Timetabling Operational Guide for Loughborough University London

This document provides operational guidance for staff in the London Campus of Loughborough University on how the teaching timetable is produced on an annual basis, how they contribute to it being successful, and what they need to do and when. It is divided chronologically into key production stages.

Visualising the timeline as described in the text sections below.
Overview of the annual timetabling process for Loughborough University London, with deadlines and milestones.

Step 1 in the London timetabling timeline is annual update, running December week 4 to end of March.The Annual Update of Programmes, Modules and Timetabling Information commences in December and runs until late March. It is the crucial starting point in the timetabling production process.

During that process, the School is responsible for:

  1. ensuring the timely submission of programme and module information for the next academic year, and timetabling information for Semester 1 and 2 and each of the teaching blocks (where applicable) of the next academic year, by the published deadline.

  2. liaising with the Timetabling Team regarding programme changes, new programmes being launched, or programmes being discontinued.
  3. providing staffing information (including availability details) as much as possible to facilitate the timetable build. Where this is not feasible, the Timetabling Team anticipate this information to be submitted as soon as possible.

Why we need the data on time:

This data is essential for the production of the School's teaching timetable. Timely submission of the data by the published deadline enables the following crucial processes to run effectively, prior to scheduling taking place:

  1. Programme structure build:
    1. Building programme structures in MOCS (Module Option Choice System) for programmes that start in October. Programmes starting in January have a different approach to how module choices are collected and recorded.
    2. Building programme structures in the Timetabling System, to enable accurate clash checking for staff and students.
  2. Identifying specific teaching delivery requirements for teaching sessions:
    1. that require to be run in a specific order or sequence.
    2. that require a specific minimum or maximum capacity, or number of sub-groups.
    3. that require specialist equipment or software, or a specific room to be allocated.
    4. that require a specific room type or layout.
  3. Collation of staffing information:
    1. part-time working patterns and flexible working arrangements to be inputted to the Timetabling System to avoid teaching being scheduled outside of approved availability.
    2. reasonable adjustments to be inputted to the Timetabling System to ensure requirements are met.
    3. ensuring staff clashes are avoided.

Having this information by the published deadline, prior to scheduling, facilitates the production of a higher quality teaching timetable, and enables more effective quality checks (e.g. spread of teaching, consecutive hours, gaps etc) to take place.

Step 2 in the London timetabling timeline is module choice, running first from the second week in December to the end of the third week in January, and again starting the second week of September to the end of the third week in October.Students make their optional module choices during a designated window in September for those starting in October, and in December for those starting in January of the following year. 

Students starting in October would ordinarily make their module choices via MOCS. Those who start in January will have their choices collected via a relevant MS Form and collated prior to the release of timetables.

The Timetabling Team are responsible for facilitating that process by:

  1. Building programme structures in the Module Options Choice System (MOCS) to ensure that students commencing their studies in October can only pick valid available options in accordance with approved programme specifications.

  2. Making MOCS available for students during the approved timeframe for October intake choices.
  3. Communicating Programme Structures with the School Admin Team to ensure that valid, in accordance with the approved programme specifications, Module Options are available for student selection via an MS Form, which facilitates the process for students starting in January.
  4. Resolving any technical/system queries in liaison with IT Services.
  5. Monitoring and reporting on completion rates and progress to senior colleagues.

Schools are responsible for facilitating that process by:

  1. Providing guidance to students regarding module options by
    1. running module choice events or producing guidance documents
    2. responding to student queries (other than technical/system issues) – e.g. off-programme choice, pre-requisites.
  2. Encouraging students to complete the module choice process, providing prompts and chases where required, and guidance in relation to combining optional modules on chosen programmes.
  3. Assisting the Timetabling Team with any changes to student programmes and/or module choices throughout the designated module choice window.
  4. Distributing a relevant MS Form to students starting their studies in January to collect their module choices and communicating the results with Student Records Office to record the module options on the University’s Student Information & Records System.

Why we need the data on time:

We need students’ module choices a semester at a time to ensure that teaching sessions are scheduled into appropriately sized space, and to minimise post-publication changes to student timetables.

Step 3 in the London timetabling timeline is timetable build, running from mid-March to the end of November.Following the deadline for the Annual Update of Programmes, Modules and Timetabling Information, the Timetabling Team begin building teaching timetables for Semester 1 and 2 in the Timetabling System. This commences in late March and is an ongoing process throughout the majority of the calendar year, with a particular focused period between April and July, prior to Semester 1 draft timetables being released to staff.

