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Definitions - Staff 2011/12

Coverage

The HESA Staff record provides data in respect of the characteristics of members of all academic and non-academic staff employed under a contract of employment at a reporting 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 2011/12 HESA Staff record is 1 August 2011 to 31 July 2012.

The record is collected in three sections; staff person, staff contract and 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.

The range of data required about an individual and the contract(s) that they hold 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 involve 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 higher education institutions (HEIs). 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. They include 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.

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, and uses 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 whose contracts state that their mode of employment is part-time.

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 higher education institution (HEI) 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 with 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: Department of Trade and Industry (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 HEIs. 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. 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.

All other sources of finance includes staff contracts returned as partly (but principally) financed by the institution (where the proportion financed by the institution equals, or is greater than, 50% of the basic salary), plus staff contracts paid mainly, or wholly, from sources other than general institution funds (where the proportion financed by other sources is greater than 50%). Other sources includes contracts returned as: NHS/General Medical or General Dental practice or Department of Health; BIS Research Councils (including Research council - 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) plus Other charitable foundation); EU government bodies; EU other; Other overseas sources plus Other sources.

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 and 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.

Highest qualification held

The highest qualification held indicates the highest qualification held by the member of staff.

Doctorate includes doctorate degrees.

Other higher degree includes other higher degrees (including masters degrees).

Other postgraduate qualification includes other postgraduate qualifications (including professional qualifications) and Postgraduate and Professional Graduate Certificates in Education (PGCE).

First degree includes first degrees (including those with Qualified Teacher Status (QTS)).

Other undergraduate qualification includes other qualifications at first-degree level (including professional qualifications), Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE), Higher National Diploma (HND), Higher National Certificate (HNC) and all other undergraduate qualifications (including professional qualifications).

Other includes A level, Scottish Higher or equivalent (NVQ/SVQ Level 3); O level/GCSE or equivalent (NVQ/SVQ Level 2); other qualifications and no qualifications.

Unknown includes those staff whose highest qualification held was unknown.

Movement of academic staff

The movement of academic staff provides analysis of the nature of the previous employment of staff before appointment at the current higher education institution (HEI) and the destination after leaving employment of the reporting HEI. Where previous employment was reported as another UK HEI, the HESA institution code of the HEI at which the member of staff worked is also reported.

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.

Inflow - where a starter whose contract of employment in the previous reporting period was neither the current institution nor another UK higher education institution (Other UK higher education institution), they are deemed to be new to the UK HE academic staff sector.

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 was neither the current institution nor another UK higher education institution (Other UK higher education institution), they are deemed to have left the UK HE academic staff sector.

Professorial role

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 HESA document C11025_spine_2011_12.pdf (Salary from 1 August 2011 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.

In certain analyses cost centres 01 to 41 may be grouped together as academic cost centres.

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 2008/09 the specification for staff 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 is intended to identify staff 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 are:

White includes the HESA valid entries of White - British, White - Irish, White - Scottish, Irish Traveller and Other White background.

Black includes Black or Black British - Caribbean, Black or Black British - African and Other Black background.

Asian includes Asian or Asian British - Indian, Asian or Asian British - Pakistani, Asian or Asian British - Bangladeshi, Chinese and Other Asian background.

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

Where staff of known ethnicity appears in analyses, this includes all staff returned as White, Black, Asian or Other (including mixed).

Where ethnic minority staff appears in analyses, this includes all staff returned as Black, Asian or Other (including mixed).

Unknown includes both ethnicity not known and information refused.

Disability status

Following introduction of the 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. From 2008/09 a second disability field was 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 in the HESA Staff record coding manual.

In certain analysis disability may be grouped as follows:

Known to be disabled includes those members of staff that reported a disability.

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

No known disability includes those members of staff that reported they have no known disability.

Known disability status includes those members of staff that reported they have no known disability, plus those that reported a disability.

Not known 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. The code list is determined by the National Statistics Country Classification 2006 (NSCC).

Further information and a list of the HESA nationality valid entries are available in the HESA Staff record coding manual.

UK nationality includes staff whose nationality was the UK, and for the purposes of analysis includes 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.) Guernsey and Jersey in this context refer to the Bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey, which includes their smaller islands.

Non-UK nationality includes staff whose nationality was a country other than that defined as UK nationality.

Where shown separately, Cyprus (European Union) includes staff whose nationality was reported as Cyprus (European Union) or Cyprus not otherwise specified.(Staff reported as Cyprus (Non-European Union) are included in all other Non-EU countries.)

European Union not otherwise specified includes staff whose nationality was reported as Czechoslovakia not otherwise specified. (Obsolete nationalities may be returned by staff who emigrated at a time when the nationality was current and they have never acquired any other nationality.)

All other Non-EU countries includes staff whose country of legal nationality is not shown separately under Non-EU countries, plus those reported as stateless.

Unknown includes staff whose nationality was not known or it was impossible from the available documentation to assign a nationality from the code list.

Country/Region 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.

HESA allocates HEIs to Regions as follows:

North East (NEAS), North West (NWES), Yorkshire and The Humber (YORH), East Midlands (EMID), West Midlands (WMID), East of England (EAST), London (LOND), South East (SEAS), South West (SWES), Scotland (SCOT), Wales (WALE) and Northern Ireland (NIRE).

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

Institution identifiers

INSTID - Institution identifier (INSTID) is the unique identifier allocated to institutions by HESA.

UKPRN - UK Provider Reference Number (UKPRN) is the unique identifier allocated to institutions by the UK Register of Learning Providers (UKRLP).

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 activities. In certain analyses these 13 activities may also be assigned to one of four activity groups.

Activity group/Activity

Academic staff
2A Academic professionals

Non-academic staff:

Managerial, professional and technical staff

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

Clerical staff

  • 4A Library assistants, clerks and general administrative assistants
  • 4B Secretaries, typists, receptionists and telephonists.

 

Manual staff

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

In certain analyses the 13 activities may also be grouped as academic and non-academic:

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 activities 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.

© Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited 2013