Press release 88

 

RELEASE:

09:30 hours
Monday 16
May 2005

NEARLY TWO-THIRDS OF NON-ACADEMIC STAFF ARE FEMALE

RESOURCES OF HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS 2003/04 PUBLISHED

In 2003/04 there were 338,105 staff at publicly funded institutions in the UK HE sector. With the introduction of the new Staff Record2 HESA has, for the first time, been able to determine the occupation types of staff – both academic and non-academic. 150,230 staff, or 44.4 per cent, were recorded as academic professionals.

After academic professionals the next largest group of staff are library assistants, clerks and general administrative assistants at 13.2 per cent. Cleaners, catering assistants, security officers, porters and maintenance workers make up 9.7 per cent and laboratory, engineering, building, IT and medical technicians (including nurses) 8.1 per cent.

Of the 187,875 non-academic staff 41.5 per cent were managerial, professional and technical, 34.1 per cent were secretarial and clerical and 24.3 per cent were involved in manual occupations. The table below shows in more detail the activities of all staff in 2003/04.

                 
  All staff in all UK institutions by activity, mode of employment and gender 2003/04              
                 
          All modes      
    Full-time Part-time Female Male Total Percentage  
                 
  All activities 227525 110580 177045 161060 338105 100.0%  
  Managers 10740 925 5380 6280 11665 3.4%  
  Academic professionals 106900 43330 60145 90085 150230 44.4%  
  Non-academic professionals3 17190 9980 14580 12590 27170 8.0%  
  Laboratory, engineering, building, IT & medical technicians (including nurses) 23200 4045 9355 17885 27245 8.1%  
  Student welfare workers, careers advisors, vocational training instructors, personnel & planning officers 4835 2435 5310 1960 7270 2.2%  
  Artistic, media, public relations, marketing & sports occupations 3480 1225 2595 2110 4705 1.4%  
  Library assistants, clerks & general administrative assistants 28610 15905 36190 8325 44515 13.2%  
  Secretaries, typists, receptionists & telephonists 12485 7115 18490 1110 19595 5.8%  
  Chefs, gardeners, electrical & construction trades, mechanical fitters & printers 4845 665 1000 4510 5515 1.6%  
  Caretakers, residential wardens, sports & leisure attendants, nursery nurses & care occupations 2980 1930 2615 2295 4910 1.5%  
  Retail & customer service occupations 590 535 855 265 1125 0.3%  
  Drivers, maintenance supervisors & plant operatives 1260 275 335 1200 1540 0.5%  
  Cleaners, catering assistants, security officers, porters & maintenance workers 10415 22215 20185 12445 32630 9.7%  
                 
Women made up 52.4 per cent of all staff, however, this figure is 40.0 per cent when looking at just academic staff and 62.2 per cent for non-academic staff. 32.7 per cent of all staff worked part-time, with this figure being 28.8 per cent for academic staff. 35.8 per cent of non-academic staff worked part-time.

In previous years information on ethnicity was available only for academic staff4, but the new Staff Record collects this data for all staff. The table below shows four broad-brush staff groups and mode of employment. In previous publications staff ethnicity data has been restricted to those of UK nationality. This is now not the case and should be borne in mind if consideration is given to this data with figures published for previous years.

  All staff by ethnicity and mode of employment 2003/04            
    Total Staff of known ethnicity Staff of known ethnicity as a percentage of total staff Ethnic minority staff Ethnic minority staff as a percentage of staff of known ethnicity  
  All staff 338105 297835 88.1% 26515 8.9%  
  Academic staff 150230 129445 86.2% 13600 10.5%  
     Full-time 106900 97095 90.8% 10690 11.0%  
     Part-time 43330 32350 74.7% 2910 9.0%  
  Non-academic total 187875 168395 89.6% 12915 7.7%  
     Full-time 120625 109795 91.0% 7605 6.9%  
     Part-time 67245 58600 87.1% 5310 9.1%  
        Managerial, professional and technical staff3 78050 71045 91.0% 4655 6.6%  
        Clerical staff 64110 59160 92.3% 4505 7.6%  
        Manual staff 45715 38190 83.5% 3755 9.8%  
               
Of all staff, 88.1 per cent reported their ethnicity. The percentage of staff for whom ethnicity data is known did not vary greatly by staff group and mode of employment, with the exception of the relatively low figure of 74.7 per cent for part-time academic staff. Among staff of known ethnicity, the proportion from ethnic minority groups varied considerably, with greater representation among academic staff at 10.5 per cent than among non-academic staff at 7.7 per cent.

 

Notes to editors

  1. Press enquiries should be directed to:
    Byron Price
    HESA Press Officer
    01242 211133
    byron.price@hesa.ac.uk
    95 Promenade, Cheltenham, GL50 1HZ.

  2. From the 2003/04 academic year the Higher Education Statistics Agency has introduced a new record of staff data that combines and replaces the several staff data streams that were collected previously. Because of this change caution should be exercised when comparing 2003/04 staff data with that published from the previous staff records. Press release 84, which was released in February, covers this in more detail.

  3. The Open University inadvertently classified approximately 7500 Associate Staff as SOC 2B (Non-academic professionals) instead of SOC 2A (Academic professionals).

  4. Data collected in the previous staff record (2002/03 and earlier) only covered those of at least 25 per cent of a full-time equivalent member of staff. This will have had the effect of excluding some part-time staff from the record.

  5. Resources of Higher Education Institutions 2003/04 is published annually by HESA. It is available to the public from HESA Customer Services, telephone 01242 211155 for more information. In addition to staff data it also contains data on HE finances.

ENDS