Faculty of Arts Casual Marking Pay (Take 2)

Today the issue of pay for marking in the Faculty of Arts came to the attention of the PSA again. Since the agreement to pay casual staff for marking was reached, there has been a great deal of confusion across faculties, admin, and casual staff about how exactly marking is paid. I hope to clarify this somewhat in this post, but will also continue working with the School and Faculty Managers in Arts so that an explanation is put on the Arts website, the process made clearer, and that terminology becomes standardised.

There are essentially three different kinds of marking in which we could be involved:

Marking as part of casual tutoring: These are the assignments you mark for your tutorial students, by virtue of being their tutor. Note that ‘reasonably contemporaneous marking’ is not entitled to additional pay – this would be any marking you do within the context of a tutorial eg: a pop quiz, tutorial presentation etc. For marking which takes up a significant amount of time outside of your tutorials, such as research essays, you’re entitled to be paid for ‘standard marking’. The rate at which you are paid is calculated by the Faculty through this equation:

1 Equivalent Full-Time Student Load (EFTSL) = 8 students.

For every 1 EFTSL you mark, you are paid for 3 hours at the standard marking rate.

This pay is calculated at the end of the semester – the reason for this being the significant fluctuation we experience in student enrolments during the semester. By calculating the marking entitlement at the end of the semester, the Faculty is able to accurately calculate how much we are owed. You should be aware that this takes time to come through – perhaps a month, since the end of semester will also necessarily include marking, submitting final results, waiting for extensions, ect.

External Marking: This is the tricky one, as everyone seems to call it something different. Other popular terms include ‘buy-out marking’ and ‘routine marking’. This is marking that you do outside of duties as a casual tutor. For example, you might not be doing any teaching, but your supervisor might ask you to mark 20 first-year essays if they’re overloaded. This marking should also be paid using the same equation and at the standard rate – but it is paid within the same pay period, not at the end of semester. This is because there is no contract, and no fluctuation in student numbers. It is important that you keep a track of any external marking you do, as opposed to marking as a tutor because of this difference. Make sure that your line manager promptly lodges the casual timesheet with the admin staff, and includes the project grant the money is to come out of, in order to be paid on time.

Exam marking: Is again worked out the same way, using the formula, but is paid at the ‘simple marking rate’.

These three different types of marking could all be conducted by the one person, within one semester. A lack of clarity in communication has proven a serious hurdle for some postgrads in being properly paid. However, all marking pay should go through by the 27^th of July.

There are two things I’ve flagged with the Managers:

1.       The equation used to work out the marking amount does not always accurately reflect how much time we have to put in to marking the work of eight students.

2.       The biggest frustration for us as casual staff is the lack of clarity in communication and knowing what we can expect as staff.

They acknowledge that these are ongoing issues, and we will work with them to try and remedy them. The important thing for us to do as postgrads is to continue to communicate with the staff, and let them know if we are experiencing problems – the earlier the better!

Here are some relevant and important documents for you to be aware of – the NTEU Enterprise Bargaining Agreement, the UWA Human Resources Casual Award, and the UniCasual FAQs about marking pay.

My final advice to you is to always make sure you have a clear record of what you’ve agreed to do, and what you actually end up completing. There is some flexibility in the marking equation if it is not equitable for your marking load, so make sure you discuss it with your line manager or unit coordinator before your start teaching or marking.

If I get any new info, I'll update this page!!

Conference Funding FYI

FYI for Arts Postgraduates and Conference Funding

Hello fellow postgraduates!

I recently queried conference funding and registration reimbursements (note: not travel reimbursements) and thought I would pass along this spectacular news to the rest of the Arts PGs.

First, the background information:

I'm presenting a paper at the upcoming CMEMS/PMRG 'Receptions: Medieval and Early Modern Cultural Appropriations' Conference at St. Catherine's College here at UWA. The conference runs 17-18 August and should be amazing (for any of you interested, here's the link to the conference: http://www.pmrg.arts.uwa.edu.au/2012_conference).

As you know a bit too well, every conference has its fees. This one has a $90 registration fee - not bad, especially since the dual CMEMS/PMRG and postgraduate student discount is built into this fee.

However, I did pause for a second and think - wait a minute! I'm presenting my first paper at a conference! But I thought I didn’t qualify for any of my funding support since it is all for travel only and so would have to pay for my first paper presentation out of my own pocket, right?

WRONG! After asking around to quite a few people, Humanities Graduate Research Coordinator, Rob Stuart, gave me some fantastic news - you can get reimbursed for conference fees!

Here is the information he sent me:

Rob's introductory explanation:

The schools in the Faculty had to bring their funding entitlements into agreement last year, so all three of them would now have a policy on-line that says more or less what Humanities' website does about conference funding.

The website says:

Conference travel funding

The School encourages its postgraduates to attend conferences and provides up to $740 to cover conference travel and attendance costs when the candidate is presenting a paper.

Applications must demonstrate a clear research benefit to the student, and have the written support of the supervisor.

Funding will be provided only after conference organisers have accepted the proposed paper for presentation and only if a student has applied for all other available University funding for attendance (such as the University Graduate Research Student Travel Award).

Rob's closing explanation:

As you can see, it's pretty clear that conference membership fees are a legitimate expense that can be funded. This should be true across the Faculty.

Thus, Arts pgs: reap the rewards of my true expat American nature and CLAIM YOUR FUNDING!

Hope this brightens your day as much as it did mine! If you’re in other Faculties which have a similar scheme, let the PSA know, so that all of your colleagues can also benefit!

Patricia

2012 Vice President

Casual Staff and Marking Pay

Hi Postgrads,

A heads up to those that are casual tutors.  At the end of 2010 the Academic Staff Agreement was renegotiated.  This affects you because it was agreed that casual staff would be paid for marking that occurs outside of class time.  That is, any assignments that students hand in that are separate from in-class work. (i.e. research essays).  Any tutors who do this type of marking should be paid.

This new arrangement came into force in the second semester of 2011.   However, a large number of tutors in Arts have had problems getting paid in a timely manner. 

In response to this situation, as PSA Arts Faculty representative, I have raised the issue with the Dean of Arts, and talked to the Faculty Manager Scott Sullivan.  He has apologized for the delay, noting it has taken the faculty longer than foreseen to consult and negotiate with unit coordinators to standardise marking loads across units and identify which units have assessments that require marking outside of class.

I was assured that eligible tutors (that the faculty are aware of) would be paid on 7^th of February for marking.  Scott says they may still have missed some eligible tutors and advises anyone who thinks they may have been eligible for marking pay to contact their school’s manager:

Social and Cultural Studies: Tim Stewart

6488 284

tim.stewart@uwa.edu.au

Humanities: Vicki Wilson

6488 2170     vwilson@cyllene.uwa.edu.au

Systems should now be in place to prevent a repeat of the delays to marking pay this year.  But keep me posted if there are further problems in Arts.  My email is 10421751@student.uwa.edu.au.

If there have been similar problems with tutorial marking pay for Semester 2 2011 in other Faculties, please let your PSA Faculty Representative know.  If you are unsure who your representative is, contact Aisling at psa@guild.uwa.edu.au.

Regards

Jane.