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HEFCE

July 2006/21
Issues paper

This report is for information only

The higher education workforce in England
A framework for the future

The success of English higher education (HE) depends upon the skills and dedication of its staff, who are faced with increasing expectations from a range of stakeholders. In this report we consider the higher education workforce: what it looks like now, and how it will need to adapt in order to meet future challenges.

Contents and executive summary (read on-line)

Contents

  • Executive summary
  • The strategic and policy context
    • HEFCE's role
    • Four principles of public sector reform
    • HE sector stakeholders and partnership working
    • Key strategic challenges for HEIs to 2010
  • Capacity and composition of the workforce
    • Academic staff 1995-96 to 2004-05
    • Competing for staff in the global context
    • Fixed-term contract staff
    • Professional and support staff 2004
    • Staffing issues in medicine and dentistry
  • The future need for staff
    • Future demand for academic recruits
    • Recruitment challenges
    • Future need for professional and support staff
  • Recruitment, retention and progression
    • Academic flows into and out of the sector
    • Career progression
    • Turnover data
    • Subject-specific shortages
    • Brain drain or brain gain?
    • Working towards a work-life balance
  • Pay and pay modernisation
    • Current situation
    • JNCHES and the framework agreement for pay modernisation
    • Comparisons with other UK sectors
    • Pensions
  • Equal opportunities and diversity
    • Challenges for HEIs in implementing equal opportunities
    • Progress and achievements
    • Future needs and actions
  • Leadership, governance and management
    • Developing LGM capacity
    • Standards and roles
    • Human resource management
    • Higher education role analysis
  • Risk register
  • Milestones
  • Conclusions
  • Future research needs
  • List of abbreviations

Executive summary

1.     The success of English higher education (HE) depends upon the skills and dedication of its staff, who are faced with increasing expectations from a range of stakeholders. In this report we consider the higher education workforce: what it looks like now, and how it will need to adapt in order to meet future challenges.

2.     We have developed this workforce framework in consultation with higher education institutions (HEIs) and other stakeholders, following publication of an interim report on our web-site in November 2005 and wide-ranging informal discussions. This process has enabled us to produce this first annual report on workforce trends in HE, as requested by the Secretary of State for Education and Skills.

3.     A national framework can help to inform strategic planning at the institutional level. HEIs typically spend some 70 per cent of their total resource on staff costs, and their output depends upon the quality of their human resources. This framework is one perspective which HEIs may find useful in framing their staffing and employment policies and practices, to ensure they meet their strategic aims. It also provides a sector overview, identifying the summative consequences of activities by individual institutions.

4.     We consider issues in six main areas of workforce development:

  1. Capacity and composition of the workforce.
  2. Future need for staff.
  3. Recruitment, retention and progression.
  4. Pay and pay modernisation.
  5. Equal opportunities and diversity.
  6. Leadership, governance and management.

5.     In each of these critical areas for the HE workforce we have identified key findings.

6.     In the capacity and composition of the workforce, we find that there continues to be small but steady growth in the proportion of women and people from ethnic minorities employed as academics, with the proportions growing fastest at professorial level. This is a trend we believe will continue. While some subject areas experience more recruitment difficulties than others, HEIs manage their recruitment problem areas well and thus generally meet their recruitment needs. The challenge for HEIs is how to make higher education a career of first resort for UK nationals, and attractive to entrants from other sectors.

7.     When looking at the future need for staff, our projections about supply and demand can be informative and may help HEIs with their own workforce planning. For example, the projections show that the numbers of academic staff recruited to HEIs could need to rise by as much as 25 per cent between 2004 and 2011 (an increase from the current 6,000 to a possible 8,800 in 2010-11) if student numbers rise in line with government projections. The subject areas which may require the largest growth in academic staff would be social policy, engineering, biological sciences and medicine. Implementation of the framework agreement for the modernisation of pay structures is establishing a national infrastructure that will enable HEIs to ensure competitive systems of pay and reward. It will also provide reassurance and protection to employees, especially lower-paid staff; and at a local level it builds a greater degree of flexibility into the system, which should help HEIs respond quickly to local challenges.

8.     Looking at the recruitment, retention and progression patterns in English higher education shows that about half of all HEIs have had some problems recruiting certain categories of staff, especially manual staff, but that often these are long-standing problems that HEIs have learned to manage over several years. Where recruitment problems are reported, they are most common in the areas of finance, business, IT, economics, electronics, law, healthcare and teacher education. In many cases, HEIs have become increasingly responsive, with flexible systems of reward that enable them to attract and retain good quality staff.

9.     The supply of PhD students, who represent a key source of new academic staff, may decline if more graduates are deterred from starting postgraduate study by increasing levels of debt. There is no evidence of this at present but we will monitor the position, and may undertake research into the effects of growing levels of debt after the new fee structure is embedded. In addition, we discuss whether the sector’s increasing reliance on staff from overseas represents a risk or an opportunity. The overseas workforce may not be sustainable in the longer term as supply is not guaranteed; and such staff may return home, taking their skills with them.

10.     In the section on pay and pay modernisation we explore comparative salary levels. UK academic salaries continue to compare well with most other relevant comparator countries (except perhaps the US), and there has been significant improvement in starting salaries for academic staff in recent years. The framework agreement on pay structures has been a positive development in addressing pay inequalities, and in tackling low pay for support staff. However, decisions from Pay Review Bodies to improve the relative pay of particular public service groups, such as school teachers and NHS staff, have had unforeseen implications for recruitment to HE from these sectors.

11.     In considering equal opportunities and diversity there is evidence of progress in relation to gender and race, although the situation in relation to those with disabilities, different religious beliefs, and sexual orientation is currently unknown. Recent emphasis on compliance with new diversity legislation, and the training given to support that, has brought about cultural and attitudinal change in HEIs, and all HEIs have equal opportunities targets as an integral part of their HR strategies.

12.     The section on leadership, governance and management looks at how establishing the Leadership Foundation for HE has been an important first step in addressing leadership development and succession planning, with strong support across the sector. The Committee of University Chairmen (CUC) is increasingly proactive – for example, in the development of the new Governance Code – and the profile of governance is rising. There is also evidence that HEIs are directing more funds towards leadership and management development.

13.     As we have been developing this framework, we have compiled a risk register, identifying the major risks to the sector in relation to its workforce. Finally, we looked at the needs for future research to provide further support for HEIs in their workforce planning.

14.     Many of the findings are based on a previous report, HEFCE 2005/23, which provides data about staffing in England, including the professional and support staff. Readers may find it helpful to read the framework in conjunction with that report.