University Teacher Policy

University Teachers are staff employed on a casual basis to assist a School in its teaching activities.  Teaching activities covers all opportunities run by Academic Schools within the University regardless of funding source. 

If an individual is employed on a casual basis for other non-teaching work, the procedures described in the UT Administrator guidance should be followed even if the casual employee is a postgraduate student.

Please note that Operations Committee approval is required for University Teachers where expenditure on an individual member of staff exceeds £20,000 in any academic year.

When recruiting a University Teacher, the School should wherever possible consider duties to be undertaken for the full academic year.

It is the responsibility of the School to confirm specific details of employment to University Teachers.  This includes the type of work to be undertaken, number of hours to be worked, dates and times that the work is to be undertaken and, where appropriate, the amount of expected preparation time.

2.1 Dean’s responsibilities

 It is the responsibility of the Dean to:

• Ensure that the procedures outlined in this document are followed correctly within the School.
• Ensure that the Recruitment & selection administration guidance is followed when recruiting a University Teacher.
• Ensure that immigration checks for University Teachers are carried out within the School to confirm eligibility to work in the UK prior to appointment.
• Ensure that the budget is being utilised effectively and nominate an appropriate individual to authorise claims. It is important to note that the ultimate responsibility for the budget lies with the Dean.
• Nominate an individual/individuals to act as the School contact.

2.2 School contact’s responsibilities

 The School Contact has two areas of responsibility:

Contracts

• Ensure that Human Resources are notified of new University Teachers so that contracts can be raised in a timely manner before employment commences.
• Act as a point of contact for Human Resources and Payroll queries.
• Act as a point of contact for University Teachers

Claims

• Check claims have been completed correctly and actioned in a timely manner. Eg. No later than 3 months after completing the work
• Act as a point of contact for Payroll queries.

It is possible that these responsibilities are undertaken by different people. To ensure that any queries are resolved as quickly as possible, Schools are asked to notify University Teacher Administrators if the staff undertaking these roles change.

3.1 The Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act (2006) and the Immigration Act 2016 requires all employers in the UK to make basic checks on every person they intend to employ before that individual commences work regardless of Nationality. 

3.2 The Working Time Regulations(1998) require employers to pay all workers the equivalent of 28 days’ holiday (inclusive of 8 bank holidays) per year (pro rata).  As it is not possible for hourly paid staff to take holidays on days when they are required to undertake work for the University, their holidays will fall at times when they are not scheduled to work.  A supplement to their hourly rate will therefore be paid for this annual leave. This supplement is included in the hourly rates for University Teachers.

3.3 Equal pay legislation requires the University to ensure that differences in the rates of pay are not caused by unlawful discrimination. To reduce this risk, jobs have been formally evaluated and a range of recommended grades for University Teachers can be found in Section 6.

4.1 There are two types of University Teacher

a) Postgraduate students who are employed on an ad-hoc basis to cover teaching, laboratory demonstrations, workshops and seminars. Postgraduate students are not contracted for specific hours and are only asked to work when required. They have the ability to decline work offered to them.

b) University Teachers who are not postgraduate students at the University and are employed on a casual basis.  These workers are contracted to work specific hours, which may vary over the course of the year depending on the needs of the School. Once they have agreed to carry out work, they are contractually obliged to complete that piece of work. This includes single activities as well as teaching covering a whole semester.

4.2 Teaching assessments

Postgraduate student University Teachers are required to attend ‘Essential Teaching Skills’ course, before undertaking any teaching at Loughborough, delivered by the Doctoral College as part of their Professional Development. This should be followed up by subsequent School observations. Please use the Doctoral College Course Booking system for dates of future courses and book a place.

For non-postgraduate student University Teachers on casual contracts, the Centre for Academic Practice will receive a report of the names and employing Schools of these University Teachers and may request your assistance to arrange a teaching assessment for one of these University Teachers.

Please contact the Centre for Academic Practice by the email below if you have any queries in the meantime.

A - Employing postgraduate students as University Teachers

Please note that this guidance applies only to postgraduate students employed to undertake University Teaching. Postgraduate students undertaking other work, such as acting as a student guide or other administrative/technical work, are covered by the Casual/Dashboard Staff Guidance Notes.

6. Contracts

6.1   Human Resources must issue contracts to all postgraduate students engaged for teaching duties, including appointments of less than one month.

