The academic year structure here in Plymouth is such that there are two teaching Semesters, one that runs from the start of the year in September through to the end of January (12 weeks before Christmas/New Year and 3 weeks after) and then a second one that runs from roughly the beginning of February through to May with a break over Easter. This means that currently we are towards the end of Semester One with a new set of modules due to start in Semester Two in just over a week’s time.
One of my roles as Deputy Head of School is to be the School Timetabling Coordinator. This basically means that I have to sit in between the academics planning and teaching modules and the Central Timetabling Unit (CTU) who schedule them. Every communication with the CTU is supposed to go through me which is basically a way of restricting the ability of academics to moan and grumble at the CTU and puts the onus on me to filter requests for changes to the timetable, push academics to find ‘local’ solutions and, at times, moderate the language they have used when making timetabling requests/demands…
I have only been doing this timetabling role for about a year but it is apparent that timetabling work comes to a head at a few specific times of year. There is a huge flurry of activity towards the end of February when academics have to complete ‘Module Delivery Sheets’ detailing what sessions they want/need for their modules in the following year (so at least 6 months ahead), followed immediately by a huge amount of work for me to review, check and approve all of these requests. Then there is another burst of activity in the summer when there is a two week period for checking the draft Semester One timetable followed not long afterwards by a similar period for the Semester Two timetable. At that point, say mid-September, everything is supposed to be set for the year and the assumption made is that nothing will change from then onwards. In fact, it is not simply an assumption. Rather, there is now an INSTRUCTION that nothing can be changed without various levels of approval, sometimes from pretty senior people in the university.
I mention this today because in the last couple of days I have suddenly been hit with a plethora of timetable change requests from my colleagues to process. Some of these are completely straightforward but others are really quite incredibly complex and I have a not insignificant amount of work to do to try to work out the best tactics to use to ensure that the request makes its way smoothly through the CTU. Almost all of the requested changes could have been highlighted weeks if not months ago which is the thing that makes all of this sudden activity really rather frustrating. My day today has been completely hijacked by this work. It is as if (some of) my colleagues have awoken from a trance to realise with a jolt that they need to think about what they are doing in a week’s time, despite having known about and been able to think about these things for ages and ages. In truth, of course, they are busy people, but as someone who likes to know that there are no nasty shocks around the corner I do find it hard to comprehend how anyone could work in this manner.
Today, timetabling mania has been particularly bad. I am hoping that tomorrow and, indeed, next week, will not see a repeat. I cannot really afford to lose more time to this. My timetable doesn’t permit it.
Tim O'Hare 