Employee Types + Funding Sources
This page describes most employee types at a high level to help you understand the formats available (hourly/part time/full time), prepare for requesting a budget and clarify the role you wish to fill.
Employee Types
We employ a variety of staff types. Here’s what it means to be part of each employee group.
View Salary and Increments.
Support Staff
Support staff at the University of Alberta are members of the Non-Academic Staff Association (NASA) and fall under the Support Staff Collective Agreement.
Description: Regular support staff are hired to a role with no end date and greater than a 0.4 FTE
Benefits: Salaried employees have access to support staff benefits.
Description: Auxiliary support staff are casual employees who have accumulated more than 1,707 hours (equivalent of a full year of work) by working in one or more positions; who has been appointed to a position for a specific period of more than 12 months but not more than 48 months. After four years, the position converts to a regular support staff position, provided the role is 0.4 FTE or greater.
Auxiliary Hourly: Employees who have accumulated more than 1,707 (equivalent of a full year of work) total hours (may be a result of having more than one job at the university) AND either: work less than 0.4 FTE every pay period OR are hired to a position 12 months or less in duration.
- Benefits: They are not eligible for benefits.
- More details: Auxiliary Hourly.
Auxiliary Salaried: Employees work 0.4 FTE or greater and are appointed for longer than 12 months but less than 48 months. An individual may also have Auxiliary Salary status if there has been no break in service, even if the role is 12 months or less.
- Benefits: Salaried employees have access to benefits.
- More details: Auxiliary Salaried .
Description: Casual support staff are hired for hourly paid roles that are appointed for 12 months or less and may work in one or more positions on a supplementary, irregular, or intermittent basis.
Casual and Auxiliary Support Staff have a “bucket” to collect hours worked. The bucket is what identifies when the casual staff member should move to Auxiliary Hourly.
Casual employees will move to Auxiliary Hourly if their work remains irregular, intermittent and less than 0.4 Full Time Equivalent (FTE). If a Casual Employee has worked more than 1707 hours and works more than 0.4 FTE for more than one year, they will move to Auxiliary Salary. The accumulation of 1707 hours includes hours worked in all positions with the university.
Academic staff
Academic staff at the University of Alberta are members of the Association of Academic Staff University of Alberta (AASUA) and fall under the Academic Collective Agreement.
Description: Faculty includes assistant professors, associate professors, and full professors who are active in teaching, research and service.
Benefits: Benefits Overview
Description: Staff who assist and collaborate with faculty members in teaching and the research process. Such staff members will normally have a postgraduate degree in the particular discipline to which they are attached. The tasks they are assigned may include an administrative component, but this will not be a major component of the assignment. A position in this category shall be established under the same procedures as those used for faculty positions.
Benefits: Benefits Overview
Description: A person who has a degree from an accredited graduate program in library and/or information studies, or an equivalent program, who has been appointed to a librarian position on the academic staff of the University of Alberta, in which the person has been or may be granted tenure and includes both full time and part time staff who hold such positions.
Benefits: Benefits Overview
Description:
- Staff with teaching and/or teaching-related responsibilities as assistant lecturer, associate lecturer, or full lecturer.
- Coaching staff employed either on recurring contracts (work over the season of the sport that they coach) or ATS contracts if they work year-round.
Benefits: Benefits Overview
Description:
Research Academic Family: These roles carry out or support high-level, complex, research projects in collaboration with faculty members and other researchers. A "Research Scientist" or a "Research Associate" will normally hold a doctoral degree or have equivalent qualifications and experience. A "Trust Professional" will usually hold a Master's or professional level degree in a required discipline and hold positions such as speech language pathologist, kindergarten teacher, engineer, and statistician.
Trust Administrator Family: These positions provide leadership, strategic advice and direction; and are accountable for planning, negotiating, problem solving, risk assessment and prevention, and operational oversight of resources. They may include some research responsibilities. A Trust Administrator usually requires an academic degree or professional designation.
Library/Information Professional: These roles have a degree from an accredited graduate program in library and/or information studies, or an equivalent program, and hold a position outside of the Librarians' Agreement. These positions will meet the minimum qualifications required for a librarian position within the University of Alberta Library system.
Benefits:
- Appointed for less than eight months or part-time for any duration: not eligible for benefits.
- Appointed full-time for longer than eight months: eligible for benefits.
More details: These positions fall under the TRAS Agreement and are funded by restricted funds – grants, fellowships, directed funding, contingent funding and endowments.
Description: A manager or other professional who provides leadership, strategic advice and direction in the organization, and who is accountable for planning, negotiating, problem solving, assessing and preventing risk, and/or providing operational oversight of resources. An APO shall normally require an academic degree, professional designation or equivalent related experience.
Benefits: Benefits Overview
Description: Librarian, Administrative and Professional Staff appointed with an end date.
Benefits:
- Appointed for less than eight months or part-time for any duration: not eligible for benefits.
- Appointed full-time for longer than eight months: eligible for benefits.
