Interim: Faculty and Instructional Academic Staff Teaching Responsibilities and Workload

 

Original Issuance Date: January 23, 2026
Expiration Date: January 1, 2027

1. Interim Policy Purpose

On July 3, 2025, the Wisconsin State Legislature approved 2025 Wisconsin Act 15, which in Section 137 created Wis. Stat. § 36.115(10). In response to this new statute, the Board of Regents revised Regent Policy Document 20-25, Teaching Workload Policy, which requires UW institutions to develop instructional employee teaching workload policies to address the statutory minimum teaching requirements as well as adjustments to and buyouts from those requirements.

The purpose of this interim policy action is to fulfill the requirements of Regent Policy Document (RPD) 20-25, Teaching Workload Policy and Wis. Stat. §§ 36.115(8) and (10), 36.65(2)(dm) and (dn), and 36.65(6)(b) and (c). This interim policy action also provides minimum standards for required University of Wisconsin System institution (UW institution) policies.

This interim policy action necessarily reflects the full variety and complexity of academic instruction in contemporary higher education delivered by UW faculty and instructional academic staff (IAS) across 13 UW institutions, with unique missions and local communities, which all contribute to the University of Wisconsin System’s mission.

2. Related Policies

This is a new interim system administrative policy designed to support the requirements of Regent Policy Document 20-25, Teaching Workload Policy.

3. Scope

This interim policy actions applies to all UW faculty and IAS.

Consistent with this policy, institutions shall develop policies and may develop procedures and additional guidance to operationalize this policy.

4. Definitions

The definitions below are specific to the purpose of this interim policy action and may differ from their use in other contexts.

Academic department: An academic department or its functional equivalent designated by a UW institution which could include but is not limited to schools, colleges, divisions, department-like bodies, centers, clinics, institutes, programs, or other academic units that have been formally recognized by a UW institution through its established processes for such recognition.

Adjunct instructional employees: Part-time instructional employees who are employed on a per-course basis.

Administrative duties: Responsibilities designated by a UW institution involving the operation and strategic development of an institution and do not include chairperson duties.

Buyout: A reduction in the number of credit hours an instructional employee is required to teach under this policy pursuant to a buyout plan as further described in this policy.

Chairperson: An instructional employee designated by a UW institution to be the chairperson or its functional equivalent of an academic department and who acts as the executive of the department, including the areas of personnel, budget, and operations in accordance with the UW institution’s established policies.

Chancellor: The chief executive of a UW institution.

Clinical appointment: The appointment of an instructional employee by a UW institution to a position focused on practical instruction and application of knowledge in a health sciences field, involving direct interaction with students, residents, and/or fellows in a clinical or other external setting, which includes university programs, clinics and practicums. A health sciences field includes disciplines related to human health, disease, and healthcare and includes, but is not limited to natural sciences, psychology, social work, nutrition, physical therapy, medicine, and public health.

Credit hour: A period of not less than 50 consecutive minutes per week of instructional time for each week of the semester or session that the course is offered, excluding the week of or the week immediately preceding final examinations. Credit hour may include an equivalent amount of other academic work leading to the award of credit hours and may be used interchangeably with “contact hour” for reporting purposes.

Faculty: Persons who hold the rank of professor, associate professor, assistant professor or instructor in an academic department in a UW institution and such academic staff as may be designated by the chancellor and faculty of the UW institution but does not include adjunct instructional employees, visiting faculty, or librarians with faculty appointments. Chancellors, provosts, or deans are not included.

Full time: An appointment for an instructional employee that is a 100-percent appointment (1.0 FTE).

Instructional academic staff (IAS): Academic staff members with teaching responsibilities, within TTC job family “Teaching and Learning” job subfamily “Teaching and Instruction of For-Credit Courses,” which includes but is not limited to Lecturer, Teaching Professor (all levels), and Teaching Faculty (all levels), but does not include adjunct or visiting instructional academic staff or instructional academic staff who are librarians.

Instructional employee: Faculty or instructional academic staff.

Instructional time: Classroom time or instruction of students.

Nine-month employee: A person employed on an academic year basis tied to the academic-year calendar and who is in a Fair Labor Standards Act exempt job title.

Summer session: The period of instructional activity between the end of spring semester and start of the fall semester.

Teaching responsibilities: Responsibilities of instructional employees as designated by a UW institution that involve academic instruction.

Teaching workload: The amount of time instructional employees spend on teaching responsibilities.

Twelve-month employee: A person employed on an annual basis tied to the fiscal year and who is in an FLSA exempt job title.

