What?
Time Allocation Survey (TAS) data is information collected from individual staff members on the proportions of their working time spent on different categories of work. The percentage of time recorded is used to allocate the staff costs to the different categories for the completion of the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) Return to the Funding Council.
Why?
- Staff costs are the single largest element of a University's costs
- Information from TAS is used to allocate staff costs for TRAC to:
- Teaching (T)
- Research (R)
- Other (O)
- TAS is also used as a driver to allocate other costs to these activities
- TRAC data is then used to calculate: a) Indirect rates for Research projects and b) The costs for funding per SFC Subject Group in TRAC (T)
- SFC are using the TRAC (T) data to inform future prices ie the funding we receive for teaching students will depend on TRAC (T)
Who?
The TAS should be completed by internally funded Research, Teaching and KE staff. If your salary is charged in full to an externally funded research / KE contract you do not need to complete the TAS.
When?
The first TAS questionnaire will be released at the end of the first period (1 February 2020) and must be completed by all academic staff (including internally funded Research staff) by 14 February.
Importance of accuracy
Inaccurate data will potentially lead to erroneous costings for Research and Teaching and will therefore have an impact on future funding, for example:
- Understating Teaching time risks a reduction in funding from the price per subject group
- Understating the support element of Research risks under recovering support costs which are met through the Indirect rate
- Overstating these costs makes Strathclyde more expensive compared to other universities
Staff are reminded that this is a compulsory exercise. Please note the TAS return should be based on all time spent on University work, including that undertaken in evenings and weekends.
The overall process
The process can be summarised as follows:
- All staff who are required to complete a TAS will be sent a memo by the Chair of the fEC Working Group highlighting why the TAS exercise is required, what the information will be used for and when the returns will require to be submitted
- At the appropriate times, staff will be notified by automatic email that the questionnaire is available for completion via the Qualtrics system along with detailed instructions on how to complete the exercise
- The results for each department will be summarised and passed to the Head of Department for confirmation that they represent a reasonable reflection of the activities he/she would expect to have been undertaken
- Once approved by the Head of Department the information will be built into the TRAC model which in turn will provide the annual TRAC results for T, R and O
- The TRAC model will be used to complete the TRAC (T) return and in the calculation of Estates and Indirect rates for Research projects.
Data collection periods
The data collection periods will be -
- 1 October 2022 to 31 January 2023
- 1 February 2023 to 31 May 2023
- 1 June 2023 to 30 Sep 2023
Activities
Staff will be asked to split their time, on a percentage basis, over the following activities. See guidance notes for information on:
- Teaching: Publicly Funded
- Teaching: Non Publicly Funded
- Scholarship for Teaching
- Support for Teaching
- Research: Institution Funded - supporting Teaching
- Research: Institution Funded - supporting Research
- Research: PGR Supervision
- Research: Research Councils
- Research: UK Charities
- Research: UK Government
- Research: UK Industry
- Research: EU (European Commission)
- Research: EU (Government Bodies)
- Research: EU (Other)
- Research: Other Overseas
- Research: Other Sources
- Scholarship for Research
- Support for Research
- Other Income Generating Activities - Consultancy
- Other Income Generating Activities
- Support for Other Income Generating Activities
- General Support: Professional Development & General Scholarship
- General Support: Management & Administration