Timetabling Policy

1. Purpose

1.1 The Timetabling Policy (the policy) outlines the requirements for:

planning and scheduling teaching and learning activities, and
approving, producing and managing the official UTS timetable.

2. Scope

2.1 This policy applies to:

all staff and affiliates (hereafter staff) involved in administering, planning, scheduling and approving teaching and learning activities across the university
the use and timetabling of all learning spaces, including their use for non-teaching activities, and all modes of delivery.

2.2 Requests for additional and/or specialist teaching and learning equipment are out of scope of this policy and should be made to Audio Visual Services or the Property Unit as appropriate.

2.3 Requests for short forms of learning equipment and/or spaces are managed under the Facilities Hire Policy.

3. Principles

3.1 The UTS timetable (the timetable) is a critical source of information for students. It maximises use of the university’s physical, online and staff resources.

3.2 The timetable must be developed and managed to ensure a distinctive student experience in line with the UTS 2027 strategy.

3.3 The timetable must be consistent with Enterprise agreements and take into consideration the needs of staff, including but not limited to teaching, research and administration commitments.

3.4 Timetabling planning and space prioritisation is managed by negotiation with the faculties, the Lifetime Learner Experience Unit (LLEU), the Information and Technology Unit (ITU) and the Property Unit. Attempts to seek exceptions or preferential treatment is considered a breach of this policy.

3.5 The timetable will prioritise teaching and learning activities over non-teaching activities, and award course progression requirements.

3.6 All learning spaces must be centrally scheduled and allocated.

3.7 The timetable must be developed in accordance with the Timetabling Procedure (available to staff on request).

4. Policy statements

Learning spaces

4.1 The Student Administration timetabling team in the LLEU (hereafter LLEU) must enter all learning spaces into the university’s timetabling system.

4.2 The Property Unit will notify LLEU and faculty timetable planners of any changes (availability, addition or removal) to learning spaces in accordance with the current year’s timetable production schedule.

4.3 All learning spaces must be categorised based on their functional capabilities by the Property Unit in consultation with the faculties.

4.4 Some learning spaces may be prioritised for specific faculty teaching requirements. This must be requested by the faculties and approved by the Director, Student Administration in consultation with the Property Unit.

Timetable development and approval

4.5 Teaching hours during the university’s teaching sessions are 8am to 9pm, Monday to Friday.

4.6 Faculties and LLEU will apply the following scheduling considerations to the timetable:

The requirements outlined in the statement of principles for setting the learning calendar (available at Academic Board: Documents) will be adhered to.
Core subjects in a standard course program as published in the UTS Handbook will not clash.
Blended subject activities (a combination of online or face-to-face) can be synchronous (live activities) or asynchronous (recorded activities). This must be clearly articulated to students.
UTS subjects must be delivered in a single teaching period as outlined in Rule 3.7.5, Student Rules.
The need for students to travel across campus will be minimised where possible.
Activities will be scheduled on all weekdays and, where requested by the faculty, on weekends.
All teaching activities (including online activities) will start on the hour and end 10 minutes before the hour, or start on the half-hour and end 10 minutes before the half-hour.

4.7 Faculties and LLEU will collect and prepare the information required for timetable development. Faculties must:

provide LLEU with the required information in a timely manner in accordance with the timetable production schedule, using quality planning processes (late submissions may not be considered)
ensure the currency and accuracy of information provided to minimise changes after the timetable's publication
ensure that adequate staff resources are available to deliver the timetable (in advance where possible)
determine student enrolment (headcount) and student preference impacts on the number of subject activities and delivery mode options to be scheduled.

4.8 Equivalent full-time student load (EFTSL) targets, as endorsed by the Load Planning Committee, and the corresponding headcount projections, must take into consideration learning space requirements and availability.

Timetable production schedule

4.9 The Director, Student Administration determines and approves the timetable production schedule (including submission dates). LLEU publishes the production schedule on an annual basis.

4.10 The production schedule must align with related university calendars, handbook review and publication cycles. It must also comply with dates established by the Higher Education Support Act 2003 (Cwlth) and the Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (Cwlth) for finalising schedules of courses to be offered in a calendar period.

Timetable changes and review

4.11 Changes to the timetable after publication must be kept to a minimum. Changes are approved by the faculty dean and submitted to LLEU by the faculty timetable planner and may only be made for the following reasons:

unexpected staff turnover
unexpected change in enrolment numbers
location becomes a health or safety hazard
to rectify unidentified timetable clashes for core subjects, and/or
to accommodate students with accessibility requirements (where it is reasonable to do so).

