Are academic workload models outdated for today's changing economy?

Increases in the number of tertiary students demanding higher education, referred to by Musselin (2007) as the massification of higher Education, have seen increased pressures on the budgets of tertiary institutions. The current economic crisis only served to further impact on this already stretched position. Smith (2009) commented that “university budgets are at breaking point as young people being unable to find work flock to tertiary study.” (p.1) Euben (2003) argues that “as institutions adjust to serving an increasing number of students with wide varieties of learning styles, traditional methods of workload measurement fall short in determining if faculty are making efficient use of their time. In other words, traditional measurement methods are not applicable to the changes that are occurring in higher education.” Diamond and Adam (2000) support this by saying that although the traditional measurement of workload is a starting point, it is insufficient, as unique requirements placed on lecturers in each discipline results in differing workloads. This paper endeavours to contribute to the body of knowledge by focusing on the discussion of academic workload of business educators in a changed economic environment