Now I teach students. That involves marking papers. Lots and lots of student papers. My organisation sets a target for returning student work (which we call TMAs) – 10 working days after the submission date.

Recently, on the staff forum there was a debate on the subject: Was it a realistic timescale? Did it value speed over quality (or accuracy)? What did students themselves think?

Much informed and (literally) scholarly debate took place, to which my contribution was the following chart illustrating my own experience:

Oddly, I wasn’t asked for any further input