How do academics’ pay and conditions compare with other sectors?

Analysis finds those working in higher education often enjoy better benefits than elsewhere but precarity leaves many excluded

May 25, 2023
Source: iStock

UK academics enjoy better pensions, annual leave entitlements and other benefits than those in comparative sectors but lose out when it comes to precarity and pay gaps, a new analysis has found.

The Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) and SUMS consultancy conducted a comparative study of academics’ pay and conditions in the context of several years of industrial action in which there have been repeated demands for higher pay and a reversal of cuts to pension benefits.

The study – published on 25 May – shows that, at £47,300, the average salary of higher education teaching professionals is higher than the £38,281 earned on average by colleagues in further education.

It is also higher than the overall 2022 median annual pay of £33,000 for full-time employees and the pay of professions such as nurses, therapists and midwives.

Source: 
Hepi / SUMS consultancy

Academics earn a similar amount to architects, veterinarians and engineers but less than specialist medical practitioners, barristers and judges, the study finds.

“The results show a nuanced picture,” said Hepi director Nick Hillman. “On the areas that have been most associated with the recent industrial action – pay and pensions – academics compare well to those in other professions. Generous occupational pension schemes of the sort that disappeared years ago for most staff in the private and charitable sectors remain the norm in academia.”

“However, the evidence also confirms that academics score poorly on wellbeing and mental health, with excessive workloads and expectations commonly having a detrimental impact on their lives,” he added.

The report finds, on average, academics are entitled to sick pay that is 13 times more generous than the statutory minimum and, at 21.6 per cent of salary, employers’ contribution to pensions run by the Universities Superannuation Scheme is four times more generous than the average employer pension contribution of 5 per cent. Those in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme receive a higher employer contribution of 23.7 per cent.

Other benefits for academics include 33 days annual leave compared with 25 days on average for UK employees, increased access to sabbaticals and more generous sickness and parental leave entitlements.

Mr Hillman said the report's “most important finding is that the expense of the extra benefits enjoyed by academics on permanent contracts come at the cost of younger staff at an earlier stage in their careers, who can struggle to move on up.”

The report highlights a still “considerable” gender pay gap of 13.7 per cent in academia - compared to 14.9 per cent nationally - and a “huge lack of representation of people with minority ethnic backgrounds in the higher echelons of universities”.

Most starkly, higher education lags behind the rest of the country in terms of precarious employment, with 67 per cent of academics employed on permanent contracts, compared with 94 per cent in the labour market as a whole.

“Those on both sides of the recent industrial disputes in higher education would do well to reflect on what more can now be done to tackle precarity in higher education”, said Mr Hillman. “On the basis of this research, that looks like it may well be a more urgent priority than forever protecting gold-plated pensions against all change.”

Reacting to the report's publication, Raj Jethwa, the chief executive of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (Ucea), said it highlighted the “often-overlooked benefits of working in HE when benchmarked against those in other sectors” and the progress being made on reducing the use of zero-hours contracts and gender pay gaps.

But Jo Grady, the general secretary of the University and College Union, said higher education was still marked by pay falling in real terms, insecure contracts and worsening conditions. 

“Every employment benefit university staff are able to enjoy has been won not given, and trade unions will not indulge a race to the bottom which pits one set of workers against another,” she said.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com

POSTSCRIPT:

Print headline: UK academics’ benefits better than most

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Reader's comments (7)

Interestingly the study was very selective in that it did not include Professional Services staff (nothing new there) which would have showed a different picture on pay.
I would be very interested to see a similar study that looks at Professional Services staff both in terms of pay/pay gaps, diversity in leadership and well-being. Feels like a missed opportunity......
The cynic in me also wonders if the timing of the article is an attempt to negate last week's news on University finances which weren't anywhere near as bad as we'd been led to believe.
Hepi, Hillman...working against the interests of academic staff (and professional service staff, although not considered in the "study") as usual. Cui bono? "SUMS Consulting works for universities and is owned by universities" (SUMS website), viz. employers. Again: Cui Bono? A few points: The whole study parrots and references University and Colleges Employers Association talking points throughout. The objective seems to be to confirm them. There is nothing independent or impartial about this study. Academics are highly qualified specialists (even in "junior" positions post PhD). Their benefits, occupational pensions and pay should be benchmarked against equivalent managerial (middle to top) and professional occupations only. Using average or median figures of the UK workforce as a whole skew the picture re benefits, pension and pay. But that has been done on purpose in the report it seems. Sabbaticals for academic staff are not like sabbaticals as they are commonly understood. Academic staff are supposed to do research during those, which is part of their contractual requirements. Thus, it cannot be classed as an extra benefit at all. Many universities call it "research leave" because of that. The author of the study does not seem to know this (comparing apples with oranges, here). Any occupational sick leave scheme looks generous against the meagre statutory benefits in the UK. Annual leave...do not make me laugh. Most academics can never switch off from work (as the study finds too) and annual leave is just a notional figure for most (irrespective of whether it is 25 or 33 days). It is not uncommon and implicitly expected by your employer (due to deadlines set, for example) that you work during your annual leave (especially the fixed periods during university closure), catching up on marking, grant applications etc. The rhetoric of UUK is different, of course. The pension dispute is not only, or primarily about how much the employers contribute but the reduction in benefits based on spurious calculations. The relative better pension has always been part of the whole package for a job in academia versus the private sector in similar professions (in terms of qualification and expertise). It needs to be checked against the pension packages in the private sector for people of similar seniority and expertise. I could go on...
Odd that your article seems to be suggesting that university academics should not valued as higher paid professionals whenm it comes to pay. This anti-intellectualism pushed by the THE is ironic when you make your money out of these very insitutions.
As others have pointed out, ignoring Professional Services staff as usual.
"Increased access to sabbaticals and more generous sickness entitlements." Which universities did they look at? It is next to impossible for staff on certain pathways to get sabbaticals, and when staff are ill, it is not unheard of for them to take annual leave as the process is much more straight forward than getting sick leave. As for compassionate leave when bereaved - forget it. You will be badgered to work even when on compassionate leave. No wonder there are strikes going on right now.

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