Timetabling, Attendance and Examination Office
Academic Timetabling Policy
| Owner: | Paul Watson, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Learning, Teaching and Student Experience |
|---|---|
| Author: |
Cathie Raw, Head of Registry Catherine Edwards, Timetabling Manager |
| Approved by: | Learning and Teaching Committee |
| Date of Approval of this Version: | 12 June 2025 |
| Next Review Date: | June 2028 |
| Version Number: | v1.2 |
| Applicable statutory, legal, or national best practice requirements |
Office of Students Conditions of Registration, Conditions B1 and B2. Equality Act 2010. |
| Equality impact assessment completion date |
12 September 2023 The EIA has not been updated as there are no changes to process. |
| Data protection impact assessment completion date |
A DPIA has not been completed as there are no changes to how personal information is processed. |
Contents
1. Objectives
2. Scope
3. Responsibilities
Executive Board
Learning and Teaching Committee
Timetable Office
Directorate of Student Experience and Teaching Excellence
Head of School and Programme Leaders
Academic Staff
Estates and Facilities
Disability Services
Students
4. General Principles / Policy Statements
Teaching Times
Timetabling
Availability to Teach
Timetabling Changes and Changes to Room Allocation
Ad-Hoc and External Room Bookings
Academic Staff - Timetable Training
Equality and Diversity
Consequence of Non-Compliance
5. Monitoring and review
6. Related Policies and Standards / Documentation
7. Appendices
8. Document and version control information
1. Objectives
1.1 To support the delivery of both an exceptional student experience and learning and teaching at the University of Bradford.
1.2 To ensure students are taught in teaching accommodation suited to the particular needs of the session, whilst optimising the utilisation of University’s teaching spaces.
1.3 To achieve a timetable that is consistent, accessible, and sufficiently flexible to meet changing needs, whilst acknowledging stability as a longer-term aim.
1.4 The policy supports compliance with the Office of Students Conditions of Registration, particularly, conditions B1 and B2.
1.5 The policy supports the University’s legal duty to make reasonable adjustments for students with disabilities under the Equality Act 2010.
2. Scope
2.1 This document sets out the University’s policy, procedures, roles and responsibilities in respect of academic timetabling and the efficient use of the University’s teaching spaces.
2.2 This policy applies to all students enrolled in undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes and also includes postgraduate researchers with taught elements within their programme. It covers all modes of study including full-time, part-time and distance learning.
2.3 This policy also applies to academic and administrative staff involved in the scheduling and production of timetables, plus the delivery and support of teaching activities.
3. Responsibilities
Executive Board
3.1 The Executive Board has the ultimate responsibility for fostering constructive collaborations across the University in the construction of the timetable.
Learning and Teaching Committee
3.2 Learning and Teaching Committee are responsible for reviewing and approving the Academic Timetabling Policy.
3.3 The Committee monitor the effectiveness of timetabling processes, recommending improvements to ensure alignment with the University’s strategic plan, priorities and targets.
Timetable Office
3.4 Plan and co-ordinate the construction and production of the optimal teaching timetable for the University in partnership with the Faculties and other stakeholders.
3.5 Allocate teaching space in accordance with University policies.
3.6 Optimise room utilisation.
3.7 Working with Heads of School and Programme Leaders to produce the timetable to agreed deadlines.
3.8 Maintain relationships with Faculty representatives and ensure clear and open lines of communication.
3.9 Maintain and develop the University’s timetable website and other associated applications.
3.10 Manage the University’s room booking service.
3.11 Ensure the timetable can be made available in different formats to meet the needs of all users.
3.12 Facilitate communication of any timetable changes to staff and students in a timely manner.
Directorate of Student Experience and Teaching Excellence
3.13 Ensure that the Timetable Office is kept up to date with all validation outcomes throughout the year.
3.14 Ensure that all newly validated modules and updated versions of amended modules are speedily and accurately added to the student record system.
3.15 Assist academic staff, where possible, with the collation and checking of timetable data.
3.16 Support Heads of School / Programme Leaders in ensuring that students are notified of any postponement and rescheduling of classes.
