27-08-2013, 03:19 PM
Recruitment and Retention of Academic Staff in Higher Education
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The study
The study seeks to identify the factors which lead to individuals entering and
leaving academic employment in the English Higher Education sector. Although the
main focus was entry and exit from the sector, recruitment to and retention by
individual institutions can shed light on this and was also investigated.
Academic employment was defined as jobs in higher education institutions
(Universities and Colleges of Higher Education) whose main function was academic
teaching or academic research, irrespective of the contractual terms of the job holder.
Thus lecturing and research staff are included, but academic-related staff (e.g.
technicians) are not. Full-time, part-time, permanent and temporary staff within these
groups are included. However, the coverage of hourly paid staff is severely limited.
Pay (Chapter 4)
Pay is one of the important factors in career and job choice, affecting both
recruitment and retention. The study compared the pay of UK academics with highly
qualified people in the rest of the economy and also compared the pay of UK
academics with academics in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark,
Sweden, France and Japan. Differences in data definitions, differences in the nature of
academic jobs and differences in cost of living between countries prevent exact cross
country comparisons. However, we are confident that our findings identify the broad
scale of differences.
Academic pay is low relative to that in other highly qualified jobs in the UK,
which is likely to reduce entry to the sector (Section 4.4.2). (Retention is likely to be
less responsive to pay differentials as careers progress, due, in many subjects, to a
divergence in the skills developed in academia and those needed for senior jobs in
other sectors.)
UK academic pay1 compares favourably with academic pay in Sweden, Japan,
Australia and New Zealand (Section 4.3.2). UK academic pay is similar to that of
Denmark, France and Canada. Pay in the US is higher for comparable academic staff
and the difference is particularly marked at the top-end of the earnings distribution
(Section 4.3.2; Section 4.4.3). Thus pay is likely to be a factor encouraging outflow of
academics from the UK to the US, but also a factor easing recruitment from Sweden,
Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
Reasons for entering academia
Almost 40 per cent of research students were keen to have an academic career
and a further 21 per cent saw this of equal interest to some other career (Section 5.6).
Amongst existing academics just over one half had been keen to have an academic
career. However, many research students and academics did not seriously consider
alternative careers and, for those progressing from a research degree, entering
academia appears often to be a form of drift, to a job which is known. A significant
minority of research students saw academia as providing a stepping stone to another
career (12 per cent), which is likely to reduce retention.
The study examined what research students wanted from a career (Section
5.6.1) and which attributes they thought academia offered (Section 5.7). The main
attraction of academic jobs to research students is doing research and setting one’s
own research agenda. A career offering research was very important to 63 per cent of
research students. Only 30 per cent were strongly attracted by teaching. Only one-
third of research students saw a high salary as very important in their career choice.
Non-pecuniary aspects were more often important: most often a good working
environment, variety, freedom to use initiative and seeing tangible outcomes from
their job. Close behind these factors are autonomy in the job, control of their research,
career prospects, collaboration and flexibility of working hours. Also important were
good physical work conditions, helping people and job security.
Retention
About two-thirds of academics expected to remain in UK academia until
retirement (Section 7.2.2). This was higher in new universities. We would estimate
that between three and six per cent would leave the sector in the year following
interview. This comprised two to three per cent of those on permanent contracts and
five to 11 per cent of those on fixed-term contracts.
Forty-three per cent of those who thought they might leave the sector in the
following year expected to move to another job; this was most commonly to a UK job
outside research and teaching, to an academic job abroad or for fixed-term contracts
staff, to a UK research job. Contract staff could be seen as being driven out of the
sector due to insecurity: they tended to leave due to their contract ending, the desire
for a permanent job or pessimism about job opportunities in UK academia.