B - Employing University Teachers who are not postgraduate students at the University

5.7 Schools must request that Human Resources issue a contract of employment before work is undertaken. 

5.8 Human Resources will issue a contract which takes effect from the start of the semester one, or two. Depending on the instruction given by the School in the University Teacher Submission Spreadsheet the following year the contract will be extended for a further 12 months period, or the contract with the University Teacher will be terminated.

If a University Teacher is employed for a subsequent year the original statement of particulars will apply. A new contract will not be issued.

5.9 Schools are required to keep a record of the work undertaken by postgraduate students and must also record all work offered and any work declined by the student. Records must be retained for the duration of the contract and for two years following the termination of the contract.

Employing salaried staff for University Teaching

5.10 If a member of the School’s salaried staff, e.g. research assistant/associate, has been allocated for paid University Teaching work, Schools should ensure they fully understand the School’s employment relationship with the member of staff before approving any additional work or payment. It is normal expectation that this work is carried out as part of their normal duties and only paid as extra in exceptional circumstances.

5.10.1 Part-time salaried staff

If the additional hours and salaried hours in total do not exceed those of a normal 37 hour working week, the member of staff can be treated in the normal way for University Teachers and paid a casual rate inclusive of holiday supplement.

5.10.2 Full-time salaried staff

Where someone is already contracted to do a 37 hour working week, administrators should establish with their Operations Manager whether the teaching work should be:

1. classed as additional hours or
2. classed as other relevant duties within their normal contracted hours

In the case of a), the University’s policy on overtime should be followed (grades 1-5 only).

In the case of b), and if the member of staff is paid via research grant funding, the Operations Manager may wish to effectively buy-out their time for the teaching activity and reimburse the grant holder by transferring funds from the School’s University Teaching budget to the research grant budget. The value of the transfer should be agreed between the Operations Manager and the research grant budget holder.

Employing a teacher from another organisation that will need reimbursement

5.11 Occasions may arise when you need to pay an organisation to release one of their members of staff. The organisation should be set up as a supplier in Agresso and the individual should not be submitted on the HR UT submission spreadsheet.

6.1 Each University Teacher will have a single pay rate at which they will be paid for all work connected with University Teaching that year.  It is not acceptable to pay a different rate for Administration, Tutorials, Lecturing and Demonstration.

6.2 Job Evaluation panels have formally evaluated a representative selection of University Teacher jobs and determined that these roles fit into the Teaching and Scholarship Job Family at Grades 5, 6 and 7.  It is expected that Schools will match all University Teachers into the most appropriate grade. Any queries regarding grades should be directed to the School's HR Partner.

Grade 5: Teaching and Scholarship

This grade would typically be appropriate for postgraduate students acting as demonstrators. Typical duties include:

• Providing support to academic staff by assisting with laboratory classes and demonstrations
• Assisting with marking of laboratory reports, under the direction of academic staff

Staff on this grade are undertaking closely-supervised work.  If the University Teacher is working without a high level of supervision, it is likely that they will be a Grade 6. Pay rates for University Teachers on Grade 5 can be found on the casual pay rates page of the HR website.

Grade 6: Teaching and Scholarship

 Typical duties include:

• Preparing and running tutorials and seminars
• Sole responsibility for laboratory demonstrations
• Supervision of final year projects
• Basic academic support to students
• Marking of laboratory reports with guidance/assistance where required

*Higher level 6 duties [equivalent to the teaching duties of a lecturer] include:

• Duties listed above, plus:
• Lecturing on a defined, specific and sometimes specialised subject (both UG and PG)
• Marking coursework with guidance/assistance where required
• Marking examinations with guidance/assistance where required
• Academic support and guidance to students (both UG and PG)          

*University Teachers carrying out these duties should be paid at spinal point 33 and above.

Pay rates for University Teachers on Grade 6 can be found on the HR website, under casual pay rates.

Grade: 7 Teaching and Scholarship

Typical duties include:

• Duties listed in Grade 6, plus:
• Review content of module with responsibility for updating and altering content as required
• Responsibility for determining mode of study
• Internal examiner for module/part of module
• Contribution to the review and development of programmes
• Pastoral support to students
• Setting and marking coursework
• Setting and marking examinations

Pay rates for University Teachers on Grade 7 can be found on the HR website, under casual pay rates.

Further details of the duties expected of the different grades can be found in the Teaching and Scholarship job family, available on the Human Resources website.

6.3 University Teachers should be paid an hourly rate inclusive of holiday pay. The hourly rates for University Teachers relate to points on the University’s salary scale. The hourly rate is subject to the nationally agreed cost of living rise which is effective from 1^st August each year. The precise figures and the impact on pay will be publicised on the Human Resources web pages as soon as they have been agreed.