UW System institution (UW institution): Any university or an organizational equivalent designated by the Board of Regents.

5. Interim Policy Statement

In compliance with RPD 20-25 and Wis. Stat. § 36.115(8) and (10), 36.65(2)(dm) and (dn), and 36.65(6)(b) and (c), each UW System institution shall, pursuant to this interim policy action:

• Monitor and report to UW System Administration instructional employee teaching workloads.
• Fulfill requirements for instructional employees to report the number of hours spent teaching to UW System Administration.
• Revise personnel systems and employment relations policies and practices.

A. Workload Flexibility and Additional Teaching Assignments

The mission of the academic department will determine the relative balance of effort in teaching, research, scholarly and creative activity, and service for each instructional employee. This policy recognizes that there is a range of variability in the missions of academic departments within a UW institution, and as a result, there will be differences among academic departments, as well as among instructional employees, in the relative amounts of effort spent on different duties. To determine the appropriate teaching workload, academic departments should use the following factors:

• The instructional employee’s annual review process,
• The course assignment process,
• The instructional employee’s assigned duties,
• Other considerations such as research, scholarly and creative activity, service, and other relevant responsibilities as defined by institutional policy.

The teaching workload minimums in this policy do not preclude additional teaching assignments. Any academic department may adopt or assign a greater teaching workload minimum for the entire academic department, by instructional employee type and/or on an individual basis.

B. Teaching Workload Minimums

I. General Requirements

Teaching workload minimums are delineated according to the UW institution’s research activity designation as determined by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education framework. Minimum teaching workloads for full-time instructional employees are:

• Research (R1) Universities: 12 credit hours per academic year; three (3) additional credits for 12-month employees.
• The Polytechnic and Comprehensive Universities: 24 credit hours per academic year; six (6) additional credits for 12-month employees.
• Part-Time Appointments: Teaching workload proportional to appointment FTE.
• Course Minimum: Each instructional employee must teach at least one (1) course per semester. Instructional employees with a twelve-month contract must also teach at least one (1) course during the summer session.

Academic department chairs’ teaching responsibilities may be reduced commensurate with their duties as chairperson. Assistant or associate deans are included only in proportion to any active faculty appointment.

II. Clinical Appointments

Instructional employees with clinical appointments may meet their requirements under Wis. Stat. § 36.115(10), through alternative measures and instructional activities that contribute to the advancement of the students, residents, and fellows under their purview. Instructional expectations shall be documented in the employee’s job descriptions or employment agreement consistent with this policy, and performance related to these expectations will be assessed annually.

III. Extension Appointments

Extension instructional employees may meet their requirements under Wis. Stat. § 36.115(10), through alternative measures and instructional activities. Extension instructional employees shall have clearly articulated performance and curricular goals within their job description or employment agreement consistent with funding requirements and internal university and external partner priorities.

IV. Supplemental Instructional Work at R1 Institutions

Instructional employees also provide educational opportunities outside of traditional group classroom settings.

R1 institutions may develop instructional equivalency policies that permit instructional employees to meet a portion of their required credits under Wis. Stat. § 36.115(10), through activities other than group classroom instruction, office hours, and grading, so long as those activities involve regular and substantive interaction with students in an educational setting. Each R1 institution should have a clear policy on permitted instructional equivalencies, and the extent to which instructional employees in each department may meet part of their obligation through such equivalencies.

R1 Instructional employees, excluding instructional employees with clinical or extension appointments, whose teaching workload includes instructional equivalencies under this section must teach at least three (3) credits in a group instructional setting (online or face-to-face).

V. Credit Hour Equivalencies for the Polytechnic and Comprehensive Institutions

The Polytechnic and Comprehensive institutions may develop policies that permit instructional employees to meet their required teaching responsibilities under Wis. Stat. § 36.115(10) for academic work leading to the award of credit hours.

VI. Adjustments to Teaching Workload Minimums

Instructional employees’ teaching responsibilities may be adjusted as follows:

