cultural research in the university

26th and 27th November 2009
The University of New South Wales, Kensington

The State of the Industry is a two day conference that will discuss the future for cultural research in the university, while marking the conclusion of a highly successful period of Australian Research Council funding for the Cultural Research Network. The event will showcase a range of innovative research collaborations and projects that the Cultural Research Network has generated, linking different disciplines, institutions and community groups working in the area of culture over the past 5 years. It will also discuss a number of issues fundamental to the practice of research, including:

- teaching conditions in the university
- peer to peer models for learning and mentoring
- collaborations between rural, regional and city campuses, and
- new models for professional development and training

Led by the next generation of researchers entering the academy, the conference will be a chance for the university and wider public to hear the ideas and needs of those seeking to work in the industry over the long term. All are welcome to attend and participate in a much needed discussion of the future direction of higher education in this country.

Registration for the conference is free, and members of the university sector, the media, and the general public are welcome.

Initial program

Day One – The next generation of university teachers and students

Plenary address: Professor Simon Marginson (University of Melbourne)

Sessions include:

* trends in academic employment
* teaching with social difference
* teaching beyond the capital city
* sessional teaching – pros and cons
* tenure – pros and cons
* supervision
* the status of teaching vs. research grant culture
* pastoral care
* curriculum design

Participants include: Catherine Driscoll (University of Sydney), John Frow (University of Melbourne), Chris Gibson (University of Wollongong), Melissa Gregg (University of Sydney), Chris Healy (University of Melbourne), Jason Jacobs (University of Queensland), Tammi Jonas (University of Melbourne), Meredith Jones (UTS), Olivia Khoo (Curtin), Susan Luckman (UniSA), Kane Race (University of Sydney), Cate Thill (Notre Dame), Graeme Turner (University of Queensland), Gordon Waitt (University of Wollongong), plus more to be announced.

Day Two – Research cultures and the practice of cultural research

Sessions include:

* trends in international research funding/strategy
* individual research, partnerships and teams
* research outside the university
* research cultures: gender and work/life balance
* a brief history of PhD outcomes
* who do you serve – what is required of cultural research?
* negotiating best practice in cooperative cultural research
* new technologies and literacies in cooperative cultural research
* showcase of CRN projects

Participants include: Kate Bowles (University of Wollongong), Jean Burgess (QUT), Kate Crawford (UNSW), Maryanne Dever (Monash), Tanja Dreher (UTS), Clifton Evers (UNSW), Gerard Goggin (UNSW), Alan Lawson (UQ), Miriam Lyons (Centre for Policy Development), Emily Potter (Deakin), Lisa Slater (RMIT), Jason Wilson (University of Wollongong), Amanda Wise (Macquarie), plus more to be announced.