What Parts of Teaching Do Academics See as Feasible to Delegate?

This paper investigates Australian academics' views about teaching by asking them about the aspects of their job they could contract to others. In particular, it contrasts the views of 26 academics in the Humanities with those of 26 in the Social Sciences. The results showed no differences as a function of level of appointment or gender but a significant difference by teaching area: academics from the Social Sciences were more likely to approve in general the practice of 'buying out' time. When asked about contracting out specific aspects of teaching, the only area of difference was for marking (Social Sciences were more often in favour). In all other respects, the viewpoints expressed by academics from the Humanities and Social Sciences were very similar. Such approval was rarely given unconditionally, however. Concerns were expressed about the need to maintain some degree of supervision or responsibility for teaching. Academics agreed on their overall goals in teaching, on whether or not lecturing, tutorials and student consultation could be contracted to others and on the ideal amounts of time to spend on teaching, research, and administration. It is argued that this pattern of results is more likely to reflect a difference in implementation of goals rather than a difference in baseline ideas as a result of different cultures in the two teaching areas.