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Departmental demographics of academic staff

HESA publications released - Staff in Higher Education 2015/16 and Higher Education Statistics for the United Kingdom - Staff data

Today's publications provide details of the demographic and employment characteristics of academic staff in UK higher education. The figures include breakdowns by cost centre - an accounting device useful as a proxy for academic department - showing wide variation in the nationality and sex of academic staff in different disciplines.

In 2015/16 Engineering & technology had both the highest proportion of non-UK nationality academic staff and the lowest proportion of female academic staff. Education departments conversely employed the lowest proportion of non-UK nationals and the highest proportion of women.

The charts below show the nationality and sex breakdowns for each cost centre group and can be filtered to show the figures for England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Staff nationality

 
 

Notes to chart

All numbers rounded up or down to the nearest multiple of 5 after calculation.

Percentage calculations exclude staff of unknown nationality.

Definitions

 

      

 

Staff sex   

 
 

Notes to chart

All numbers rounded up or down to the nearest multiple of 5 after calculation.

Percentage calculations exclude staff of unknown nationality.

Definitions

 

      

 

Publications

Staff in Higher Education 2015/16 includes comprehensive data on HE staff broken down by demographic and contract characteristics. The introduction tables and charts are free to download from www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/publications/staff-2015-16

Higher Education Statistics for the United Kingdom is published for the first time under a Creative Commons 4.0 license, free of charge, as part of HESA's open data strategy. The publication will build over the year to cover all aspects of higher education data collected by HESA and others. The staff data component is published today at www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/publications/higher-education-2015-16.

Notes for editors

  1. Press enquiries should be directed to:
  2. HESA staff data is collected from all publicly funded higher education providers in the UK, plus the University of Buckingham, which is a privately funded HE provider. The 2015/16 staff data covers 163 HE providers (132 in England, 9 in Wales, 18 in Scotland and 4 in Northern Ireland).
  3. Definitions of the terms used in this press release can be found at www.hesa.ac.uk/support/definitions/staff.
  4. All data is subject to the HESA standard rounding methodology.
  5. Percentage calculations exclude unknown values.
  6. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties.

About HESA

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) is the recognised source of data on higher education in the UK. Our experts collect, analyse, and disseminate accurate and comprehensive statistical information on all aspects of UK higher education in order to support the strategic aims of our users and enhance the effectiveness of the sector as a whole. We are a charity and a company limited by guarantee. We operate as an independent organisation, working in close partnership with higher education providers, regulators, funders, government departments, policy makers, and other stakeholders.

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