More about TAS

What is TAS?

TAS is a survey of academic staff that records how each person spends their time working. Working hours are split between different activities that can be summarised as Teaching, Research or Other. The survey is run from within the University by the Business Information and Strategic Insights team within APSO (Academic Planning and Strategic Office).

What is TAS used for?

TAS is used to determine how to split costs between categories for the Transparent Approach to Costing (TRAC) statutory return.

The information recorded in TAS is used to calculate the percentage of time each Department/Faculty spends doing Teaching, Research and Other activities. These percentages are combined with other cost information. Where costs are available from administrative sources and easily allocated between Teaching and Research then they will be used in preference. When a cost covers a mixture of activities the Department/Faculty percentage split from TAS is used to split these costs between Teaching, Research and Other.

The TRAC statutory return is an initiative the University is obligated to produce because it is mandated by the Government. It directly impacts the funding received by the University for our research and teaching. Recording time spent on research directly informs our fEC (Full Economic Costing) rates that are used to cost grants in the University. Significant income in support of your research depends upon getting this right. The recording of teaching time is important as it informs our teaching returns to the Office for Students.  The analysis of teaching costs is increasingly being used by the Office for Students (formerly HEFCE) to inform its funding rates, and its advice to the Government on appropriate fee rates, which has significant financial impact.

Every year we check that the percentages calculated from TAS are a reasonable reflection of the Department/Faculty. The process is called Reasonableness Testing. An essential part of this is the review conducted by Heads of Department.

From 2025 TAS data will also be used help us to split costs to different activities in the Enhanced Financial Transparency (EFT) prototype to understand income and expenditure better. EFT is helping the University move to a new way of budgeting.

Who takes part?

Academic staff whose duties include teaching and research.

Administrative data from the University's central HR system are used to identify staff eligible to take part. For a number of academic years, up to and including 2024-25, staff have been eligible if they were:

  • on a "Teaching", "Research" or "Teaching and Research" academic contract,
  • at grade 9 or above,
  • and funded (partly or wholly) by the University.

Over recent years the population has evolved. The criteria defining the population needed updating to reflect these changes more accurately. For academic year 2025-26, staff are eligible if they are:

  • on a "Teaching and Research" academic contract (all grades and funding).

Staff that would have been included using the earlier criteria, that are no longer included, have their teaching and research costs captured elsewhere.

 

What does taking part involve?

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How TAS data collection has changed for the University of Cambridge

  • Originally conducted every 3 years, then changed to annual data collection.
  • The month of the year start date moved.
  • Changed to an automated data collection process.
  • On 20th March 2020 data collection was suspended for the remainder of the financial year (2019-20) because of the COVID-19 outbreak. During this period of suspension, staff were not required to complete the survey and response rates were not monitored.
  • The main activities haven't changed substantially but have been adjusted over the years.
  • From August 2025 switched to a new survey platform to make it easier and more efficient to complete the survey.