3.17 Share with the Timetable Office relevant information about students with special needs including those arising from protected characteristics (e.g. disability, faith, pregnancy etc.) and other special requirements (e.g. caring responsibilities) that are relevant to the construction of the timetable (including room location).
3.18 Ensure that Faculties meet published deadlines for formal notification to the Timetabling Office of module amendments / new modules so that these can then be reflected in the construction of the timetable.
Heads of School and Programme Leaders
3.19 Manage the timetabling process within department areas and programmes respectively in accordance with this policy.
3.20 Alert the Timetable Office to possible module changes in advance of the scheduling process or as soon as possible thereafter.
3.21 Ensure that programme requirements are communicated to the Timetable Office in a timely and accurate fashion.
3.22 Heads of School are responsible for approving staff teaching exemptions, when nominated by Deans to do so and must ensure staff teaching availability is managed in line with the principles in the Academic Staff section below.
3.23 Ensure that all full-time members of staff, particularly those who are newly appointed, are made aware that any module may be scheduled for teaching at any time during the standard teaching week.
3.24 Ensure that full and accurate information on staff availability is provided to the Timetable Office.
3.25 Take responsibility for ensuring that teaching is planned well in advance and that any changes from the previous year to programmes (content or delivery) are produced on time for incorporation into the Provisional Timetable and that no changes are made to programmes, or to the mode of delivery of programmes, during the course of any academic session if this would result in knock-on effects for the delivery of any other programmes.
3.26 Take responsibility for ensuring that space is booked strictly according to proposed usage (e.g. If a Lecture Theatre is to be used by a whole group, is to be followed by seminars for smaller groups book the number of seminar rooms required and vacate the Lecture Theatre rather than holding one of the seminars in the Lecture Theatre) and that teaching space is not booked on a contingency basis for periods longer than are required for delivery.
3.27 Take responsibility for liaising with the Timetable Office on behalf of staff in their programmes, and for maintaining excellent relations and clear and open lines of communication.
3.28 Any rescheduling of classes necessitated by unexpected staff absences should be achieved with minimum impact on the Final timetable.
3.29 Ensure that affected students are immediately alerted to any such rescheduling.
Academic Staff
3.30 Ensure availability for teaching during all University teaching hours except when Deans or the Heads of School as Dean’s nominee has approved exemption (on the basis, for example, of a disability, caring responsibilities or religious / belief commitments). In considering exemptions, Deans or nominees will act sensitively and in accordance with the guidance in the Availability to Teach section below. They are responsible for indicating approval or otherwise and informing the Timetable Office.
3.31 Plan teaching delivery well in advance.
3.32 Adhere to the Final Timetable.
3.33 Regularly review their teaching timetable, through the University’s official timetabling platform (e.g., Publish) to ensure they are aware of any updates or changes.
3.34 Start on the hour / half-hour and finish sessions promptly five minutes before the end of the scheduled session to allow for a smooth changeover.
3.35 Ensure teaching spaces are left in a clean and tidy condition and furniture is returned to the standard configuration for the room if this has been altered during the session.
Estates and Facilities
3.36 Undertake regular checks of room usage in liaison with Timetable Office and Heads of School where there appears to be significant anomalies to verify that usage accords with timetable.
3.37 Ensure all teaching spaces are fit for purpose with a view to enhancing the quality of the student experience and reducing the justification for staffing preferences for particular teaching space.
3.38 Establish in consultation with Heads of School the optimal configuration for teaching rooms, to which furniture should be returned after each class, and ensure that rooms where this may be in doubt are provided with a diagram indicating the optimal layout.
3.39 Ensure, via IT services, that media provisions in teaching rooms are fit for purpose.
3.40 Ensure that timetabled teaching rooms meet the requirements of the Equality Act 2010 in terms of access for staff and students with a physical disability. Where certain rooms have poor access alternatives will be found where required.
3.41 Lead on increasing overall space utilisation performance within the parameters of this policy.
3.42 Where essential location developments are required, the Timetabling Office is kept informed in planning; and that adequate notice is provided in advance of the timetable design period.