6.4 To ensure compliance with equality legislation, University Teachers are entitled to incremental progression within the appropriate grade. If a University Teacher has worked for 488 hours or more over the preceding 12 months, they will be entitled to an increment until such time that their hourly rate matches the normal range for their grade. Human Resources will assess University Teachers for eligibility and apply the increment if appropriate. Movement into the contribution points on a grade will be subject to the annual Reward Review exercise.

6.5 The University Teacher Pay rates do not include an allowance for preparation time or marking.  University Teachers should be paid for preparation time and marking at their normal hourly rate.  It is the School’s responsibility to monitor preparation and marking time claimed.

6.6 When considering the amount of preparation time involved in University Teaching, Schools should consult their own workload model and consider carefully the amount that each University Teacher needs for this.

6.7 If a pay rate outside of the standard rates is desired, the Dean’s approval must be sought prior to the appointment. A record of this must be maintained. 

7.1 When budgeting for the cost of employing a University Teacher, it is essential that Schools remember to account for a maximum of 21% of salary for the employer’s pension contributions (currently 21% - LGPS and 18% USS).

7.2 The following costs should be considered for payment of National Insurance contributions:

Employer's National Insurance costs for the 2018/19 tax year are as follows:

• 0% - Salary up to £8,164
• 13.8% - Salary above £8,164

NI is not calculated cumulatively, so each pay period stands in isolation. This means that NI will be deducted on any payment above the current threshold in a particular month, regardless of whether the University Teacher's pay to date is within the tax-free allowance. For this reason it is important to submit regular claims for payment. Visit the current National Insurance thresholds and rates for more information.

7.3 University Teachers who do not have a National Insurance Number should apply for one as soon as possible by contacting national Insurance number application line. Enrolment into the pension scheme is not automatic for, but University Teachers can contact the University pension department if they wish to join. If you have a query regarding auto enrolment in a pension scheme, please email the Payroll Team. 

7.4 If University Teachers trigger the auto enrolment (AE) criteria, a postponement period of 3 months will be used to establish whether subsequent earnings trigger AE. If the criteria for eligible job holder are then met the University Teacher will be enrolled into a scheme. University Teachers will be contacted once the assessment has been completed.

8.1 Immigration checks for all University Teachers must be completed in the School. The Dean or nominee is responsible for ensuring that a compliant right to work check is completed within the School, regardless of nationality, to confirm that the individual has permission to work in the UK. The right to work check must be completed before the first day of employment and that a copy of the check is emailed to Recruitment@mailbox.lboro.ac.uk, ensuring the subject line reads: University Teacher RTW Check. Staff responsible for completing right to work checks in Schools should refer to the University Teacher Administrator Guidance Documentation for up to date instructions.

8.2 Please note that the Home Office can undertake a compliance visit without notice and you could therefore be asked to produce this documentation as evidence that the University is complying with Home Office regulations.  Non-compliance with these immigration regulations could result in severe penalties to the University as an employer.

8.3 If further advice is required on eligibility to work, please contact Hrimmigration@lboro.ac.uk.

Important: Students on a Tier 4 student visa can only work a maximum of 20 hours in a single week,  i.e Monday to Sunday, across all departments, including voluntary work. Any breach of this limit will affect their right to study in the UK and the visa could be at risk and revoked by the Home Office. Their hours will be allocated to them via Dashboard.

9.1 University Teachers who are not currently employed by the University on a contract of employment in another capacity will be paid via the casual payroll. University Teachers who claim an hourly rate will submit claims through my.HR.

9.2 University Teachers must submit claims via the University’s my.HR website. They will be required to log in to the system using a Loughborough user ID. If the University Teacher does not already have a user ID one will be automatically created when the individual accepts their contract. There is no need for Schools to request a manual user account from IT Services.

9.3 Payments will be made on or before the last day of the month. Providing your claim has been approved before the payroll cut-off, which is the 5th of the month. Any claims made after the cut off will be paid retrospectively the following month. The exact dates for payroll can be found below. 

9.4 University Teachers undertaking any other type of casual claims work at the University must continue to use the paper based claims forms for submitting claims, until further notice. Forms are available below. It is vital to inform University Teachers that claims for invigilation, note-taking, Open Day help and any other work that is not defined as work undertaken by University Teachers will not be approved via the my.HR claims system.

9.5 If a University Teacher claims for work undertaken over a number of weeks or months on one claim form they will be disadvantaged as they will only receive four weeks’ tax allowance.