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 booking and use of all teaching and learning spaces (and all modes of delivery).

2.2 This policy does not apply to:

additional and/or specialist teaching and learning equipment (contact Audio Visual Services or the Property Unit as appropriate)
hiring of UTS facilities, including for short forms of learning (refer Facilities Hire Policy)
general room bookings for internal use (refer Room Bookings (Staff Connect)), and
the allocation and management of space at UTS (refer Space Management Policy).

3. Principles

3.1 The UTS timetable is a critical source of information for students. It maximises use of the university’s physical, online and staff resources and ensures a distinctive student experience in support of the UTS 2027 strategy.

3.2 The timetable prioritises teaching and learning activities and award course progression requirements.

3.3 The timetable is approved taking into consideration the:

needs of staff, including but not limited to teaching, research and administration commitments
space allocation principles and requirements as outlined in the Space Management Policy
Tertiary Education Facilities Management Association (TEFMA) guidelines and recommendations.

4. Policy statements

Teaching and learning spaces

4.1 All teaching and learning spaces must be centrally scheduled and allocated. The Student Administration timetabling team in the Lifetime Learner Experience Unit (LLEU) manages all teaching and learning spaces in the university’s timetabling system.

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

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

4.4 Some teaching and 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 The timetable must be developed by LLEU in consultation with the faculties, the Information and Technology Unit (ITU) and the Property Unit as appropriate and in accordance with the Timetabling Procedure (available to staff on request).

4.6 The timetable must be developed as follows:

The requirements outlined in the statement of principles for setting the learning calendar (available at Academic Board: Documents) must be adhered to.
Core subjects in a standard course as recorded in the Curriculum Management System (CMS) and published in the UTS Handbook must 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 must be minimised where possible.
Activities must be scheduled on all weekdays and, where requested by the faculty, on weekends.
The normal teaching session hours are 8am to 9pm, Monday to Friday.
All teaching activities (including online activities) must 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 In preparing the information for the timetable, faculties must:

provide LLEU with the required information in a timely manner in accordance with the timetable production schedule (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 teaching and learning space requirements and availability.

Timetable production schedule

4.9 LLEU publishes the production schedule on an annual basis. The production schedule must:

align with related university calendars and handbook review and publication cycles, and
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

4.10 Changes to the timetable after publication must be kept to a minimum 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).

4.11 Changes to the timetable are approved by the faculty dean and submitted to LLEU by the faculty timetable planner.

4.12 Timetable changes should consider the impact on students. Impacts to students must be minimised and communicated appropriately.

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

4.14 Use of teaching and learning spaces will be reviewed against the benchmarks set by the TEFMA Space Planning Guidelines (login required). Reporting and advice will be provided to the Property Unit to ensure effective space utilisation.

Policy exceptions and breaches

4.15 Requests for an exception to this policy 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.

4.16 Attempts to seek exceptions, favours or preferential treatment in determining or prioritising use is considered a conflict of interest and a breach of this policy.

4.17 Breaches of this policy must be reported to the Director, Student Administration and will be managed in line with the Code of Conduct, the Conflicts of Interest Disclosure Policy, the Space Management Policy and the Enterprise agreements 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 (including submission dates).

5.2 Policy contact: The Deputy Director, Student Administration is responsible for the implementation of this policy and acts as the primary point of contact for advice on fulfilling its provisions.

The Deputy Director, Student Administration is also responsible for the approval of procedures, technology or systems required to manage timetabling in consultation with ITU and the policy owner.

5.3 Implementation and governance roles:

The Property Unit manages space at UTS and notifies LLEU and faculty timetable planners of space availability changes (refer Space Management Policy).

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.

Curriculum Management System (CMS) is defined in the Course Approval Policy.

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 and learning space means the physical areas used by UTS for teaching and learning activities.

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.

Utilisation is defined in the Space Management Policy.

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	Deputy Director, Student Administration
Approval authority	Vice-Chancellor
Review date	2027
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).
2.0	Vice-Chancellor	25/11/2024	28/11/2024	Changes as part of a scheduled review and to align with the new Space Management Policy.
2.0	Director, Governance Support Unit (Delegation 3.14.1)	21/11/2024	28/11/2024	Changes to refer to new Course Approval Policy and Course Approval and Publication Procedure and associated Curriculum Management System (CMS) references.