Disability Services
3.43 Ensure that the Timetable Office is made aware as soon as possible of any student whose disability should be accommodated in finalising the timetable.
Students
3.44 Check published timetable as it appears on the University publication resources (e.g., Publish), including following alerts relating to any changes.
3.45 If notified of an emergency postponement of a class, maintain contact with the Faculty with regard to rescheduling.
3.46 Students are expected to be available throughout all teaching weeks and for all scheduled teaching.
3.47 Students will not be scheduled to attend classes beyond 18:00 unless this has been made clear in advance in published programme documentation.
3.48 Students requiring special arrangements should make their needs known to their Programme Leaders ahead of the production of the timetable to ensure any special arrangements can be accommodated. Where possible such information will have been collected as part of the enrolment process.
4. General Principles / Policy Statements
4.1 Priorities for the production of the timetable will be the student experience, the staff experience and efficient room utilisation in that order.
4.2 Timetables will be designed, released, and finalised before the start of each semester during the academic year. At least three weeks before the start of teaching.
4.3 An overview of the annual timetable planning schedule is outlined below:
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Semester 1 |
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Data Collection: Late March to late April Staff should meet with their timetable support officer during this period. Requirements should be prepared in advance. |
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Amendment Period: Early July to early August Final opportunity to make changes before the timetable is finalised. No changes will be accepted after this period |
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Timetable Release: Mid-August Personalised timetables are published (excluding optional modules until selections are made). |
| Semester 2 / 3 |
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Data Collection: Early June to early August Staff should meet with their timetable support officer during this period. Requirements should be prepared in advance. |
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Amendment Period: Early to late November Final opportunity to make changes before the timetable is finalised. No changes will be accepted after this period. |
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Timetable Release: Early December Personalised timetables are published (excluding optional modules until selections are made). |
Teaching Times
4.4 The normal teaching week takes place Monday to Friday. The standard teaching day is 09:00 to 18:00 with the exception of Fridays where no teaching will occur between 13:00 to 14:00 for attendance for Prayers, also on Wednesday when teaching hours are 09:00 to 13:00 for both postgraduate and undergraduate students.
4.5 Patterns of teaching outside the standard teaching day (e.g., only evenings or weekends) will be set out in the validation documents and published programme information.
4.6 All rooms should be vacated by five minutes before the hour / half-hour to allow time for students to vacate the room and enable the following session to start on time. This timing allows for interchange of students and installation of any required equipment.
Timetabling
4.7 Teaching activities take precedence over non-teaching activities other than where specified (e.g., Open Days, Exams and Graduation).
4.8 Regular, full semester taught activities take precedence over infrequent general teaching taught sessions.
4.9 All teaching activities must be timetabled, and rooms must be reserved via the Timetable Office.
4.10 Timetable clashes must be resolved prior to the publication of the Final Timetable.
4.11 In the initial stages of constructing the timetable the following criteria will apply:
4.11.1 Depending on usage, minimum occupancy will normally be 70% - there will clearly need to be exceptions in some, particularly practical-related, areas. (This minimum only applies in initial stages; lower occupancy may be unavoidable if large rooms are all that is available towards the end of the process).
4.11.2 Specialist space will be allocated in the first instance on the basis of specialist need but thereafter can be allocated for general teaching unless there are Health and Safety risks attached.
4.11.3 Consistency will be a priority where teaching permits (same time, same room every week).
4.11.4 Activities that occupy large consistent blocks of time will be scheduled before those that occupy smaller blocks of time.
4.12 Access for students with disabilities is a priority.
4.13 Class sizes should under no circumstances exceed the size of the room allocated.
4.14 In order to avoid overcrowded rooms, modules that have historically been subject to increases should initially be timetabled into rooms with some capacity for such growth.
4.15 While timetabling should strive to provide viable student pathways and student choice, the timetable should not be constructed on the basis of individual student choices: the emphasis will be on the production of programme timetables into which student choices are made.
