Higher Education: Manpower

Helen Jones
To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what recent discussions he has had on the demographic profile of the higher education workforce; and if he will make a statement.

Bill Rammell
[holding answer 15 November 2007]: The Department has regular discussions with the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) about the capacity and composition of the higher education work force. We have asked HEFCE to produce a regular report on higher education work force trends across the sector. The council published its Higher Education (HE) Workforce Framework in July 2006, which will be updated on a tri-annual basis in consultation with the HE sector. In parallel, HEFCE will publish an annual data report on trends in the HE workforce. This year’s report will be published on its website before the end of the year. The Framework Report is available here

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/lgm/hr/

The age profile of staff in English HEIs is shown in the following table. It shows that the profile remains consistent from 2003-04 to 2005-06 and that the majority of staff are between the ages of 30 and 60.

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|                    |2003-04        |2004-05   |2005-06        |
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|Age group           |Number of staff|Percentage|Number of staff|Percentage|Number of staff|Percentage|
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|Below 30            |42,806         |16        |44,728         |16|46,887|16|
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|30 to 39            |71,483         |26        |73,472         |26|74,981|26|
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|40 to 49            |71,912         |26        |74,784         |26|77,175|26|
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|50 to 59            |68,979         |25        |70,847         |25|71,914|25|
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|60 and over         |17,731         |6         |19,656         |7|20,934|7|
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|Total with known age|272,911        |100       |283,487        |100|291,891|100|
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|Age unknown         |2,213          |          |1,148          ||542||
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|Total               |275,124        |          |284,635        ||292,433||
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|Source:HEFCE        |               |          |               |
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HEFCE’s analysis also produces subject specific information which is made available across the HE sector and this can be particularly helpful to higher education institutions in planning for the future.