Time Allocation Survey (TAS)

TRAC (Transparent Approach to Costing) and TAS (Time Allocation Survey)

What is TRAC?

TRAC is an activity-based costing system that was introduced to the UK higher education sector in 1999 as a government accountability requirement and to support institutional management through better understanding of costs within individual institutions.

Through compliance with the requirement of TRAC the sector received substantial financial benefits through increased funding, particularly in support of research sustainability.

TRAC allocates all of St George’s expenditure to specific activities using cost drivers (including staff numbers, space etc.) to come up with the full sustainable cost of delivering these activities.

What activities does TRAC allocate costs to?

• Teaching – analysed between publicly funded and non-publicly funded activity;
• Research – analysed between the main sponsor types  (Research Councils, other UK government departments, EU government bodies, UK charities, industry and other EU and overseas bodies);
• Other – analysed between the other primary income-generating activities (e.g., residences, conferences etc.) and non-commercial activities (e.g., gains and losses);
• Support activities – which are costed separately but then attributed as appropriate to Teaching, Research or Other.

Income

Income is also analysed so that the gap between the full costs of activities and the income attributed can be determined for each main institutional activity.

Reporting

Institutional level data is reported annually to the Office for Students and Funding Councils, along with calculated charge-out rates for the research-related elements of indirect costs, estates costs, facilities and equipment, and technicians. These rates are used by institutions in forecasting the full costs of research projects and informing pricing.

What is TRAC used for?

TRAC has been used in the following ways:

• Research Council funding of projects;
• Informing teaching funding models;
• An HMRC accepted method for VAT partial recovery;

It can also be used for resource allocation models, course costing, supporting other internal processes and assessing financial sustainability.

TRAC Principles

• The costing should be transparent and materially robust;
• The process should minimise the scope for the manipulation and bias of the costings;
• The process should provide a consistent and fair basis for institutions to cost activities;
• The process should provide comparability in costings and facilitate collaborative research projects;
• The process should be auditable and promote accountability;
• The output data should provide utility to the institution.

What is the TAS (Time Allocation Survey)?

TRAC requires St George’s to survey all academic and research staff so their costs can be attributed to one of the core TRAC activities (Teaching, Research and Other) three times a year, every year. The data collection needs to be robust.

Why should I complete the TAS?

• TRAC is mandatory and therefore the TAS collection is also mandatory.
• The research charge-out rates (overhead rates) that St George’s use are derived from TRAC, therefore the more accurate and robust data that goes into TRAC from TAS, will mean that charge-out rates are correct and fair. St George’s currently has low charge-out rates compared to similar universities with medical schools.
• TAS should only take a couple of minutes to complete. Please be as accurate as you can but there is no need to spend lots of time working out how to allocate your time, a ball-park figure is acceptable.

All academic staff, and research staff who contribute to teaching need to complete a TAS three times a year. If you are a fully grant-funded researcher who does not contribute to teaching or any other activity you do not need to complete a TAS.

How do I complete the TAS?

Your TAS form must add up to 100% regardless of the number of hours you work for St George’s.

Firstly, consider how much of your time is spent split between Teaching, Research and Other.  Even if you only work one day a week for St George’s and you spend half of your time on Teaching and the other half on Other, you allocate 50% to Teaching and 50% to Other.

Then look at the teaching categories and decide how you split your Teaching time between them. Do the same for your time spent on Research and spent on Other. Further detail on the TAS categories are below and on the TAS form.

When do I need to complete TAS?

You will be contacted each time you need to complete a TAS.

The TAS needs to be completed three times a year – so you will be contacted:

• Each December to complete the August to November TAS
• Each April to complete the December to March TAS
• Each August to complete the April to July TAS

You will usually have between four and six weeks to return the TAS to Cerys Ledger Deputy Director of Finance.

How do I access the TAS form?

The TAS form can be found here (link)

Alternatively, when you are asked to complete the TAS you will be sent the form at the same time.

Guidance to TAS Categories

Teaching

Teaching includes all activities that provide or support the teaching of undergraduate and post-graduate taught students, including those studying through an apprenticeship route. This includes the following activities:

• Holding lectures, seminars, and tutorials;
• Project, workshop, and laboratory supervision;
• Preparing materials for lectures, tutorials, and laboratory classes;
• Preparing materials for an agreed new course; Editing and updating course materials;
• Organising and visiting placements, fieldwork;
• Supervision / contact time relating to projects and dissertations, and their assessment;
• Other student contact time relating to educational matters, including remedial classes;
• Preparing and marking examination papers, including resits;
• Oral examinations / viva;
• Reading and assessing student dissertations, reading, and marking essays and other student work;
• Invigilation of examinations including external examining (both at own and other institutions);
• Mentee meetings;
• Outreach where teaching is the underlying activity.

Teaching is then categorised into publicly funded teaching (UK award/credit bearing courses) and non-publicly funded teaching (short courses and non-credit/award bearing courses run in the UK for overseas students or run overseas).

Your teaching diary will be helpful when completing this part of the TAS.

Research

Research includes all the activities that support research, including the support and supervision of post-graduate research students. This includes the following activities:

• Research – refer to definitions in the Frascati Manual;
• Fieldwork, laboratory, studio, desk/library work;
• Management of projects, informal discussions, progress reports etc.;
• Recruitment and supervision of research staff;
• Attendance at conferences, seminars and society meetings that are directly connected with specific research projects;
• Production of research reports, papers, books;
• Training and supervision of PGR students including training in research methodology, review of drafts and preparation of thesis, and external examining;
• Collaboration with other academic departments or institutions in any of the above;
• Outreach where research is the underlying activity (i.e., research carried out through a Teaching Company Scheme or Knowledge Transfer Partnership).

Research is then categorised into research sponsor types.

Other

Other relates to activities that are not teaching or research and include the following:

• Consultancy that is contracted to the institution and carried out during institution time, including advisory work, journal editing and feasibility studies;
• Other services rendered, including routine testing and non-research clinical trials (i.e., activities not covered under the definition of Research in the Frascati Manual);
• Work carried out through trading/commercial companies that is not teaching or research;
• Technology transfer work if remunerated through the institution (e.g., directorships of start-up companies and/or consultancy contracts for the companies);
• Outreach (where the outreach activity is not teaching or research);
• Clinical Services provided to the NHS.

Where do I go for further information?

Please contact Cerys Ledger Deputy Director of Finance for further information.

The OFS publish full TRAC guidance each year here TRAC