4.16 The following “hard constraints” will apply in the construction of the timetable:
4.16.1 No one session may last longer than 4 hours without an identified 30-minute resource break.
4.16.2 Staff and students must have a least 30-minute break every 4 hours.
4.17 Tutorial activities will be included in a timetabled module only where such activities require learning processes in particular spaces and the Faculty specifically requests this.
Availability to Teach
4.18 Full-time staff and students will be expected to be available to deliver / attend teaching within the standard University hours, 09:00 to 18:00. Where there are exceptions, these will be agreed through discussion between the Heads of School and the Timetable Office.
4.19 It is acknowledged that staff may have certain needs that impact on their ability to be available for teaching between the specified hours. A teaching exemption process is available for those staff who have needs relating to a disability, practicing a religion, or regular childcare responsibilities that need to be considered in preparing the Timetable. Staff who consider they have such a need should submit their requirements to their Dean or nominee prior to the data collection phase for the Timetable production. The Dean or nominee will consider the request, seeking professional advice from the People, Culture and Wellbeing Department as required, and if approved will submit the appropriate information to the Timetable Office.
4.20 In the case of a member of staff with a disability, guidance will be sought by Disability Services to identify what reasonable steps are necessary to provide support. Professional advice will be sought from Occupational Health where required.
4.21 The University will make every effort to accommodate reasonable requests in the construction of the timetable but once the timetable has been finalised any exceptional requests can only be accommodated by arrangements for cover being made within the Faculty. The Final Timetable will not be changed although classes may be rescheduled, if this is wholly unavoidable, provided there are no knock-on effects for students in any other programme.
4.22 Restrictions imposed by external commitments should be considered carefully by Deans or nominees and, if approved, should also be notified to the Timetable Office in advance of the timetable design period.
4.23 Availability of part-time staff should be notified to the Timetable Office in the data collection phase and may not be amended during the course of the academic session if any change would impact on the Timetable in such a way as to impact on students taking any other module.
4.24 Heads of School / Programme Leaders may take account of Faculty preferences (e.g.in relation to research leave) in identifying staff availability but the Timetable will not be built around predetermined ‘research days’.
Timetabling Changes and Changes to Room Allocation
4.25 Once the Provisional Timetable has been issued (see the General Principles / Policy Statements section above), only minor change requests will be permitted. Requests to change the timetable as a result of changes to teaching personnel or to the personal circumstances of staff declared available to teach will not be accommodated if there is any consequent adverse impact on the timetable as a whole (such as the need to change the timetable for another programme)[1]. It will be expected that such events will be managed by the Dean / Heads of School through reallocation of existing resources.
4.26 Once the Provisional Timetable has been issued no major changes will be made as a result of changes to methods / teaching patterns where such changes would have a knock-on effect for students on other programmes. This includes changes to patterns of staff teaching if this would require the timetable to be altered resulting in an adverse impact on the timetable.
4.27 Once the Final Timetable has been issued, requests to change the timetable as a result of changes to teaching personnel or to the personal circumstances of staff declared available to teach will not be accommodated. It will be expected that such events will be managed by the Deans / Heads of School through reallocation of existing resources.
4.28 Timetable sessions may, where unforeseen circumstances occur, be postponed but must not be cancelled.
4.29 Minor changes typically involve adjustments that have a limited impact on students and staff and do not affect the overall structure of the timetable, such as room changes, swapping teaching staff where availability is unaffected and adjustments to seminar group allocations.
4.30 Major changes typically involve adjustments that significantly impact the published timetable, such as changes to module delivery patterns (e.g. switching from weekly to block teaching), alteration to teaching times and / or days, withdrawal of modules and changes which impact other programmes.
4.31 Major changes require formal approval and should be initially approved by Senior Faculty Staff (such as the Head of School and Faculty Registrar) and the Timetabling Manager. These changes will only be approved in exceptional circumstances and must be justified with a clear rationale and impact assessment.
Ad-Hoc and External Room Bookings
4.32 Ad-hoc room bookings during teaching hours will not be confirmed until after the Final Timetable has been published.
