Demographics of academic staff

HESA publication 'Staff in Higher Education Institutions 2012/13' released today

Staff in Higher Education Institutions 2012/13 shows that there were 185,585 academic staff employed at UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) on 1 December 2012. 55.5% of academic staff were male. 30.9% were aged 51 years or over and 66.0% were employed full-time.

The graphic below shows the numbers of academic staff by sex and age group:

The proportion of female staff falls with age. Of academic staff aged 30 and under, 48.4% were female, while of those aged 61 and over, only 30.2% were female. Female staff were more likely than male staff to be working part-time in every age group.

The table below shows the data behind the graphic:

Publication

Staff in Higher Education Institutions 2012/13 is a downloadable publication which includes comprehensive data on HE staff broken down by demographic and contract characteristics. Staff in Higher Education Institutions 2012/13 is available to purchase now from our website.

The introduction to the publication is published online and includes further graphs and data tables.

The next scheduled release from HESA will be the publication of finance statistics on 6 March. A full schedule of HESA releases for 2014 can be found here.

Notes for editors

1. Press enquiries should be directed to:
   
   • Simon Kemp
   • HESA Press Officer
   • 01242 211120
   • [email protected] 
   • 95 Promenade, Cheltenham, GL50 1HZ.
2. In the above data and annex tables 0, 1, 2 are rounded to 0. All other numbers are rounded up or down to the nearest multiple of 5.
3. Atypical academic staff are not included in the graphic or data tables.
4. Staff of unknown age are included in the total figures of each table but not shown separately. These staff are excluded from the graphic.
5. HESA staff data is collected from all publicly funded Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the UK, plus the University of Buckingham, which is a non-publicly-funded institution. The 2012/13 data covers 162 HEIs (130 in England, 10 in Wales, 18 in Scotland and 4 in Northern Ireland).
6. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties.
7. Equivalent tables for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland can be found in the Annex below.
8. Definitions of the terms used in this press release can be found on-line here.

Annex - equivalent tables for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

England

Wales

Scotland

Northern Ireland