Please help

I started one month ago as a head of a department for one branch in
college in south africa.

I have many post graduate lecturers reporting to me.
Of which one is currently doing Phd.

I was so shocked however that they expect me from Head Office to
Allocate 32 lecturing hours per week (contact periods) per week to
These lecturers as a norm and that I have to justify and give extensive
Explamations if I go as low as 25 lecturing hours per week.

On top of that they need to councel students, prepare for lectures,
Do research, study further, mark, set up and type their own tests,
Do a new lecturer file each year, submit new suggested case studies to
Head office and be ready to come in saturdays to help out for example
The admin department if work there is behind.
They need to push students to pay fees, and may never be found to
Read anything from a textbook, they need to be exceptionally well
Prepared for every class.
They need to oversea students from last year who are placed in jobs to give
A report on their progress.

This they all have to do while some of them are paid as little as 500 USD
per month.
You heard me right.
Somebody with PHD may go up to 1000 or even 1500 USD per month.

And because there is a shortage of jobs currently, people take it.
What can they say?

I am a woman of honour and wants to take this further.
But I need your help please.

Give me some facts please as I raise a plea on behalf of these
Precious lecturers of mine to the CEO.

What is world wide norms?

The CEO believes people are just pure lazy if they don't want
To put in based on his expectation.
He argues that it always worked for them just fine like this,
And why am I having a problem.

I am deeply disturbed, but the only comparison they are staring at
It seems is at other south african colleges which are also taking
Advantage of the situation in South Africa.

Are you also as shocked as me? Help me please with some facts
Or suggestions how to approach it.
I need to motivat strongly for more staff

Is this a tragic epic poem? If not, why the format - new line for each sentence (or clause of sentence), capitalisation at the start of each line...?

I am typing from my blackberry.
Sorry.
I need to press the enter button from time to time as the text starts to disappear
And then it opens with a caps.
Please look past that and give me some advise.
Thanks

Hi Wanttoknow: erm that sounds bad, but I don't understand south african currency so can't get a handle on the pay scales. In my experience things have been getting progressively worse here in the UK over the last ten years or so. As sessional or associate lecturers (those on an hourly pay scale) work loads can vary for the 33 - 37ish pouns per hour we are paid. I ran two modules (or undergraduate courses) while being paid for four hours last year, but this year I have two hours of seminars and my work load is a tiny fraction of my revious post. So it varies, but things are tightening up fast in the UK. It's good to hear from a mananger who is so concerned for their sessional lecturing staff and I wish you luck.

I don't think any comparison this way is possible from one currency to another. It completely depends on the currency. You absolutely can't convert to pounds and then be concerned, inter-currency discrepancies: well, that is another debate altogether, and I am sure your focus is different.

The real question is is the pay poor by the local currency standards? Are they overworked in comparison to what the pay is? And naturally the comparison is with other south african colleges. If an academic who is well paid for his consultation and research activities by all his national standards, and is part of the socio economic elite in his country (let us say a developing country) suddenly decided to compare his salary in pounds, and it came to 500 pounds a month, that would be great pay by his country's standards and rubbish here. So it is crucial you get this clear.

Every country has a different educational system. I say this with in depth experience of two countries in two different continents. What is the NORM you refer to? Which is the NORM?

There is no body of "facts" which is what you seek. And you say "This they all have to do while some of them are paid as little as 500 USD
per month.
You heard me right.
Somebody with PHD may go up to 1000 or even 1500 USD per month."


So, pay is also one of your concerns, on top of hours. Well, it varies from system to system. The system I have experienced before the UK would find such a schedule quite perfectly normal. The research output is zero, nobody holds grants, everyone teaches to a set syllabus but yes, there is a huge truck load of work, and as I said, it wouldn't do to compare pay.

I would hesitate going from one system to another and getting shocked so soon. Please allow yourself time to realise that the "norm" cannot be the system you yourself come from or are experienced with. Yes, we all have preferences and ideals, but that cannot become the norm wherever we go.

======= Date Modified 22 Mar 2009 09:15:45 =======
Some comparisons (albeit not norms) can be gauged here as South Africa is a fairly developed country and a member of the Commonwealth. Generally, Commonwealth countries follow the British academic system (or variants of it). There is research that compares salaries in some Commonwealth countries (inc. S. Africa), but this is adjusted for PPP so it may nnot be helpful for you: http://www.acu.ac.uk/policyandresearch/publications/salarysurvey20062007.pdf.

Working 37 hours certainly isn't normal at university level, and frankly, I'd consider impossible unless the lectures are very repetitive. In the UK, I find lecturers teach between 2 to 10 hours per week, and teaching fellows considerably more. I just wonder are you actually working for one of S.Africa's major universities, or are you working for some sort of private college? Talk of 'branches' and 'CEO' makes me think this isn't a typical university set-up.

That was very helpful, thanks.

You are correct. It is a private college.

However, research are required as well.

I guess, when the focus of an organization becomes strong
Bottom line orientated, the tendency will lean towards
Paying the minimum for expenses of any kind, and pushing
workload, taking
the most profit home at the end of the day.

When one walks into such, with a heart for people it
Becomes disturbing.
It may not be upsetting to others, for whom it is purely about
profitability.

Thanks to everybody who participated on here and gave their inputs.

I guess I have to accept there is no norm.

But there is a norm of 45 working hours per week.

Something needs to give if one pushes lecturing hours to high - either
Research, or preparation time (affecting quality in some cases), or consulting
Hours with students.

(As for the money issue, it is low, but I realize one can not compare apples
With pears (different currencies). If a lecturer gets paid per lecturing hour, working flexitime, many hours
Would be their own choice. That would make it different however.)

Thanks Eska!
Interresting you mention on how things changed the past 10 years.
I guess that's part of the problem.
12 plus years ago I used to teach flexitime at a private College in South
Africa and received about R120 per month. (Those days they only had flexi lecturers)
I was long in the corporate world since and came back to academics now,
And finds that if I convert my lecturers salaries which is fixed to
A rate per hour lecturing it comes down to between R37 to R49 per hour.
Its like in 12 years, with inflation of about 5-10% per year, the rate per hour,
Instead of going up, have more than halved.
And where way back I was only expected to prepare for lectures and to lecture,
These ones reporting to me are loaded with many other responsibilities as well.

I suppose that is why in my mind it all looks so very very distorted.