The following is intended to provide members and prospective members with a rough guide to reading their individual offers of employment, and to ensure consistency with our Memorandum of Agreement and OCAD U’s typical practices. Not all offers are identical and some may fall outside current trends.

If you have any questions or concerns whatsoever about your appointment offer, please contact our Executive Director.

You may also wish to consult the Canadian Association of University Teachers’ (CAUT) Handbook for Negotiating Starting Salaries and the American Association of University Professors’ (AAUP) After the Offer, Before the Deal: Negotiating a First Academic Job for more guidance in negotiating your starting salary and other parameters of your appointment offer.

The “MoA” (Memorandum of Agreement) referred to below can be found here: https://ocadfa.ca/documents/. References (such as 23.3.8) refer to article numbers.

.

.

Faculty

.

Sessional

• As per the MoA (23.3.8) offers of appointment to Sessional faculty shall include:
  • Home Faculty
  • Courses to be taught
  • Starting salary
• There are three pay levels of Sessional faculty and your placement should be reflective of “experience and career achievement (19.1.1). For 2022/23 these rates are $6,507 (Ses1), $7,592 (Ses2), and $8,675 (Ses3). In addition to this course rate your offer should indicate you will receive 7% in lieu of benefits plus vacation pay (either 4% or 6% depending on years of employment with OCAD U).
• Appointment offers also include projected student enrolment and term dates for each course, and some Faculties include Mode of Delivery.
• For more information, see our Know Your Rights! Sessional Handbook.

.

Teaching Stream

• As per the MoA (23.5.9) offers of appointment for new Teaching Stream faculty shall include:
  • Home Faculty
  • Rank
  • Percentage of Maximum-Load
  • Starting Salary
  • Whether Professional Practice/Research (of 10% weighting) is assigned
• Teaching Stream faculty can start at either the Lecturer or Assistant Professor rank (15.3.2)
• Teaching Stream offers are fixed-term contracts of three to five years, although your third contract would be permanent.
• Starting salaries range considerably and there are different pay scales for the Lecturer and Assistant Professor rank, which can be found in Section B (“Pay Scales for Teaching Stream Faculty and Contractually Limited Term Appointment (CLTA) Faculty”) of Appendix “C”. In the last five years, starting salaries have ranged from Lc11 to Ac20 (the equivalent of $67,323 to $100,043 in 2022/23).

.

CLTA (Contractually Limited Term Appointment)

• As per the MoA (23.7.8) offers of appointment for new CLTA faculty shall include
  • Home Faculty
  • Rank
  • Percentage of Maximum-Load
  • Starting Salary
• CLTA faculty normally start at either the Lecturer or Assistant Professor rank (16.3.3).
• CLTA contracts are not normally renewable beyond 3 years.
• Salaries range considerably for CLTA faculty are there are different pay scales for the different ranks, which can be found in Section B (“Pay Scales for Teaching Stream Faculty and Contractually Limited Term Appointment (CLTA) Faculty”) of Appendix “C”. In the last few years, CLTA tend to be offered a Lecturer rank with a starting salary of Lc13 or Lc14(the equivalent of $70,014 to $71,363 in 2022/23), however, there haven’t been enough CLTA appointments in the last few years to identify clear trends.

.

Continuing

• As per the MoA (23.9.8) offers of appointment for new Continuing faculty shall include:
  • Home Faculty
  • Rank
  • Percentage of Maximum-Load (to a maximum of 50%)
  • Starting salary
• Continuing faculty can start at any of the Lecturer, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Professor ranks (15.3.3)
• Continuing contracts can up to 5 years and have no limits on the number of renewals.
• All Continuing appointments are partial-load, with a workload maximum of 50% (although sometimes Continuing faculty can be overloaded, the workload indicated on your offer should not exceed 50%).
• There has not been a new Continuing appointment made in the last few years, so there are no trends to report in terms of starting salary or rank.

.