4.33 Rooms that are not scheduled for use during the timetabling process may be booked for ad-hoc purposes provided there are no Health and Safety or specialist equipment implications.
4.34 The University’s requirement for rooms and facilities takes priority over external groups or organisations. No changes will be made to the University’s Final Timetable to accommodate external use.
Academic Staff – Timetabling Training
4.35 New starters are signposted to the Timetabling for Staff Sharepoint site within the Getting Started Sharepoint area.
4.36 The site contains resources and support materials in the Staff Information section.
4.37 These materials include guidance on how to access timetables using Publish.
Equality and Diversity
4.38 The University will make every effort to accommodate staff and students needs resulting from, for example, disabilities, carer responsibilities and religious beliefs.
4.39 Members of staff requiring special arrangements should make their needs known to their line manager ahead of the production of the timetable (as per Availability to Teach section above) to ensure their needs are discussed and accommodated where possible.
4.40 Students requiring special arrangements should make their needs known to their Heads of School ahead of the production of the timetable to ensure any special arrangements can be accommodated. In the case of first year students, any disability- related or religious needs will be identified at the application stage and a discussion will take place before they commence their studies at the University.
Consequences of Non-Compliance
4.41 Maintaining high standards in timetabling is essential and failure to comply with academic timetabling responsibilities can significantly disrupt the student experience. Inaccurate or delayed scheduling often leads to last-minute changes, increased administrative workloads, room clashes and unsuitable teaching spaces, all of which can negatively impact student satisfaction. Additionally, non-compliance may result in timetables that fail to accommodate students with disabilities or specific needs, potentially breaching the University’s inclusivity commitments under the Equality Act 2010.
4.42 Where issues arise with timetabling responsibilities, such as late or inaccurate data submission, failure to confirm staff availability, late or unapproved changes to teaching delivery, in the first instance, staff in the Timetabling Office with work collaboratively with Programme Leaders to resolve the matter formally and promptly.
4.43 If issues persist or issues significantly impact the scheduling process, the matter will be escalated by the Timetabling Manager, to appropriate Senior Faculty Staff, such as the Head of School and Faculty Registrar, for further review and intervention.
4.44 If issues remain unresolved the matter will be escalated to the Faculty Dean and the Associate Director, Academic Experience or their nominee(s).
4.45 Persistent non-compliance may result in a formal investigation led by the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Learning, Teaching and Student Experience.
Monitoring and review
5.1 The implementation of this policy should be monitored by the Deans, where their individual Faculties are concerned, and by the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Learning, Teaching and Student Experience (or nominee). Any disputes should be arbitrated by the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Learning, Teaching and Student Experience, working with the relevant Dean.
5.2 The implementation of this Policy should be reviewed at least every three years following review of its operation.
6. Related Policies and Standards / Documentation
6.1 The Office for Students (OfS) expect timetabling practices to support compliance with OfS Conditions of Registration, particularly:
6.1.1 Condition B1: Ensuring a high-quality academic experience through structured and effective teaching delivery.
6.1.2 Condition B2: Providing adequate resources and support, including equitable access to learning opportunities through effective scheduling.
6.2 These expectations have been reinforced through OfS’s ‘boots on the ground’ quality assessments, which have highlighted the role of timetabling in student engagement, contact hours, and access to academic support.
6.3 The Equality Act 2010 provides a framework to protect individuals from discrimination, harassment and victimisation and includes a duty to make adjustments for disabled persons, particularly:
6.3.1 The University has a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments for students with disabilities and an anticipatory duty to plan in advance for the needs of disabled students.
6.3.2 To ensure rigid timetabling which may disadvantage a student with disabilities is avoided.
6.3.3 To ensure classrooms are accessible and that scheduled classes are arranged to remove barriers to participation.
7. Appendices
7.1 No appendices have been prepared in relation to this report.
[1] Exceptions to this will be considered if a member of staff develops a disability in year, again ensuring that there are no knock-on implications for students on any other programme.
A PDF version of this policy is available here Academic Timetabling Policy 2025.