Faculty Teaching Load Policies
1. COLA Teaching Load Policy
Principles Guiding Faculty Time / Effort
Purpose: This policy establishes baseline teaching loads for faculty, outlines conditions for adjustments, and sets guidelines for course buyouts and releases to ensure departments meet instructional obligations while supporting faculty responsibilities. This policy applies to tenured, tenure-track, and professional-track faculty.
Updated: April 19, 2022
Effective: Current
Click the link to download a PDF of the Principles Guiding Faculty Time/Effort_updated 2022-23
Departmental Teaching Loads
The baseline teaching load for research-active tenured and tenure-track faculty will continue to be 2-2. However, COLA will allow departments, in special circumstances, to propose deviations from this baseline load that are based on specific circumstances. Such allowances must not undermine overall semester credit hours (SCH) or the average SCH for tenure-track faculty. They must also meet the college expectation that faculty in the department regularly teach at least two classes per year and further limit other kinds of course releases (e.g., chair releases, service releases, buyouts).
Examples of circumstances that might justify a reduced teaching load include a rate of SCH per tenure-track faculty consistently above 350 per year that is clearly sustainable on a reduced load and/or substantial grant funding associated with research team management duties for most faculty. These are minimum requirements, meeting one or more of these listed circumstances does not guarantee a reduced baseline teaching load will be granted.
Tenured faculty who are not research active may have, in accordance with the revised Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty Workload Policy (https://wikis.utexas.edu/display/larc/Faculty+Policies) and its associated steps of review and planning, a higher baseline teaching load.
Across departments, one course release per year for a faculty member can be provided to associate chairs, graduate advisors, and one other service role without COLA approval. For departments maintaining the baseline 2-2 teaching load, additional course releases (1 per person) of no more than 12% of the tenure-track faculty per year can be granted without approval. Departmental systems for allocating such releases must be endorsed by the department’s executive committee. Any service related or other course releases beyond these limits require special application to COLA.
A full teaching load for professional-track (non-tenure track) faculty members (excluding Visiting Professors) is equivalent to a minimum average of 9 contact hours per semester and a maximum average of 12 contact hours per semester over an academic year. Although the averaging allows for flexibility in terms of the load per semester, it also assumes no less than one course in any given semester. This teaching load is based on a 100% full-time academic year appointment (spring and fall). As necessary, hours and averages are proportionally adjusted based on the percent appointment.
In the event that a professional-track faculty member is assigned additional academic duties (supervision, coordination, etc.), teaching load reductions will be determined at the departmental (or center) level with annual prior written approval from the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. This again assumes a teaching load of no less than one course in any given semester.
At the close of each academic year, departments will fill out a form—provided by COLA—to summarize reasons that any faculty member is not teaching the established teaching load for the department. COLA will review this information to ensure that departments stay within the agreed upon terms.
See Teaching Load Planning Reporting for more information.
External Grant-Funded Course Buyouts
COLA’s goal is to ensure an exchange of resources for teaching releases supported by external and internal funding, shifting to a lower cost per faculty member for using such funds to “buy out” to ensure more consistent compensation to the college for teaching releases and establishing a return of funds to departments to support their teaching mission in the face of teaching releases. The purpose is not to create one-to-one compensation for every class that is bought out, as not all classes will need to be replaced, but instead to incrementally increase a department’s soft money budget to allow more flexibility about course offerings. The newly established rates and policies (see below) will be reviewed every two years to determine their financial feasibility and effectiveness, and they are subject to future revision. Note: External funding should be administered to UT Austin on behalf of the faculty member.
Buying out one course will require either a flat rate of $18,000 or equivalent to 1/6th of the 9-month salary, plus the proportional cost of fringe for the faculty member. $7,000 will be allocated to the department’s soft money account for each approved course buyout.
The flat buyout rate cannot be used to go below a minimum teaching load of two courses per year unless otherwise negotiated with COLA. Even when teaching below two courses per year is approved, the expectation is that this approval will not cover more than two consecutive years.
Departments must stipulate that the course buyout will not affect SCH. If it will, departments must submit a SCH mitigation plan that does not require extra funding from COLA. Departments are encouraged to set internal deadlines for notification of intent to use the buyout rate in order to allow adequate planning.
Center Directors and Internal Buyouts
All currently existing agreements for Center and Institute Directors will be honored as written. Moving forward, the baseline expectation for center directors in COLA will be one course release per year and one summer month’s salary (or set stipend level), with the acknowledgment that a small number of large centers with graduate or undergraduate academic programs and/or significant grant funding streams may justify more commitment.
The expectation is that COLA departments will honor course releases for COLA center, program, and institute directors. For directors of centers, programs, and institutes, the dean’s office will increment the home department’s soft-money budget by $7,000 for each course release granted (typically one per year). There should not be an expectation of similar course release support from COLA for the appointment of associate/assistant directors or other center-related positions. These positions should be viewed as a normal part of faculty service obligations or else appropriately compensated by the center or institute budgets or draw on department's discretionary service releases. COLA will consider proposals for other arrangements if such a process causes undue burden to departments.
2. COLA Unbalanced Teaching Load Policy
Purpose: To ensure clear communication and shared expectations when approving unbalanced teaching loads. This policy applied to tenured and tenure-track faculty.
Updated: October 21, 2025
Effective: starting Academic Year 2025-26
Department chairs may wish to support faculty research by approving unbalanced workloads, reducing faculty teaching responsibilities in one long semester, with increased teaching responsibilities in the other long semester. Unbalanced teaching loads resulting in a faculty member teaching no organized courses in a given semester require the Dean’s prior approval.
If approval is granted, the department chair and faculty member must acknowledge that:
a reduced course load for a Fall or Spring semester is not considered a research leave, and,
therefore, in no way releases the faculty member from their other obligations as a university faculty member, including, but not limited to, service assignments and student advising, and
the reduced teaching load should not be represented to colleagues or the public as a research leave.
Contact
For questions, contact Jennifer Nailos at la-academic@austin.utexas.edu