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Staff Definitions 2008/09

Coverage

The staff record provides data in respect of the characteristics of members of all academic and non-academic staff employed under a contract of employment by a higher education institution (HEI) in the UK. Staff employed under consultancy contracts, or on the basis of payment of fees for services, without a contract of employment, are not included in the record.

The reporting period for the 2008/09 HESA staff record is 1 August 2008 to 31 July 2009.

The record is collected in three sections; the staff person table, the staff contract table and the staff grade table. The person table contains one record for every person employed by an institution during the HESA reporting period and contains attributes of the individual such as birth date, gender and ethnicity. Each person's employment with an institution will be governed by a legally-binding contract and each contract that exists is recorded on the contract table. If a person has a single contract with the institution there will be one record on the person table and one record on the contract table. If a person has three contracts with an institution there will be one record on the person table and three records on the contract table. A requirement to collect grade-based data nationally was introduced for 2008/09. The grade table provides details of institutions' local grade structure(s). Nationally recognised structures are not required to be included in this table.

The range of data required about an individual and the contract(s) that they hold, and the completion of the grade table, will depend on the nature of those contracts and also the classification of the activity for which the contract exists.

Atypical staff are those members of staff whose contracts are those with working arrangements that are not permanent, involve complex employment relationships and/or involve work away from the supervision of the normal work provider.

For atypical staff only a minimum data set is required.

Staff (excluding atypical) are those members of staff where one or more of the contracts held during the reporting period cannot be defined as atypical, and includes open-ended/permanent and fixed-term contracts.

For these staff there is a requirement to return a wider range of data (which may include salary information and start and end dates of employment and contracts).

Academic staff are defined as academic professionals who are responsible for planning, directing and undertaking academic teaching and research within HE institutions. They also include vice-chancellors, medical practitioners, dentists, veterinarians and other health care professionals who undertake lecturing or research activities.

Non-academic staff are defined as those that do not have an academic employment function such as managers, non-academic professionals, student welfare workers, secretaries, caretakers and cleaners.

The HESA staff atypical population is an indicator of those individuals who have only atypical contracts within the reporting period.

The HESA staff atypical population is used in analyses of atypical staff person attributes by full-person equivalents (FPE).

The HESA staff contract population is an indicator of those contracts that were active on 1 December within the reporting period. Atypical staff contracts are not counted in this population. Other staff with a default (or unknown) contract start date, a default (or unknown) contract end date and a contract full-time equivalent (FTE) of zero are also not counted in this population.

The HESA staff contract population is used in analyses of staff contract attributes by full-person equivalents (FPE).

The HESA staff contract session population is an indicator of those contracts that were active during the reporting period. Atypical staff contracts are counted in this population.

The HESA staff contract session population is only used in analyses of staff cost centre activity, or when summing full-time equivalents (FTE) from the contract table, during the reporting period.

Rounding strategy

Due to the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Human Rights Act 1998, HESA implements a strategy in published and released tabulations designed to prevent the disclosure of personal information about any individual. This strategy involves rounding all numbers to the nearest multiple of 5. A summary of this strategy is as follows:

• 0, 1, 2 are rounded to 0
• All other numbers are rounded to the nearest multiple of 5.

So for example 3 is represented as 5, 22 is represented as 20, 3286 is represented as 3285 while 0, 20, 55, 3510 remain unchanged.

This rounding strategy is also applied to total figures, the consequence of which is that the sum of numbers in each row or column rarely matches the total shown precisely. Note that staff data calculated by full person equivalents (FPE) will also be rounded in accordance with this strategy.

Average values, proportions and FTE values prepared by HESA are not usually affected by the above strategy, and are calculated on precise raw numbers. However, percentages calculated on populations which contain 52 or fewer individuals will be suppressed and represented as '..' as will averages based on populations of 7 or fewer.

Data on financial affairs of higher education institutions does not fall within the definition of 'personal data' under the Data Protection Act 1998, and is therefore exempt from the above provisions.

Full-time equivalent

Staff full-time equivalent (FTE) is defined by the contract(s) of employment and is proportioned to each activity's cost centre. FTE indicates the proportion of a full-time year being undertaken over the course of the reporting period 1 August to 31 July. The FTE is therefore counted using a population of staff who were active during the reporting period, not just on a given snapshot date (using the HESA staff contract session population).

Full-person equivalent

Individuals can hold more than one contract with an institution and each contract may involve more than one activity. In analyses staff counts have been divided amongst the activities in proportion to the declared FTE for each activity. This results in counts of full person equivalents (FPE). Staff FPE counts are calculated on the basis of contract activities that were active on 1 December of the reporting period (using the HESA staff contract population).

