A Conversation with Martin Bean

The Open University's vice chancellor designate, Martin Bean, doesn't take up his new appointment until October this year but he's reportedly in the UK in August with a busy familiarisation schedule. No doubt Martin will be intent on finding out more of what happens at Walton Hall, the Open University's Buckinghamshire headquarters. I'm sure he is already well versed in the structure of this very unique university and its diverse workforce. He may well have some misconceptions to overcome at first though. Here's how an interview with Martin might go after one of his visits.

So Martin, how are you finding Walton Hall?

Great thanks. There's a terrific buzz here with all these lofty academics everywhere. One thing's puzzling me though.

What's that Martin?

Well I understand there are some 8000 associate lecturers working for the OU but I can't seem to find out where they are. Do you know where the AL wing is?

Oh that's an easy one to answer, Martin. There isn't one. They all work at home!

That explains it then. Lucky them! Perhaps I'd better arrange some tele-conferencing sessions to talk to some of them then. Do you know what sort of equipment the OU buys for them?

Actually the OU doesn't supply them with any equipment Martin. They have to buy their own.

But surely we insist they spend their ICT allowance on standardised equipment and arrange preferred suppliers, that sort of thing?

Actually Martin, the ICT allowance doesn't cover much more than a few ink cartridges and the odd ream of paper let alone a new PC every few years.

You'll be telling me they have to pay tax on the allowance next!

Well actually Martin, yes they do. It's been amalgamated into the pay-rates.

But these are quite generous aren't they? I understood an AL working full time could earn over £31,000? That's not bad if they can swan off to the golf club whenever they choose.

But they don't actually earn anything like that Martin. For a start, they're only allowed to work on the equivalent of 6 30 point courses even if they don't work anywhere else as well, though of course they may not tutor that many.

So if they work on 6 30 point courses we consider them full time and pay them £31,000?

No Martin, it doesn't quite work like that. For example, we say they can do the job for a typical second level course in about 3 hours a week, which works out at 5.75% of their time annually for each course - that's 34% if they tutored 6 courses.

I'm starting to think I'd like to be an AL here! You mean we pay them over £31,000 and they only work for 34% of their time?

No Martin, those hours don't bear any relation to the hours it would actually take to do the job. We've never calculated that - these were just guesses we put together last time they complained. It made it look as if we'd put some thought into the negotiations.

So how long would it take to do the marking ALs do? I heard assignments were supposed to take about 45 minutes to mark . That can't add up to much. Besides they all have detailed mark schemes don't they, so there's no real thought involved is there?

I don't know where you got that idea from Martin. Assignments can take hours to mark. Each one has to have loads of personalised feedback as well as a mark. You'd have to know the course inside out to do it. It's a really difficult job.

But apart from that, ALs only have to run a few tutorials, and we supply all the materials they need for that don't we?

Well no actually. Most of them write all their own tutorial materials.

But that's their choice surely?

No Martin, they have to write them because we don't supply any for many courses.

But they're paid for that!

Well yes and no Martin. I suppose the 3 hours a week we say they need to work might cover some tutorial preparation, but it doesn't cover the time they need to read the course units.

Why are we employing these people if they need to read the course units? Surely they're supposed to be experts?

They are Martin. They can read the units in a fraction of the time it would take a student, but they still need to read them to find out what a student is supposed to know. They can't help them otherwise.

But we pay them a fee to read the materials thoroughly when we first start a new course don't we?

No Martin. I think we used to, but we don't any more.

Well can't they do all this reading between course presentations? After all we pay them for 52 weeks a year don't we?

We certainly assume they work 52 weeks a year when we calculate their pay fractions. That's a bit embarrassing actually. Everyone else in the university gets 30 to 33 days holiday, 3 university closure days and bank holidays. AL pay assumes no holidays and no compensation for unsociable hours working either.

But they get a generous amount of time off for scholarship don't they? I see we have an excellent fee waiver scheme as well as regional staff development days.

We don't charge them for any of this Martin, but it happens in their own time. That's another embarrassing point. Even our regional academics can have 2 months paid study leave in each 2 years worked. That's half what a central academic would get, but in line with the 10% offered by other universities for such staff. Our ALs get none. We don't even pay them to attend any conferences or meetings we want them to be at.

So you're saying the job can't be done in the time we've stated then. Have you any idea what factor we're understating it by?

I 'd estimate about 2.3 Martin, but it could be higher.

You mean if we upped the 3 hours by 2.3% it'd be about right? Phew, that's not much. I thought you were talking about a much larger figure for a moment!

I was Martin. I meant you'd have to multiply the figure by about 2.3 to get a more realistic workload estimate.

You mean we'd have to pay them over £71,000 p.a.?

No Martin, they'd still only be earning about £27,000 if they taught 6 of those 30 point courses.

You mean they're not even earning that now?

No Martin. They'd get paid about £12,000 for that using the calculations we use right now.

That's scandalous. Why don't they all resign?

I think they would Martin, but in this climate…….


[Note that the conversation above is entirely fictitious]