TRAC (Transparent Approach to Costing)
Another year, another round of TRAC survey. A number of you have raised concerns over lack of anonymity in this process. LUCU will communicate these to management.
Apart from that, there are other issues when it comes to the standardised way of reporting academic work in the UK, i.e. TRAC and WAMs (Workload Allocation Models). Most academic staff members in full-time positions work over 1650 hours a year. This artificial system imposed on us forces us to misrepresent how long tasks actually take. And since the TRAC system is used to justify budgets and investments, the underreporting of our actual work generates under-resourcing, precipitates casualisation, and results in misleading performance assessments. We urge the University to acknowledge in its communication to staff about the TRAC survey:
1. the invalidity of assuming a working year of 1650 hours,
2. that workload at present is having a large, negative effect on the mental and physical health of many members of the University,
3. that TRAC is the system that is used widely in the UK, and 1650 hours reflects the number of hours worked assuming 37.5 hours/week and 44 weeks/year,
4 that this number is fictional, but it allows comparison across institutions and enables cost attribution for government and funders,
5. that an anonymised system for LU will be implemented before TRAC 2026,
6. an assurance our answers will never be used, either individually or in aggregate, to justify unwillingness on the part of senior management to engage in meaningful discussions in order to reduce workloads.
We are not able to offer specific advice regarding whether or not to say yes on the survey, and each member should respond, or not, according to their own conscience, but we shall take up the matter with the University, to ask that while the University continues to use the 1650 hours for external cost returns, it negotiates with UCU a parallel realistic working model for internal use. This should include enabling the creation of a safe space for members to report workload concerns without fear of reprisal.
If you think that you are being targeted or harassed in any way for choosing to either not respond or to respond negatively to the survey, then please let us know at ucu@lancaster.ac.uk and we will follow up with University senior management/PoE.
Lancaster UCU 