Tenure/Tenure-Track (Probationary)

• As per the MoA (23.11.10) offers of appointment for new Tenure/Tenure-Track faculty shall include:
  • Home Faculty
  • Rank
  • Percentage of Maximum-Load
  • Starting Salary
  • Probationary Term
• Probationary/Tenured faculty can start at any of the Lecturer, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Professor ranks (15.3.3)
• Starting salaries range considerably and there are different pay scales for the different ranks, which can be found in Section C (“Pay Scales for Tenured, Probationary and Continuing Faculty”) in Appendix “C”. Those with a Probationary (Tenure-Track) offer tend to start at the Assistant Professor rank and in the past few years between A13 and A18 pay levels (the equivalent of $92,085 – $99,515 in 2022/23). In the past few years those with a Tenure offer have started at either the Associate Professor or Professor rank, although there have been too few appointments of this kind to report any trends in starting salary.
• For those with probationary appointments, the probationary period is normally 6 years, at which point you will be reviewed for tenure. The probationary length can either be lowered or waived at the time of hire if warranted by your rank and experience, and it should be reflected in your appointment offer.

.

Chair/ Associate Chair/ Graduate Program Director

• Appointment offers for Chairs, Associate Chairs, and Graduate Program Directors are not covered by the Memorandum of Agreement, although you remain a member of OCADFA for the duration of your appointment.
• The appointment and reappointment process are governed by the Policy on the Appointment and Reappointment of Chairs, Associate Chairs, and Graduate Program Directors and Positions of Equivalent Levels, which is approved by the Senate and Board of Governors.
• Compensation for these positions vary depending on program size and the specific responsibilities, but generally comes in three forms: a stipend, an administrative release, and additional Professional Development funds or a Research/Travel Allowance.
• Currently, all Chairs receive an additional $1,000/annum for Professional Development, with stipends ranging from $6,000 – $10,000 per annum, and an annual administrative leave from 2 or 3 courses. It is typical to receive an additional course release or two upon completion of one or two full terms as Chair. Your specific compensation package should be outlined in your appointment offer.
• To the best of our knowledge, currently all Graduate Program Directors receive a stipend of $4,000 or $5,500 and a Research/Travel Allowance of $2,000 annually. Some receive an administrative release of 2 courses per year.

.

.

Academic Staff

.

Technician – Contract

• As per the MoA (34.3.8) offers of employment for new Contract Technicians shall include:
  • Term of contract (i.e., start and end dates)
  • Hours of work (total hours of contract)
  • Starting salary
• Your Contract-Technician appointment offer should include a start and end-date and can be either partial or maximum-load (up to 35 hours per week).
• Contract-Technician appointments can be renewed, but not normally beyond 3 years.
• Salary offers for Contract-Technicians tend to be at the lowest rungs of the pay scale, which can be found in Section B (“Pay Scales for Contract Technicians and Academic Counsellors”) in Appendix “D”. In addition to your salary your offer should indicate you will receive 6% in lieu of benefits plus vacation pay (either 4% or 6% depending on years of employment with OCAD U).

.

Technician – Probationary/Permanent

• As per the MoA (34.7.9) offers of appointment to new Permanent (probationary) academic staff shall include:
  • Percentage of Maximum-Load
  • Starting Salary
  • Probationary Term
• Salary offers for Probationary Technicians tend to be at the lower rungs of the pay scale, which can be found in Section C (“Pay Scales for Permanent and Probationary technicians and Academic Councillors”).
• As part Article 29.2.2 of the MoA, the length of probation depends on whether you are Partial-Load (2 years probation) or Maximum-Load (1 year probation). After successfully completing the probationary period, your appointment becomes permanent.

.

Teaching/Research Assistant

• All Teaching/Research Assistants are contract appointments and fall under one of the following four categories and corresponding hours pay rates:
  • Undergraduate Research Assistant – $20.19
  • Marker/Grader – $27.68
  • Tutorial Leader – $32.00
  • Graduate Research Assistant – $32.00
• Your appointment offer should include a start-date and end-date and a specified number of hours
• These contracts are not normally renewable beyond 3 years, although can be renewed longer if you are a current OCAD U student.
• In addition to your salary your offer should indicate you will receive 6% in lieu of benefits plus vacation pay (4%).
• For more information, see our Members Handbook.

.’

.