Academic Workloads: Insights from Medical and Non-medical Lecturers’ Experience in Universiti Sains Malaysia

Academic workload is crucial for effective educational management, but measuring it is challenging due to varying field-specific demands. This study explored the components of academic workload among medical and non-medical lecturers at a Malaysian public university through a phenomenological approach. Focus group discussions (FGDs) with full-time, permanent lecturers were used to gather insights. The FGDs were moderated, audio-recorded, and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was conducted using ATLAS.ti version 7, following six steps: reading transcripts, labelling meaningful texts into codes, identifying important codes, compiling related codes into categories, labelling categories, and presenting results. Each transcript was coded by two researchers, with final themes discussed for consensus. Twenty-three lecturers from diverse fields (arts, humanities, health sciences, medicine, engineering, pure sciences, and social sciences) participated. Ten categories of academic workload were identified: teaching, research, administration, supervision, quality assurance, external activities, service, assessment, income generation, and continuous education. These were grouped into four themes: educational load (teaching, supervision, and assessment), scholarly activity load (research and external activities), academic quality load (quality assurance and continuous education), and institutional load (administration, income generation, and service). The study highlighted that academic workloads are intricately linked to the multifaceted roles of academics as educators, scholars, leaders, managers, and professionals.