Staff employed at HEFCE-funded HEIs: Trends and profiles 1995-96 to 2008-09

To:

Heads of HEFCE-funded higher education institutions

Of interest to those responsible for:

Staff data, Planning, Human resources management

This is the sixth in a series of HEFCE reports that provide an overview of trends in staff employed at HEFCE-funded higher education institutions (HEIs). It includes information on staff in academic years 1995-96 to 2008-09. Further detail is given by academic, professional/support and (for the first time) atypical staff.

This builds on the findings reported in 2008 (see Staff employed at HEFCE-funded HEIs update: Trends and profiles, HEFCE 2008/26).

View the most up-to-date report - Staff employed at HEFCE-funded HEIs: Trends and profiles 1995-96 to 2010-11 (HEFCE 2012/14), which includes data from 2009-10 and 2010-11.

Contents

• Executive summary
• Introduction
• Terminology
• Methodology
• Overview of staff in English HEIs
• Overall staff numbers
• Staff numbers by type of institution
• Staff and employment attributes
• Activity profile of the workforce
• Age profile of the workforce
• Disability profile of the workforce
• Nationality profile of the workforce
• Ethnicity profile of the workforce
• Sex profile of the workforce
• Salary profile of the workforce

Annexes

• Annex A Additional information on data sources
• Annex B Changes to data published in previous years
• Annex C Overview of UK staff numbers
• Annex D Time series for atypical staff between 2004-05 and 2008-09
• Annex E Ethnicity profile of the non-UK nationality workforce

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Executive summary

Purpose

1. This is the sixth in a series of HEFCE reports that provide an overview of trends in staff employed at HEFCE-funded higher education institutions (HEIs). It includes information on staff in academic years 1995-96 to 2008-09. Further detail is given by academic, professional/support and (for the first time) atypical staff.

Key points

2. In this report we give an overview of trends in staff at English HEIs from 1995-96 to 2008-09. It shows the following aspects.

Numbers

3. The total number of staff rose 8 per cent between 2005-06 (292,000) and 2008-09 (315,000).

Contracts

4. The proportion of academic, professional and support staff with permanent contracts increased between 2005-06 and 2008-09. The proportion of professional and support staff with permanent contracts increased from 85 to 88 per cent. For academic staff, the proportion rose from 67 to 72 per cent across the same period.

Age profile

5. There was relative stability in the proportions of staff in different age groups for all four categories of staff (defined in paragraph 18). However, the size of the over 60 group is steadily increasing for all categories. The increase in the mean age of permanent academic staff was 0.2 years between 2005-06 and 2008-09. This reflects an increase observed in the wider UK workforce, which was 0.4 years over the same period.

Disability

6. The proportion of permanent academic staff reported as declared disabled between 2005-06 and 2008-09 increased from 2.6 per cent to 3.0 per cent. This follows a rapid increase from 1.3 per cent to 2.7 per cent between 2000-01 and 2003-04.

7. The proportion of professional and support staff reported as disabled in 2008-09 was 3.7 per cent, increasing from 2.9 per cent in 2005-06.

8. Atypical staff saw an increase in the proportion of declared disabled staff, from 1.4 per cent in 2005-06 to 1.8 per cent in 2008-09.

Nationality

9. The proportion of permanent academic staff who are non-UK nationals rose steadily from 14 per cent in 2005-06 to 17 per cent in 2008-09.

10. The proportion of professional and support staff who are non-UK nationals increased throughout the four-year period 2005-06 to 2008-09, moving from 7 per cent to 9 per cent. The proportion of non-UK national atypical staff increased between 2005-06 and 2008-09, reaching 20 per cent in 2008-09.

Ethnicity

11. For staff who are UK nationals, the proportion of permanent academic staff from a black and minority ethnic (BME) background rose steadily between 2005-06 and 2008-09, reaching 9 per cent. Professional and support staff show a similar trend: the proportion rose by 0.9 percentage points between 2005-06 and 2008-09 to reach 7.5 per cent.

12. The proportion of atypical staff who are UK national and from a BME background rose by one percentage point over the four-year period, reaching 9 per cent in 2008-09.

Sex

13. The proportion of permanent academic female staff rose from 37 to 39 per cent between 2005-06 and 2008-09. Between 1995-96 and 2008-09, there was a consistent increase at all grades in the proportions of permanent academic staff who are female.

14. For professional and support staff, the proportion who are female increased from 61 per cent to 62 per cent between 2005-06 and 2008-09. The proportion of atypical staff who are female increased from 51 per cent in 2005-06 to 53 per cent in 2008-09.

Salary

15. In 2008-09 the median salary of permanent academic staff was £46,890: a rise of 21 per cent from 2005-06. A further breakdown shows that the median salaries of professors, senior lecturers and lecturers were £68,570, £51,990 and £41,910 respectively.

16. For professional and support staff, the median salary in 2008-09 was £24,810: a rise of 23 per cent from 2005-06. A further breakdown shows that the median salaries of managers and professionals, technicians, support administrators and other professional and support staff were £38,760, £27,410, £22,770 and £15,640 respectively.

Action required

17. No action is required in response to this document.

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