Some handy data on higher education employment trends
HEFCE has published ‘interactive’ data on the trends in employment of staff in the higher education sector for the ten years, 2003-04 to 2012-13. The data is divided into two main categories: academic roles, such as professors and research assistants and then professional and support roles, including managers and directors. Just over half of the total staff numbers are in the second category.
Looking first at professional staff numbers there has been some growth over the last 10 years although it has dipped from its peak in 2009-10:
Over the 10 years, professional and support staff numbers have therefore increased by 8 per cent to reach almost 150,000 in 2012-13. In the same period, numbers of academic staff employed at higher education institutions have increased by more than twice that amount: by 20 per cent to reach 125,900 in 2012-13 as the following shows:
There’s more:
For the first time in 2012-13 detailed information on job types is available: higher education institutions in England employ 700 institutional strategic leaders and 1,715 senior managers among academic staff, approximately 3,415 members of staff are in an academic leadership role, 13,855 are employed as professors, and 11,725 are research assistants. Among professional and support staff, approximately 8,070 are managers and directors, 28,365 are employed in professional occupations and 33,585 are non-academic professionals.
Although less precisely, the report notes that:
The English higher education sector has approximately 135 vice-chancellors
I was hoping for a little more certainty on that one.
There are some interesting graphs and charts to look at here but I think ‘interactive’ is overstating the extent of user involvement a little.
