Learning and Teaching Committee
Subject: Central
Timetabling: Background Paper
Origin: Director of Media Services
The University timetable is
very complex for a number of reasons including:
- the options available to students which cut
across academic departments;
- the uncertainty surrounding first year numbers in
semester one;
- the special needs which some students have for
particular facilities;
- the availability of staff, particularly external
staff.
Currently all departments
create their own timetables, liaising with other departments as required. The
timing of the room allocations is done as late as possible but time needs to be
built in for addressing the number of failed requests. The finalisation of
numbers close to the start of the semester means that there can be a number of
significant problems if numbers exceed expectations. A total of almost 54,000
room hours are allocated to teaching across the two semesters.
Loughborough is unusual in
not undertaking timetabling centrally. A report by SUMS (Southern Universities
Management Services of which the University is a member) indicates that of
their 28 members only 3 do not use central timetabling and one of those is to
do so following a recent report from SUMS. There was consideration of this at
Loughborough approximately 9 years ago and a decision was made to maintain the
status quo. Since then, the University has become much larger, student options
have become wider with increasing cross-departmental options and the PG(T)
courses have expanded significantly. The creation of the timetable tends to be
the responsibility of one person in each department (even in the larger ones)
and this is a risk with significant impact should that person be ill or if they
were to leave.
HEFCE has recently produced
some reports on space management. They report that savings on space can be made
where all teaching space is centrally timetabled. This includes departmental as
well as pool space.
It
should be noted that Loughborough has evidence of good practice and the
statistics of usage are above sector means, although recent figures show our
usage figures are declining. The University also takes space management
seriously in having a Space Manager based in Estates and the Space Allocation
Sub-committee chaired by the DVC. The room bookings service provided by Media
Services is well respected and there are excellent links between the
administrator and academic departments.
What are the
Benefits of a Central Timetabling System?
- Allocation of rooms
when student numbers are known for semester one;
- fewer clashes,
particularly for large rooms;
- the potential to make
better use of rooms and to allocate rooms more flexibly as required (e.g.
rooms may not be required all semester);
- web based timetables
available for students and staff – lack of availability is a source
of complaint at present;
- reduced risk of
relevant staff being away or leaving – in most departments there is
only one member of staff involved;
- reduction in time
required in departments.
What are the
Problems?
- New processes for
administrators when they have been asked to be involved in so much other
change;
- increased cost in the
centre;
- risk that it will not
improve space usage.
What are the
Risks of Doing Nothing
- Continue to have
failed bookings and less than ideal timetables, particularly for large
groups due to clashes;
- continue to have the
risk of group sizes exceeding lecture room size when we recruit more
students than has been indicated in requests;
- continue to have no
individual information available to students – other Universities do
this which can be helpful for students wanting to get a job.
What Could we do
to Improve Things in the Short Term?
Only
the first two suggestions are made seriously, but the others are certainly an
option (though likely to be unpopular and/or complex):
- We could develop the
current Wallchart software or develop a facility within the Outlook
Calendar system to provide a view onto the underlying database of bookings
and a provisional or actual booking system for rooms once the timetable
requests have been allocated.
- Take some of the
requirements out of the current pool by using
- Run lectures out of
normal teaching hours, for example the
- Change the length of
lectures (evidence from space utilisation surveys suggest that where there
are double and triple lectures the whole time is often not used –
how long is really needed? Lectures of more than one hour are increasing,
adding to the complexity of the allocations).
Dr Anne Mumford