4.12 Any other changes are made by exception. Requests must be made by the faculty to the timetabling team for assessment and, where appropriate, the Director, Student Administration may approve or reject the request at their discretion.

4.13 Timetable changes should consider the impact on students and make allowances where possible. Students must be notified of any changes, which may occur automatically or by the faculty as appropriate.

4.14 Timetable production, approval and administration is continually reviewed and updated and is used by UTS as an opportunity for improvement and enhancement of the student experience.

Policy exceptions and breaches

4.15 Exceptions to this policy will be referred to the Director, Student Administration for resolution.

4.16 Breaches of this policy must be reported to the Director, Student Administration and will be managed in line with the Code of Conduct, Enterprise agreements and the Whistleblowing and Public Interest Disclosures Policy as appropriate.

5. Roles and responsibilities

5.1 Policy owner: The Director, Student Administration is responsible for enforcement and compliance of this policy, ensuring that its principles and statements are observed.

The Director, Student Administration is also responsible for the approval and publication of the timetable production schedule.

5.2 Policy contact: The Head of Timetabling, Exams and Graduations is responsible for the implementation of this policy and acts as the primary point of contact for advice on implementing its provisions.

The Head of Timetabling, Exams and Graduations is also responsible for the approval of procedures, technology or systems required to manage timetabling in consultation with IT services and the policy owner.

5.3 Implementation and governance roles:

The Property Unit manages and notifies LLEU and faculty timetable planners of space availability changes.

Deans authorise local timetable changes and ensure appropriate faculty processes and resources are in place to meet the policy requirements.

Faculty timetable planners are responsible for coordinating the planning, collecting, input and checking of teaching and learning activity data in each faculty.

The Student Administration timetabling team in LLEU:

manages production of the UTS timetable
supports faculty timetable planners
develops and provides periodic reporting on timetabling activities to the Director, Student Administration.

The Load Planning Committee is chaired by, and provides advice to, the Provost on student load.

6. Definitions

The following definitions apply for this policy and all associated procedures. These are in addition to the definitions outlined in Schedule 1, Student Rules. Definitions in the singular also include the plural meaning of the word.

Affiliate is defined in the Code of Conduct.

Award course is defined in Schedule 1, Student Rules.

Learning space (also space) means the physical areas used by UTS for teaching and related activities as outlined in this policy.

Non-teaching activity means ad-hoc activities and/or bookings made by staff, students and external organisations that are not part of award course requirements and are not incorporated into the UTS timetable.

Short forms of learning is defined in the Short Forms of Learning Policy.

Teaching and learning activity means all educational activities (both on and off-campus) that a student is required to undertake to complete a course.

Teaching period is defined in Schedule 1, Student Rules.

Timetable production schedule means the sequence of deadlines for the collection, scheduling and checking of teaching and learning activity data.

Timetabling system means the system (Syllabus +) used by UTS to assign spaces to teaching and learning activities. This is approved by the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Students) and managed by the Director, Student Administration.

UTS timetable means the official UTS annual class timetable that has been developed, approved and published in line with this policy.

Approval information

Policy contact	Head of Timetabling, Exams and Graduations
Approval authority	Vice-Chancellor
Review date	2024
File number	UR21/668
Superseded documents	Timetabling Vice-Chancellor Directive (UR13/1004)

Version history

Version	Approved by	Approval date	Effective date	Sections modified
1.0	Vice-Chancellor	17/05/2021	02/06/2021	New policy.
1.1	Vice-Chancellor	28/04/2022	28/04/2022	Changes and updates to reflect portfolio realignment under Fit for 2027 project.
1.2	Deputy Director, Corporate Governance (Delegation 3.14.2)	05/04/2023	19/04/2023	Amendments to reflect new position of Director, Student Administration in the Lifetime Learner Experience Unit.
1.3	Director, Governance Support Unit (Delegation 3.14.1)	08/09/2023	30/09/2023	Changes resulting from the development of the Whistleblowing and Public Interest Disclosures Policy.
1.4	Deputy Director, Corporate Governance (Delegation 3.14.2)	03/06/2024	05/06/2024	Amendment to reflect new title of Pro Vice-Chancellor (Students).