Atypical full-person equivalent

Individuals can hold atypical contracts with an institution and each contract may involve more than one activity. In analyses staff counts have been divided amongst the activities in proportion to the declared FTE for each activity. This results in counts of full person equivalents (FPE). Atypical staff FPE counts are calculated on the basis of those individuals who have only atypical contracts that were active during the reporting period (using the HESA atypical staff population).

Mode of employment

Full-time staff are those whose contracts state that their mode of employment is full-time. This includes staff who work full-time for part of a year and term-time only staff who work full-time during the term.

Part-time staff are those staff that work anything less than full-time. This includes atypical (unless shown separately) where institutions were unable to assign staff contracts to either the full-time or the part-time category.

Mode of employment is an attribute of the contract, not the person. Therefore, a person will be counted as wholly part-time, even if they hold a number of part-time contracts that sum to one FTE. The FPE allocated to the full-time category will only reflect the people that hold a full-time contract. This is consistent with the treatment of other attributes of the contract.

Terms of employment

Terms of employment describe the type of contract(s) a member of staff has with the institution at the date the data is returned to HESA, or date of leaving if earlier.

Open-ended/Permanent staff are those who are employed on a contract of employment that states the member of staff as permanent or on an open-ended contract. This includes term-time only staff who are employed on an open-ended contract.

Fixed-term contract staff are those employed for a fixed period of time or have an end date on their contract of employment. This includes staff on rolling fixed-term contracts.

Atypical staff are those whose working arrangements are not permanent, involve complex employment relationships and/or involve work away from the supervision of the normal work provider. These may be characterised by a high degree of flexibility for both the work provider and the working person, and may involve a triangular relationship that includes an agent. Source: DTI Discussion Document on Employment Status, July 2003, paragraph 23.

In addition to this definition from the DTI, some HE specific guidance has been devised by HESA in consultation with institutions. Atypical contracts meet one or more of the following conditions:

• are for less than four consecutive weeks - meaning that no statement of terms and conditions needs to be issued
• are for one-off/short-term tasks - for example answering phones during clearing, staging an exhibition, organising a conference. There is no mutual obligation between the work provider and working person beyond the given period of work or project. In some cases individuals will be paid a fixed fee for the piece of work unrelated to hours/time spent
• involve work away from the supervision of the normal work provider - but not as part of teaching company schemes or for teaching and research supervision associated with the provision of distance learning education
• involve a high degree of flexibility often in a contract to work as-and-when required - for example conference catering, student ambassadors, student demonstrators.

Source of basic salary

Source of basic salary indicates whether contract salaries are paid wholly or in part from funds other than general institution funds. Whether income can be regarded as general institution funds or not depends on the distinction between general and specific income as defined in the Statement of recommended practice: accounting for further and higher education (SORP), published by Universities UK (www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/Publications/Documents/SORP_2007.pdf). Specific income is that which can only be applied to a specific purpose or activity so designated by the grantor or donor.

Wholly institutionally financed staff contracts are those paid wholly from general institution funds.

Principally financed by the institution staff contracts are paid mainly from general institution funds and partly from another source. Principally financed by the institution is defined as that where the proportion financed by the institution equals, or is greater than, 50% of the basic salary.

Other sources of finance staff contracts are paid mainly or wholly from sources other than general institution funds. Other sources of finance describes those contract salaries where the proportion financed by other sources is greater than 50%. These sources (unless shown separately) include: NHS/General Medical or General Dental practice or Department of Health, BIS Research Councils (including research councils - not specified), UK central government bodies and local authorities, UK industry, commerce and public corporations, Charities (including Cancer Research UK, Wellcome Trust, other Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) and other charitable foundations), EU government bodies, EU other, Other overseas sources, and Other sources not listed.

Where all other sources of finance appears in conjunction with wholly institutionally financed it should be taken that all other sources of finance includes principally financed by the institution plus other sources of finance.

Where not applicable/not required appears this is because atypical staff may be returned without a Source of basic salary.

Academic employment function

The academic employment function of a member of staff relates to the academic contract of employment and not the actual work undertaken.

Teaching only staff are those whose contracts of employment state that they are employed only to undertake teaching.

Teaching & research staff are those whose contracts of employment state that they are employed to undertake both teaching and research.

Research only staff are those whose contracts of employment state that the primary academic employment function is research only, even though the contract may include a limited number of hours teaching.

Neither teaching nor research staff are those whose contracted academic employment function is neither teaching nor research, e.g. Vice-Chancellor.

Where Not applicable/not required appears this is because atypical staff may be returned without an Academic employment function.

