Program Costing

Am the recipient of the ‘Program Costing Teaching Template and checklist’ spreadsheet from a senior analyst in the financial services part of the university. One of those parts of the university as a very very large institution that I, as a teaching and research academic often don’t need to trouble myself knowing about. Except at times when you are trying for a new program, where some pretty simple questions about cost, income and viability become rather important. (And as I work on this I am easily reminded of why I’m on my particular side of the academic fence, ie, the academic side.)

The information is pretty straightforward, but as with much of the process to date, these spreadsheets actually require you to make very enormous decisions about the program pedagogically, yet there is nothing concrete in the process to date that actually requires any consideration of pedagogy and so on. So, in this spreadsheet I need to list subjects, student numbers, and how long the lecture will go for and how big classes will be. These are really big questions. Should our methods subject, which aims to have forty students, be taught as two, twenty student groups, or one really big group? Why? – Quite apart from the economics of each. Or how will supervision be costed? Is is individual or group? What load allocation should I get if I supervise an honours student? Why?

So, at today’s working group meeting this is something that will need to be discussed so that I can complete the spreadsheet. Because, as usual, it is urgent.