Short leave and travel leave

Heads of Departments have requested clarification of the difference between Short Leave and Travel Leave.

Short Leave and Travel Leave are available to members of academic staff for academic purposes.

Short leave may be granted to a member of academic staff for any period not exceeding four weeks during term time without reduction of salary or allowances. Short leave is usually requested where an individual wishes to attend a conference (usually because s/he is presenting a paper). Where an individual is simply attending a conference and coming straight back, then short leave of less than a week will be involved. Applications for short leave periods not exceeding one week should be made to the Head of Department who has authority to grant it. Head of Department should inform Human Resources Division in writing of all the cases of short leave they have granted.

Applications for short leave for a period in excess of one week but not exceeding the maximum of four weeks should be made on the appropriate form and forwarded to the Human Resources Division. For example, an individual wishes to use the opportunity of attendance at a conference to visit a nearby university in the interests of his/her research, the request for short leave will exceed one week and it is in this circumstance that a formal application will come forward.

The expectation is that short leave will not involve payment from any other body and there is no replacement teaching required.

The regulations for sabbatical leave expect that time spent on short leave will not count as service in calculating entitlement to sabbatical. In view of the odd fractions/percentages that strict application of the regulation in question can cause the School tends to disregard the regulation except in cases where an individual has had an unusual amount of short leave.

Travel leave may be granted in order that members of staff may undertake a journey which is of specific value either to their research or to their teaching. Travel leave is rarely requested. Travel leave may be for a longer time period than short leave.

Travel leave will in general, be granted without reduction of salary or allowances, save that the Director may determine that there be made from the applicants' salary or allowances a deduction equivalent to any payment receivable by them from some external source which in their opinion covers or partially covers expenditure that would ordinarily be met out of the applicants' salary and allowances.

Travel leave will be granted on the understanding that the teaching duties of absent teachers will be shared by their colleagues and that no expenditure will be incurred by the School in engaging additional teaching help for the purpose.

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