Movement of academic staff

Starters are academic members of staff who commenced their contract of employment on or after 1 December in the previous reporting period and before or on 1 December in the current reporting period. This category does not include atypical staff.

Inflow - where a starter whose contract of employment in the previous reporting period is not the current institution or another UK higher education institution, they are deemed to be new to higher education service.

Leavers are academic members of staff for whom all contracts ended on or after 1 December in the previous reporting period and before or on 1 December in the current reporting period.

Outflow - where a leaver whose destination on leaving is not the current institution or another UK higher education institution, they are deemed to have left higher education service.

Professorial status

Professor indicates whether the contract confers the title of professor to the holder, regardless of whether an institution's local grade structure contains a professor grade.

Salary range

Salary range is based on the contract salary for members of staff at each institution where applicable, at 31 July in the reporting period, or the end date of the contract if earlier.

For analysis purposes the contract salaries are grouped into six salary ranges, the upper and lower of each range aligned with salary spine points used in the Framework Salary Spine, as detailed in the document Single pay spine for academic and HE support staff 2006-09 www.hesa.ac.uk/dox/manual_documents/C08025_spine_2006-09_oct_5.pdf (salary from October 2008 column).

Contract salary not applicable includes members of staff for whom the concept of a per annum contractual salary does not apply e.g. hourly paid staff, staff with zero hour contracts etc.

Contract salaries reported to HESA based on the reporting of the Framework Salary Spine, the Framework Clinical Spine, plus salaries not set against a nationally negotiated pay spine are included in this analysis. Where HESA is provided with both a salary point (within the Framework Pay Spine or Framework Clinical Spine) and an enhanced salary figure (e.g. London weighting), the actual enhanced salary is used.

Staff with atypical contracts are not included in the Salary range analysis.

Note: staff salary relates to the entire contract and not the individual activities that may be associated with that contract. Therefore, whilst a staff contract may be assigned to more than one activity group, the salary displayed will reflect the entire contract.

Cost centre groups

In certain analyses cost centres have been assigned into cost centre groups, which reflect both academic similarities and comparable resource requirements.

Medicine, dentistry & health
01 Clinical medicine
02 Clinical dentistry
04 Anatomy & physiology
05 Nursing & paramedical studies
06 Health & community studies
07 Psychology & behavioural sciences
08 Pharmacy & pharmacology.

Agriculture, forestry & veterinary science
03 Veterinary science
13 Agriculture & forestry.

Biological, mathematical & physical sciences
10 Biosciences
11 Chemistry
12 Physics
14 Earth, marine & environmental sciences
24 Mathematics.

Engineering & technology
16 General engineering
17 Chemical engineering
18 Mineral, metallurgy & materials engineering
19 Civil engineering
20 Electrical, electronic & computer engineering
21 Mechanical, aero & production engineering
25 IT & systems sciences & computer software engineering.

Architecture & planning
23 Architecture, built environment & planning.

Administrative, business & social studies
26 Catering & hospitality management
27 Business & management studies
28 Geography
29 Social studies
30 Media studies.

Humanities & language based studies & archaeology
31 Humanities & language based studies
35 Modern languages
37 Archaeology.

Design, creative & performing arts
33 Design & creative arts.

Education
34 Education
38 Sports science & leisure studies
41 Continuing education.

Academic services
51 Total academic services.

Administration & central services
54 Central administration & services
55 Staff & student facilities.

Premises
56 Premises.

Residences & catering
57 Residences & catering.

Age

Age is as at 31 August in the reporting period.

Gender

From 2007/08 the specification for student gender falls within the scope of the Aligned Data Definitions adopted by the Information Standards Board (ISB) for education, skills and children's services (escs).

Indeterminate gender means unable to be classified as either male or female, and intended to identify students who are intersex, and not trans-gender nor as a proxy for not-known.

Ethnicity

It is HESA's intention to adopt national classifications where they exist and are appropriate. However, in the case of the Census 2001 ethnicity coding, there is no coding structure applicable throughout the UK, as variations exist in Scotland and Northern Ireland. To accommodate requirements for institutions to report locally to their devolved administrations, the coding frame has been revised.

Staff may choose not to reveal their ethnicity and therefore HESA advises that the figures reported in analyses are derived from a subset which may not be representative of the total staff population.

The ethnic category groupings from 2007/08:

White includes:
White - British
White - Irish
White - Scottish
Irish Traveller
Other White background.

Other (including mixed) includes:
Mixed - White and Black Caribbean
Mixed - White and Black African
Mixed - White and Asian
Other mixed background
Other ethnic background.

