Teaching Associate Positions
17 Casual Conversion: Teaching Associate Positions
17.1 The purpose of a Teaching Associate position is to enable a reduction in the overall use of Casual Employment by providing:
a. a mechanism for current Casual Academic Employees to convert to more secure forms of employment; and
b. the University with an option to advertise and appoint individuals who would otherwise be engaged on a casual basis.
17.2 The intent of this clause is to see a reduction in the overall use of Casual employment Employment and provide a meaningful mechanism for current Casual Academic employees Employees to have continuing variable intensity academic employment at the University.Teaching Associate Appointments will be employed on a variable intensity basis. The intensity of hours required will vary throughout the academic year, with the greatest intensity occurring during the teaching periods. The employee’s salary will be paid on an annualised basis, unless otherwise agreed between the University and the employee.
17.3 12A Teaching Associate may be appointed on a Fixed-term or Continuing basis. Unless otherwise agreed, the minimum term of a Fixed-term Teaching Associate appointment will be 1 year.
17.4 Teaching Associates will be subject to the University’s processes for academic appointments, including confirmation, incremental progression and transition of academic category, as relevant.
17.5 Teaching Associates appointed at Level A may apply for promotion to Level B through the University’s academic promotion processes. Teaching Associates will not be eligible for promotion beyond Level B.
17.2 A Teaching Associate Appointment provides for the Continuing appointment of an existing Casual Academic employee Employee in accordance with the provisions below as an Associate Lecturer (Level A, Step 6) or Lecturer (Level B, Step 2) commensurate with the Casual casual level to which the employee is appointed at the time of conversion to undertake a teaching intensive workload.
17.3 Subject to clause 17.4 below, any Casual casual Academic employee Employee who has undertaken a teaching allocation of at least 0.2 FTE, measured over teaching weeks, in an Organisational Unit/s, in at least four (4)4 semesters Semesters in the last four (4)4 years is eligible to apply to their Organisational Unit for conversion to a Teaching Associate Appointment. Subject to such a request meeting the operational requirements of an Organisational Unit, such an application shall will not be unreasonably refused.
17.4 An Academic employee Employee who has been engaged on a Fixed-term contract for the primary purpose of undertaking course coordination duties and has prior to 1 February 2023 been employed as a Casual Academic employee Employee will remain eligible to apply to their Organisational Unit for conversion to a Teaching Associate Appointment.
17.5 Further, Casual Academic employees Employees who have also been engaged as a Fixed-term employee to undertake teaching and/or teaching-related duties, will have their period/s of service in those Fixed-term positions counted towards the eligibility in clause 17.3 above.
17.6 A Casual employee Academic Employee must not be engaged and re-engaged, nor have their hours reduced in order to avoid their eligibility for conversion to a Teaching Associate Appointment.
17.6 The University commits to internally advertising and seeking to fill a minimum of fifty (50) Teaching Associate positions in each twelve (12) month period following certification of this Agreement and to:
a. consider where possible, an order of priority from the longest serving Casuals to the most recently employed; and
b. align appointments with the University’s diversity targets and aspirations.
17.7 Employees who are Teaching Associates or remain Casual Academic employees Employees remain eligible at all times to apply for other academic roles.
Fractional Appointment and WorkloadsAppointment
17.117.68Teaching Associate Appointments may be appointed at any fraction but would normally not be considered at less than 0.2 FTE or greater than 0.7 FTE. Any change in fraction or workload mix, either temporarily or permanently, is subject to approval by the Head of School and agreement with the employee.
17.7 9Teaching Associate Appointments will have an FTE level that will take into account, and would normally be no less than, the volume of eligible casual academic work undertaken by eemployee’s intensity of Casual Casual employment Employment for over the previous four (4)4 semesters in which the Academic employee Eemployee was employed, and in alignment with the Academic Workload Model used in the relevant areaOrganisational Unit.
Workload Allocation
17.8 The varying intensity of Teaching Associate Appointments across the weeks worked will be determined in consultation between the Head of School and the employee having regard to the range of duties expected to be performed, including appropriate inclusion of activities required outside of teaching weeks such as teaching preparation prior to the commencement of a Semester, and marking.
17.217.9 This Teaching Associate workload appointment will include a 10-20% workload allocation for citizenship and service, including administrative tasksduties such as managing a tutor team, standard citizenship, internal service, training, discipline currency and professional development activities relevant to the role. Non-teaching activities identified here, for example, discipline currency and development activities, while still included in the 20% workcitizenship and service allocation can be undertaken at any time throughout the year, with agreement of the Supervisor.
