GESJ: Education Science and Psychology 2013|No.2(24) ISSN 1512-1232 39 SOLVING PROBLEMS OF INEQUITY IN ACADEMIC STAFF WORKLOAD DISTRIBUTION Maka Kordzadze Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University Faculty of Humanities, Tbilisi, Georgia 0179 Chavchavadze 1, Tbilisi, Georgia humanities@tsu.ge Abstract The main goal of the paper is to elaborate recommendations on academic staff workload schemes, ensuring fair workload allocation, efficient use of academic personnel resources and promotion of professional development of academic staff. The regulation of the academic workload has become a key management issue for quality assurance departments of Higher Education Institutions because it is one of the main regulatory mechanisms for educational quality enhancement. The quantitative survey of academic workload schemes for 2011 year in 19 public Georgian Higher Education Institutions has been carried out. The data about the components of the faculty work – Teaching, Research, and Service was analysed and summarized in the form of charts, tables, percentages and averages, showing the general principle of distribution of time between these components of the workload at the institutions. The analysis revealed a number of inequities, discrepancies and problems. On the basis of survey findings the relevant conclusions were made and recommendations for overcoming the existing problems of inequity in academic staff workload allocation and distribution were prepared. Keywords: academic workload, components of faculty work, research, service, teaching. Introduction Increase in demand for higher education in today’s world and increasing number of students require the development of more efficient mechanisms for educational quality assurance in order to make higher education more student- and outcome oriented. As a result the traditional systems of management based on self-regulation of institutions have changed and moved to systems that require more accountability to government, particularly in spending state finances. One of the largest parts of expenditures of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) is the remuneration of the academic personnel. So it is very important to know the real situation dominating at Higher Education Institutions with regard to the distribution of the academic workload and to give them recommendations that will be helpful for more productive and fair allocation of the faculty time. Problem of the Research Educational reforms that have been on-going in Georgia for the last ten years: involvement of Georgia in Bologna process, actualization of systems for internal and external evaluation, implementation of such effective mechanisms for educational quality enhancement as the authorization of education institutions and accreditation of educational programs led to new challenges for these institutions. At the same time the competition in higher education “internal market” has considerably increased. In order to respond to these challenges the HEIs need to refine the mechanisms of educational quality improvement and to develop new methods and approaches to this end. In this context a lot of institutions give preference to the recruitment of more qualified academic staff, but the management of more efficient use of academic staff resources is no less important for the improvement of learning and teaching quality. Thus, the regulation of the workload has become a key management issue for quality assurance departments of the HEIs. In order to manage more efficient use of academic staff resources, the HEIs have to elaborate