Full-time equivalent (FTE) is a unit that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads comparable[1] across various contexts. FTE is often used to measure a worker's involvement in a project, or to track cost reductions in an organization. An FTE of 1.0 means that the person is equivalent to a full-time worker, while an FTE of 0.5 signals that the worker is only half-time.[2]
FTE is a measure of workload—akin to a percentage (here, of a full-time work rate in a context)—as opposed to a measure of work duration, which is typically given in terms of hours. To obtain a measure of work duration for a given work period in a particular employment context, you have to multiply the FTE both by that work period, and by the contextually appropriate work allocation rate. Typically, a daily work allocation is 8 hours, and a yearly allocation might be 2080 hours (40 hours per week for 52 weeks). An individual's work duration may be determined based on the person's FTE in the following way, for a given period of two work days: 0.75 FTE (assumed) * 2 workdays (given) * 8 hours per workday (typical allocation rate) = 12 hours work duration. Different standards are used to calibrate the work allocation rate, depending on the type of institution (schools, industry, research), country (based on local employment law) and scope of the report (personnel cost, productivity).
In the U.S. federal government, FTE is defined by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) as the number of total hours worked divided by the maximum number of compensable hours in a full-time schedule as defined by law.[3] For example, if the normal schedule for a quarter is defined as 411.25 hours ( [35 hours per week * (52 weeks per year - 5 weeks regulatory vacation)] / 4), then someone working 100 hours during that quarter represents 100/411.25 = 0.24 FTE. Two employees working in total 400 hours during that same quarterly period represent 0.97 FTE.
The U.S. Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, the President's budget office, will often place upper limits on the total number of FTE that a given agency may utilize each year. In the past, if agencies were given a ceiling on the actual number of employed workers, which was reported on a given day of the year, the agency could employ more than this number for much of the year. Then, as the reporting deadline approached, employees could be let go to reduce the total number to the authorized ceiling on the reporting date. Providing agencies with an FTE ceiling, which is calculated based on the total number of hours worked by all employees throughout the year, irrespective of the total numbers employed at any point in time, prevents agencies from using such a strategy.
Although the generally accepted human-resources meaning for the "E" in FTE is "equivalent", the term is often overloaded in colloquial usage to indicate a "direct, as opposed to contract, full-time employee". As in "Jane is an FTE, whereas Ralph is a contractor". So Jane is a regular employee, and Ralph works only under contract, perhaps only with irregularity.
The term WYE is often used instead of FTE when describing the contractor work. WYE stands for work year equivalent.[4]
Full Time Equivalent students[5] is one of the key metrics for measuring the contribution of academics in third level education, number of supported students. Academics in some universities are nominally expected to contribute 20FTEs (or in other terms to support the education of 20 full time students) in any one year. This is typically achieved through a combination of teaching and research supervision.
Academics can increase contribution by adopting a number of strategies: (a) increase class size; (b) teach new classes; (c) supervise more projects; (d) supervise more researchers. The latter strategy has the advantage of contributing to another key metric in Universities – creating new knowledge and in particular publishing papers in highly ranked academic journals. It's also linked to another key metric – research funding that is often required to attract researchers.
A professor teaches two undergraduate courses, supervises two undergraduate projects and supervises four researchers by thesis only (i.e. researchers do not take any courses). Each undergraduate course is worth 1/10 of all credits for the undergraduate programme (i.e. 0.1 FTE). An undergraduate project is worth 2/10ths of all credits for the undergraduate programme (i.e. 0.2 FTE). A research thesis is worth all of the credits for the graduate programme (i.e. 1 FTE). The professor's contribution is 29.4 FTEs:
| Contribution | FTEs allocated | Class size | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Course 1 | 0.1 | 100 | 10 |
| Course 2 | 0.1 | 150 | 15 |
| U/G Projects | 0.2 | 2 | 0.4 |
| Research thesis | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| TOTAL FTEs | – | – | 29.4 |
To encourage more research some universities offer 2 FTEs or even 3 FTEs for each fulltime researcher.
In Australia, the equivalent to FTE for students is EFTSU (Equivalent Full-Time Student Unit).