FAQ
This page will help to answer any commonly asked questions, such as how to allocate time spent on leave or travel time.
Commonly asked questions
If you can't find your answer, please email us directly at tasadministration@admin.cam.ac.uk
Your reporting week is the full 7 days including the weekend.
Include all time spent on University or College activities including evening and weekend work. Please note there is provision to identify College time separately, and to record time spent on College-funded Research as as Research Funded by Other sponsor.
Exclude any private work.
There is no assumed total number of working hours per week.
The objective of the TAS exercise is to collect information on how individuals spend their time to calculate the percentage of time spent on teaching, research, and other activities.
If you have more than one role or you work across departments, but only one current employment contract, then include all of your University working hours.
If you have more than one role and more than one current employment contract, please contact us by email TAS.Administration@admin.cam.ac.uk before you complete the TAS survey form to clarify which of your roles has been selected.
Every week, however atypical, is part of the University's activities and we'd like to know about it (even if it was a week of inactivity on leave!).
The TAS system randomly assigns the survey reporting week to each academic and it would not be appropriate to change it.
The process used, sampling across the year, means that when the data for all weeks are aggregated it will produce average percentages in order to get the overall activity pattern for each department.
Please record your type of leave on the survey form. This helps us to identify non-respondents by omitting individuals who were on leave during the reporting week.
The amount of time on leave is not recorded. Once the form is submitted percentages are calculated from the time spent working.
For reporting weeks before the 4th August 2025, please tick the relevant leave option at the top of the form, then continue to enter any hours worked during that week.
For reporting weeks on or after the 4th August 2025, please tick the relevant leave option when asked, then continue to enter any hours worked during that week. If you do not have any working hours please confirm that when asked.
If you were on paid Sabbatical leave you can choose to treat it as either 'time on leave' that doesn't need to be recorded or as 'working hours' and record the research time.
Exclude time spent travelling to and from your usual place of work.
Include time spent travelling on University work, allocate the time according to the purpose of the trip (e.g. to/from lectures or committees). If a sponsor is funding the time, it should be allocated to Teaching, Research or Other activities as appropriate. Time spent working while travelling should be allocated to that activity. If neither of these apply, allocate the time to Support.
Divide your time equally (50-50) between the relevant activity categories.
Allocate your time pro-rata to the relevant external sponsor Research categories.
To count as University-funded, research must be wholly funded by the University. Research that is even partly externally funded needs to be allocated completely to externally funded research.
If the work is primarily for lectures, record it under University duties as Direct Contact or Preparation/Assessment.
If it is primarily for College-paid teaching, record it under College duties.
If it serves both equally, split your time equally (50:50) between University and College duties.
Scholarship is time spent updating or maintaining your existing knowledge or skills. The knowledge base already exists elsewhere. Therefore scholarship is different from research, in particular from University-funded research.
However, if the advancement of knowledge can be specifically related to an activity, like a research project, then it can be allocated as a Research activity category.
Public engagement work should be recorded under Support for Teaching or Research according to the main purpose of the activity. For example, if it mainly relates to widening participation, it should go under Support for Teaching. If it’s part of a research project, then it should be recorded under the relevant Research sponsor as a directly funded activity. If it does not relate to a specific sponsor then this can be recorded under Support for Research.
If the public engagement is “service to society” and not related to Teaching or Research it should be recorded in Other activities as Service to Society and Public Engagements.
Time spent preparing and giving a research paper, or in sessions directly relevant to your own research, should be allocated as a main research activity.
Time spent in other sessions at a conference should be allocated to Support for Research.
If the original purpose of the work was research, it is University-funded research.
If it was commissioned by a private sponsor and is research (e.g. was returned under the REF), it should be allocated to the appropriate sponsor-funder type of research.
If the main purpose of the clinical work is treatment allocate your time in Other Activities to "Consultancy/Other Services Rendered".
If the main purpose of the clinical work is teaching allocate your time in Teaching.
If you are on a 100% research fellowship you do not need to complete TAS. Please let us know if that is the case so that we can exclude you, using tasadministration@admin.cam.ac.uk
If you are doing a part-time fellowship, please record your FTE (full-time equivalent) percentage for University work and only record the time you have spent working for the University during your reporting week in the survey.