The Timetabling Team will undertake the following steps to build the timetable:

  1. Build programme structures in the Timetabling System
  2. Build Teaching and Assessment timetable blocks as appropriate to facilitate continuous teaching in adherence with programme regulations and sequencing.
  3. Update availability information and reasonable adjustments for teaching staff.
  4. Ensure that teaching delivery in the Timetabling System reflects what has been requested via the Timetabling Information System, including but not limited to: 
    1. Total number of hours by delivery type 
    2. Week patterns and teaching blocks 
    3. Number of sub-group sessions/repeats  
    4. Staffing  
    5. Room type/layout requests  
  5. Schedule teaching sessions across the University’s teaching week (09:00-18:00 Monday – Friday), taking account of any sequencing information provided in the Timetabling Information System.  This involves placing the teaching sessions at specific days/times in the Timetabling System.  
  6. Allocate teaching rooms to scheduled teaching sessions, according to room availability, facilitating the most effective use of the teaching estate and ensure fair allocation of rooms in accordance with requested room requirements and activity sizes. 
  7. Undertake initial quality checks of timetables at programme level, to monitor (amongst other things) spread of teaching, consecutive hours, gaps, early starts/late finishes, single hour sessions and free days.  

When scheduling teaching sessions, the Timetabling Team will take account of the following guidance as given in the Teaching Timetabling Policy:

  1. Best efforts will be made to avoid teaching on Fridays 17:00-18:00, particularly one-hour sessions.
  2. Teaching sessions will normally be scheduled on the hour and for whole hours, except where this suits the pedagogy of the session, or where other timings can improve room utilisation.

When allocating teaching rooms to timetabled activities, the Timetabling Team will ensure that all teaching sessions are allocated a room that matches the teaching delivery requirements as closely as possible.  In some cases, this may not exactly match the original request – for example lecture sessions for less than 50 students where a tiered room is requested may be allocated a flat teaching room with a front-facing layout in rows, which provides the same effect as a lecture theatre but avoids a smaller cohort being allocated a much larger room.

During the room allocation process, it is sometimes necessary to move teaching sessions to a different day/time in order to find an available appropriate room.  Whilst the Timetabling Team will try to take action to prevent this (e.g. moving lectures towards the end of the week and teaching subsequent sub-group sessions early the following week), this is sometimes unavoidable.

The Timetabling Team will always seek to allocate regular teaching sessions into consistent rooms, however this is not always possible where there are pinch points in the teaching estate.

Room allocation is a collaborative exercise where teaching sessions for all institutes and modules are treated equally, following guidance on prioritisation and complexity.

Why we need the data on time:

Any missing data at this stage can impact on the timetable build and have an adverse effect on the final quality of the teaching timetable. It can also cause a lack of availability of appropriate rooms and scheduling complications after rooms have been allocated.

Step 4 in the London timetabling timeline is draft timetables, running first in the first three weeks in July, and then again from the start of August to the end of the third week in October.Timetables are published to students and staff by semester. Prior to publication, each semester is shared with staff in a draft format, allowing them to provide feedback before the Timetabling Team commence with room allocation.

The provisional timetable for Semester 1 is normally released in early July for approximately three weeks.  The indicative timetable for Semester 2 is normally released in late July and remains open until October.

Engagement with draft timetables is vital to ensure that all necessary teaching requirements have been captured effectively prior to room allocation.  Making changes to the timetable is significantly more challenging once rooms have been allocated, and it may not be possible to accommodate all requests.

When draft timetables are available, teaching staff are responsible for the following:

  1. Module leaders should check that their draft timetable reflects the teaching delivery requirements they submitted, including: 
    1. The overall number of hours by teaching type matches the module spec (e.g. correct number of lectures, tutorials etc.) 
    2. That teaching sessions are not scheduled at days/times that breach known periods of availability 
    3. The teaching sessions are sequenced correctly where this has been stated (e.g. lectures prior to workshops) 
    4. The correct number of sub-groups have been set up, and that they are/can be staffed where they have been stacked at the same day/time 
    5. All teaching sessions are staffed, or that there are plans in place for allocating staff to teaching sessions 
  2. Programme leaders should check programme level draft timetables, including: 
    1. Liaising with module leaders to ensure that module timetables reflect the teaching delivery requirements
    2. Ensuring that all modules are visible at programme level, and that there are no clashing sessions
    3. Reviewing the spread of teaching across the teaching week  
    4. All teaching sessions are staffed, or that there are plans in place for allocating staff to teaching sessions

Feedback during this stage should be limited to that which is necessary to match module specifications, reflect approved staff availability patterns, or required pedagogically for the effective delivery of the module.  Requests for specific days/time-slots will be considered but cannot be guaranteed outside of approved staff availability patterns.