1. 1. Administrative duties. UW institutions may designate up to 10 percent of their instructional employees for administrative duties.
      1. Employees with a concurrent (backup) instructional position in active non-instructional appointments are not counted in this total.
      2. Employees with a part-time non-instructional appointment are only counted in this total to the extent they are granted a release from their part-time instructional role in addition to their non-instructional appointment.
   2. Sabbatical and other leave. Instructional employees on sabbatical, federal and/or Wisconsin Family and Medical Leave Act leave, family leave, a leave of absence or other approved leave that changes their teaching assignment(s) are not required to meet the teaching hour requirement in this policy. Short-term leave, such as sick leave or brief absences that do not change teaching assignments, do not change teaching hour requirements.
   3. Additional adjustments. UW institutions may designate up to 10 percent of their instructional employees for other duties and considerations, including but not limited to market considerations, faculty readaptation or post-tenure review remediation, and accreditation requirements.
      1. Market considerations include adjustments approved by the chancellor or designee based on demonstrated market conditions that necessitate a reduction in minimum teaching workload requirements to recruit or retain faculty in high-demand fields.
      2. Instructional employee development, which includes:
         1. Faculty readaptation in the case of layoff under Wis. Stat. § 36.22(12) and assignment to or training for another position or as an alternative to layoff to move to new academic departments and/or disciplinary areas based on organizational changes and/or a UW institution’s needs.
         2. Post-tenure review remediation based on a post-tenure review remediation plan under RPD 20-9, Periodic Post-Tenure Review in Support of Tenured Faculty Development (section 12(c)).
         3. Implementation of best practices in teaching, learning, and development of disciplinary expertise.
         4. Development and improvement of select courses.
         5. New and early career instructional employees’ assignments, which may include but are not limited to develop or teach new courses, to begin or establish a research program, to establish extension programs or other factors to become established in their roles.
      3. Accreditation requirements include adjustments to teaching loads consistent with any accreditor’s course size or other relevant requirements.
   4. Part-time instructional employees. A part-time instructional employee who meets their academic year teaching hour requirement in a single semester does not have to teach at least one course each semester.

2. VII. Buyout from Required Teaching Hours

3. Each UW institution shall include provisions in its teaching workload policy/policies for the buyout from any required teaching hour based on factors appropriate to each UW institution, subject to the minimum standards below. Buyout criteria may differ based on different instructional types and ranks, as well as appointment levels. GPR and tuition funds may not be used to fund buyouts except for the following circumstances:

1. 1. Freshwater Collaborative
   2. Dairy Innovation Hub
   3. Other programs categorically funded in Chapter 20, Wis. Stats.

1. Buyout policies must contain at least the following components:

1. 1. A requirement to document the funding sources used.
   2. Clearly defined approval processes for buyouts, including a requirement that buyouts be approved at least annually.
   3. The buyout amount must equal the proportional cost of the approved course release using the instructional employee’s base salary and fringe benefit rate.

C. Institutional Teaching Workload Policies

Each UW institution shall develop policies containing the teaching workload minimums in section 5.B.I and buyout provisions in section 5.B.VII. and the criteria for adjustments to teaching loads. Teaching workload policies should also reflect that teaching is one component of faculty and certain instructional academic staff duties, which, beyond instruction, may include research, scholarly and creative activity, and service. They may also include administrative duties as outlined in section 5.B.VI.

Accordingly, teaching workload policies must address the factors identified in Appendix A. Academic units may also develop policies consistent with these requirements to address the unique needs of different academic units, subject to institutional teaching workload policies.

D. Reporting

Annually, each institution shall file a report of:

• The total credit hours taught by faculty and instructional academic staff per Wis. Stat. §§ 36.115(8) and (10)(g), grouped according to the following factors:
  • Classification as faculty or instructional academic staff.
  • Whether the employee has a full-time appointment and, if not, the extent of the part-time appointment.
  • Each funding source and the amount of funding from each source.
  • The percentage of instructional employees meeting the full teaching workload requirements under this policy
• All instructional employees with approved buyouts including fund source, amounts and course release per Wis. Stat. § 36.115(10)(f)(3) and Wis. Stat. § 36.115(10)(g).
• For each R1 institution, a report of all instructional employees with supplemental instructional work equivalency being used to meet their teaching workload requirement. The report shall be submitted on a timeline consistent with reporting requirements under Wis. Stat. § 36.115(10)(g).

Guidelines for reporting and Human Resources practices, including appointments, to assist with reporting are provided in Appendix B.

6. Supplemental Documents

Wis. Stat. § 36.115 (8) and (10)
Wis. Stat. § 36.65(2)(dm) and (dn)
Wis. Stat. § 36.65(6)(b) and (c)
Regent Policy Document 20-9, Periodic Post-Tenure Review in Support of Tenured Faculty Development
Regent Policy Document 20-25, Teaching Workload Policy
UW System Administrative Policy 1254, Performance Management
SYS 200-03 Appendix A- Institutional Policy Requirements
SYS 200-03 Appendix B- Guidelines for Teaching Workload Reporting and Human Resources Practices