Adjunct Academic Colleagues
Description: Scholars, researchers and practitioners who are not otherwise affiliated with the University of Alberta, and to recognize and encourage interaction between the University and persons in business, government and the arts. Adjunct Academic Colleague appointments may also be used by University academic units to recognize the participation of a faculty member from one University of Alberta unit in the academic work of another unit. Adjunct Academic Colleagues are a group of individuals who provide service to the University without the expectation of compensation.
Benefits: Not eligible
Academic Affiliates (Secondees)
Description: Individuals who enter into a secondment agreement and who are temporarily seconded from an external organization or institution to the university to work with the university on a full or part-time basis and who have the same university duties as Faculty.
Benefits: No U of A benefits. They maintain the benefits from the organization or institution they’re seconded from.
Special “Continuing”
Description: Individuals with substantial experience in a profession or discipline who are or have been primarily employed externally to the university and who do not receive compensation from the university but have the same university duties as Academic Faculty Members and are evaluated by a Faculty Evaluation Committee. Contact Faculty Relations to use this category.
Benefits: Not eligible
Clinical Academic Colleagues
Description: Individuals in health-care professions who are or have been primarily employed externally to the University of Alberta and who participate in the teaching and/or research activities of a department in the university without the expectation of compensation.
Benefits: Not eligible
Clinical Preceptors
Description: Individuals in health-care professions who mentor students in their areas of expertise. Mentorship takes place in clinical settings that are validated by the Faculty to assure quality experiences that meet the educational outcomes of the program. Preceptors have specific educational responsibilities for students for the period of time when students are in clinical settings, but are not regular members of the faculty/ staff of the university and have no expectation of compensation nor other university privileges.
Benefits: Not eligible
Postdoctoral Scholars
Description: Description: Postdoctoral Scholars conducting research after completion of their doctoral studies. Usually appointed for a specified period of time from minimum of three months to a maximum of five years. Postdoctoral Scholars can be classified as:
- Scholar: governed by the Postdoctoral Fellows Collective Agreement when employed by the University of Alberta.
- Awardee: governed by policy
- Visitor: governed by Policy
Benefits: If the appointment is part time, the PDS is not eligible for benefits. If the appointment is full time, the member is eligible for benefits.
Non-Union Employees (NUE)
Description: Description: Non-Union Employees (NUE) (may also be referred to as Excluded Employee) means an employee who is not otherwise covered under one of the recognized university bargaining units.
Description: Non Union Academic Administrator (Deans, vice-deans, deputy provost, vice-provosts and academic associate vice-presidents)– means an excluded appointment as defined by the Recruitment Policy, as amended from time to time.
Benefits: Benefits Overview
Description: Non Union Casual Employee – means an arrangement where an Employee works periodically rather than continuously — such as short-term assignments spaced out over longer intervals, without a predictable or recurring schedule.
Benefits: These positions are not eligible for benefits.
Description: Non Union Continuing Employee – means an Employee who is appointed to a position of sixteen (16) hours/week or greater and the appointment has no end date.
Benefits: Benefits Overview
Description: Non Union Term Employee – means an Employee who is appointed on a full or part time basis for a specified period of time or for a specific project or activity. Appointments will be less than sixteen (16) hours per week or less than eight (8) months in length or less than sixteen (16) hours per week.
Benefits: These positions are not eligible for benefits.
Description: Temporary Employee – means an Employee who is appointed to a position of sixteen (16) hours/week or greater and the appointment is for a specific period of time no less than eight (8) months in length.
Benefits: Benefits Overview
Description: President, provost and vice presidents
NUE employees are deemed non-union– for one of the following reasons:
- Management Exclusion: the position is excluded in order to avoid conflicts of interest and is needed to manage other staff not subject to union influence.
- Confidentiality Exclusion: the position requires confidentiality relating to labour relations on a regular basis, and disclosure of the information would adversely affect the university.
- Role Exclusion: due to the workload, length of appointment, reporting relationship or discipline, or direct relationship to a program of study or adjacent to student life.
These positions fall under the Handbook of Terms and Conditions of Employment for Non-Union Employees.
Graduate Students
Description: Graduate students who hold a Graduate Assistantship at the university while pursuing graduate studies fall under the Graduate Student Assistantship Collective Agreement.
Benefits: Benefits Overview
Funding Sources
Positions are funded either by operating funds or trust funds. Your Finance Partner will advise where funding will come from for the role you hire.
Operating funded positions are paid for from the university operating budget.
Trust-funded positions are funded from restricted funding sources, which can include grants (research related or other grants), fellowships, directed funding, contingent funding and endowments, fee-for-service funding, cost-recovery funding, or other external sources.
Of the positions above, all positions are operating funded except for the following:
- Trust/Research Academic Staff (TRAS) - always funded from restricted funds.
- Academic Teaching Staff (ATS) - can be funded by operating or restricted funds.
- NASA Staff - can be funded by operating or restricted funds.
- Graduate Students - can be funded by operating or restricted funds.
The information provided is for information purposes only. Should any discrepancy be found between this website and the actual signed Agreements, the latter will prevail.