Step 5 in the London timetabling timeline is quality checks, running from the middle of August for eight weeks, and again throughout November, and again throughout the following January.Once room allocation is complete, the Timetabling Team undertake detailed quality checks to refine the teaching timetable before it is released to staff and students. The checks are being undertaken following a timetable build for both October and January intakes to capture new starters and any changes to module or group sizes. These include, but are not limited to:

  1. Minimising timetable clashes
  2. Reviewing sub-group allocation
  3. Spread of teaching across the week (gaps between teaching sessions, early starts and late finishes, single hour sessions and free days)
  4. Consecutive hours of teaching and teaching blocks.

Step 6 in the London timetabling timeline is publishing to staff, running first in the final week of August and again in the first week of December.The Timetabling Team will notify all relevant staff via email when the final semester timetable is available to view. Staff with teaching commitments will be able to view their personal teaching timetable via the University’s Online Timetable, in the Staff Timetables tab. Teaching staff can import this into their Outlook calendar via an iCal feed. The University’s Online Timetable also includes the facility to view timetables by programme, module, room and student.

At this point in the process, teaching staff are responsible for reviewing their timetables and familiarising themselves with the teaching rooms they have been allocated to. 

Step 7 in the London timetabling timeline is publishing to students, running first in the first week of September, again in the second week of January.The Timetabling Team will notify all students via email when the final semester timetable is available to view. Messages will also be published on the University’s social media channels.

Students will be able to view their personalised teaching timetable via two mechanisms:

  1. The calendar tile in the University’s myLboro app
  2. The University’s Online Timetable

Publication to students will generally be 2 weeks prior to the start of teaching in Semester 1, and 3 weeks prior to the start of teaching in Semester 2. The communication is made with the students upon release of the timetable to ensure to check the timetable regularly due to possible changes that may happen up until the start of the teaching semester.

Students with Advanced Support Requirements will be identified by the Timetabling Team and separately contacted via email, with instructions on where and how to access online timetable and who to contact in case of any issues. Students will be discouraged from sharing the timetable with fellow students in or outside of their cohort.

Any further Support Requirements not fulfilled by the accessibility measures currently enabled within the teaching estate will be identified by the Welfare Team and communicated with the Timetabling Team separately, to determine any appropriate adjustments.

Once the teaching timetable has been published to students, any change to the timetable is considered to be a post-publication change. Post-publication changes can have a negative impact on students who may have planned around their teaching timetable (e.g. travel arrangements, caring responsibilities, employment).

Whilst some post-publication changes are unavoidable (e.g. illness, unexpected emergencies), staff should seek to prevent avoidable post-publication changes to the teaching timetable wherever possible.  In cases where changes are required to accommodate new staff member(s), and this may affect wider module/programme timetable, changes should be requested as soon as possible, and timely communication with the Timetabling Team is expected, to avoid any further complications and minimise the impact.

Any post-publication changes must be made via the post-publication change form below, both to ensure that all the required information is provided to the team to avoid unnecessary back-and-forth queries, and so that change requests can be analysed.

Where post-publication changes are requested less than 48 hours before the teaching session concerned, the staff member requesting the change is responsible for informing students as soon as possible.

Changes to Timetabled Teaching Activity

Non-teaching ‘supplementary’ sessions such as guided independent study will not normally form part of the teaching timetable, with exception of Careers, Placement and Networking activities.

Any other non-teaching requests that would require a use of a pool teaching room, and are not set out above, should be submitted via a Room Booking Form.

Supplementary sessions set out above will usually be added to student timetables via dummy module codes, known as ‘Q-Codes’ (the third letter of the module code, which normally denotes the Part or year of study a module relates to, is replaced with the letter Q, so that it is easily distinguished).  These dummy module codes do not exist in the University’s Student Record System and do not appear in formal programme specifications but are set up directly in the Timetabling System to enable sessions to be added to student timetables.

The following considerations should be taken into account regarding Q-Codes:

  1. Automated MS Teams links are not generated for activities attached to Q-Code modules.
  2. Activities attached to Q-Code modules are excluded from the University’s attendance monitoring system.
London Room Booking Request Form

Author: Timetabling team
Date: 01 March 2025
Review date: 31 January 2027

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