Report unveiled at union’s congress highlights ‘unreasonable, unsafe and excessive hours’. The average academic is working unpaid for the equivalent of two days every week, says a new study on the growth of “unreasonable, unsafe and excessive” workloads. Academic staff work an average of 50.9 hours per week, according to the latest University and College workload survey, titled Workload is an education issue. It is based on responses from about 12,100 university staff, most of whom work full time.