17.10 Teaching Associate Appointments will be employed on a variable intensity basis, with the intensity of hours required varying throughout the academic year, with the greatest intensity occurring during the teaching periods. The varying intensity across the weeks worked will be determined in consultation with the Head of School and the employee having regard to the range of duties expected to be performed, including appropriate inclusion of activities required outside of teaching weeks such as teaching preparation prior to the commencement of a teaching semesterSemester, marking and any research workload allocation as provided under clause 17.13.
17.317.10 11Unless otherwise agreed with the University, accrued annual leave will be taken outside of the teaching allocation periods.
17.12 Teaching Associates will be subject to the normal processes for Continuing academic appointments, including confirmation, incremental progression and promotion and transition of academic category.
Research Workload Allocation
17.4 2Where a Teaching Associate seeks a Research Workload Allocation as part of their employment, they may apply to their Organisational Unit and such application shall will not be unreasonably refused, provided that:
a. there is demonstrable evidence the the Employee meets the acadmic criteria for performance at level A.
b. the Academic employee Employee has provided a reasonable and credible research plan, outlining anticipated research outputs of the intended research activity;
c. the research aligns with the research profile of the Organisational Unit; and
d. the request meets the operational requirements of the Organisational Unit.
Conversion
17.11 Conversion to a Teaching Associate Appointment provides for the Fixed-term or Continuing appointment of an existing Casual Academic Employee in accordance with the provisions below as an Associate Lecturer (Level A, Step 6) or Lecturer (Level B, Step 2) commensurate with the casual level to which the employee is appointed at the time of conversion.
17.12 A Casual Academic Employee will be eligible to apply to their Organisational Unit for conversion to a Teaching Associate Appointment if they:
a. have undertaken a teaching allocation of at least 0.2 FTE, measured over teaching weeks; and
b. the teaching allocation has been in at least 4 semesters, in the last 4 years.
17.13 Casual Academic employment, prior toAny a period of Fixed-term employment which was undertaken concurrently with, or in place of casual academic employment, for the primary purpose of course coordination and/or teaching and/or teaching related activities, will constitute teaching allocation for the purpose of clause 17.13the eligibility criteria as set out in clause 17.11 above.
17.5 For the purpose of assessing eligibility and the relevant FTE fraction in clause 17.13, all teaching related activities directly connected to the design, delivery, facilitation, and assessment of student learning in a course.the following will be included in the teaching allocation. This includes:
17.6 Lecturing, Tutoring and All teaching activity types any duties associated with the minimum engagement;
17.7 Demonstration;
17.8 Practical;
17.9 Marking which is undertaken in conjunction with a, b, c or d above;
17.10 Course coordination related duties; and
17.14 Curriculum development.
17.15 A Casual Academic Employee who has only been engaged solely on non-student facing activities, such as for marking or the design of learning materials, activities with no teaching allocation will not be eligible for conversion to a Teaching Associate Appointment.
17.16 A Casual Academic Employee must not be engaged and re-engaged, nor have their hours reduced in order to avoid their eligibility for conversion to a Teaching Associate Appointment.
17.17 Where a Casual Academic Employee applies for conversion in accordance with clause 17.12, the University will provide a written response within 28 days. Where the University refuses conversion, it will provide written reasons for the decision.
17.18 Subject to such an application meeting the operational requirements of an Organisational Unit, an application for conversion made under clause 17.1217.13 will not be unreasonably refused. Operational requirements may include, but are not limited to:
a. Anticipated and planned curriculum changes;
b. School workforce planning changes;
c. Where the activity is replacing a Full-Time Academic Employee; or
d. Insufficient work to justify a continuing appointment at the minimum of 0.2FTE.
17.19 The University will, in each 12 month period from the commencement of this Agreement, notify Casual Academic Employees of their ability to apply for conversion under this clause, subject to meeting the relevant eligibility criteria.
17.20 Employees who are Teaching Associates or remain Casual Academic Employees remain eligible at all times to apply for other academic roles.
Review
The University and NTEU will undertake a review of conversion of Casual Academic employees to Teaching Associate positions twenty-four (24) months after commencement of this Agreement. Following this review, the University will consider the success of these provisions and may determine that additional Teaching Associate roles be advertised during the life of this Agreement.
Should the review determine that the positions as advertised under clause 17.5 are not likely to be filled by the expiry date of this Agreement, the parties will confer within one (1) month following the review to determine what reasonable measures should be taken to achieve the intent set out in clause 17.1.