Disability

Following introduction of the new Disability Equality Duty, information is required about the nature of disability. From 2008/09 HESA has, on the recommendation of the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU), adopted a version of the coding frame developed by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) which includes additional detail specifically relevant in education (www.dotheduty.org/files/Furtherandhighereducation.pdf). From 2008/09 a second disability field has been added to the staff person table to allow the return of two disability codes.

Disability indicates whether a member of staff is disabled and the type of disability on the basis of their own self-assessment. Staff are not obliged to report a disability, and therefore HESA advises that the figures reported in analyses are derived from a subset which may not be representative of the total staff population.

The full label descriptions for each disability are available at www.hesa.ac.uk/manuals/08025/024.

Staff of known disability status includes those members of staff that answered they have 'No known disability', plus those that reported a disability.

Staff declared disabled includes those members of staff that reported a disability.

Multiple disabilities includes those members of staff that reported a disability in both the first and second disability field.

Unknown disability includes those members of staff that were reported as 'Question not answered'.

Nationality

Nationality defines the country of legal nationality. This is not necessarily the domicile.

UK nationality staff are those whose country of legal nationality is the UK, and for the purposes of analysis include Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man. (Officially, the Crown Dependencies of Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man are not part of the UK or the EU.)

Non-UK nationality staff are those whose country of legal nationality is a country other than that defined as UK nationality.

Location of institution

The allocation of an institution to a geographical region is done by reference to the administrative centre of that institution. There may be staff employed in regions other than that of the administrative centre of the institution.

Although The Open University teaches throughout the UK, its administrative centre is located in South East England, and except where shown separately, is counted as a wholly English institution.

SOC - Occupational coding for higher education staff

The Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) provides a national standard for categorising occupational information. SOC forms the basis of occupational classification in a variety of national surveys that collect statistical information such as the Labour Force Survey and New Earnings Survey. The utilisation of SOC for classifying occupations within the HE sector therefore both allows for the heterogeneity of occupations that exist and enables comparisons to be made with other sectors of the economy and from a variety of data sources.

However, some difficulties emerge in the direct application of SOC for occupational coding within the HE sector. At the most aggregate level, SOC distinguishes nine broad categories termed Major Groups. The titles associated with these Major Groups, which by necessity have to be general in their nature to encompass all occupations, do not provide an intuitive method of classifying the occupations within HE. Additionally, the coding manuals of the Standard Occupational Classification contain information on many occupations and job titles that are not relevant to the HE sector.

The classification of occupations within higher education has therefore necessitated the development of a variant of the national standard that is relevant for the HE sector. This enables the classification of job titles found within the HE sector to fall into one of 13 broad occupational categories. In certain analyses these 13 activities have been assigned to one of four occupational groups.

Activity

Academic staff
2A Academic professionals

Managerial, professional and technical staff
1 Managers
2B Non-academic professionals
3A Laboratory, engineering, building, IT & medical technicians (including nurses)
3B Student welfare workers, careers advisers, vocational training instructors, personnel & planning officers
3C Artistic, media, public relations, marketing & sports occupations

Clerical staff
4A Library assistants, clerks & general administrative assistants
4B Secretaries, typists, receptionists & telephonists

Manual staff
5 Chefs, gardeners, electrical & construction trades, mechanical fitters & printers
6 Caretakers, residential wardens, sports & leisure attendants, nursery nurses & care occupations
7 Retail & customer service occupations
8 Drivers, maintenance supervisors & plant operatives
9 Cleaners, catering assistants, security officers, porters & maintenance workers.

Academic staff are defined as academic professionals who are responsible for planning, directing and undertaking academic teaching and research within HEIs. They also include vice-chancellors, medical practitioners, dentists, veterinarians and other health care professionals who undertake lecturing or research activities. All academic staff fall into group 2A of the SOC classification, regardless of their discipline (e.g. science, engineering, social sciences, humanities, languages).

Non-academic staff are defined as members of staff who fall into one of the remaining 12 occupational categories such as managers, non-academic professionals, student welfare workers, secretaries, caretakers and cleaners.

Clinical status

Clinical academic staff are those members of staff that fall into group 2A (academic professionals) of the SOC classification and includes doctors, dentists, nurses and midwives (registered with the relevant professional council) who normally undertake clinical duties in addition to teaching and/or research; doctors and dentists who, as part of their training, undertake a period of dedicated research; registered clinical academic health professionals, plus other academic staff involved in the delivery of patient care as well as teaching and/or research.

Note: clinical academic staff are not necessarily paid on a clinical academic pay scale.

Non-clinical academic staff are those members of staff who do not meet the conditions of clinical academic above.