Staff at higher education institutions: September 2020 to August 2021

Main points

• There has been a small drop in the number of staff at Welsh universities from 20,720 in 2019/20 to 20,385 in 2020/21 (down 2%).
• There was a reduction in the number of staff across all institutions with the exceptions of Cardiff University where total staff remained broadly similar, Cardiff Metropolitan University where staff increased from 1,470 to 1,500 (up 2%) and Glyndwr University where staff increased from 465 to 495 (up 6%).
• Cardiff University employed the most staff (6,915), the next largest was Swansea University (3,660).
• Glyndwr University was the smallest university in terms of staff numbers, employing 495 in 2020/21.
• Just under half of all staff (49%) were on academic contracts.
• 65% of academic contracts were full-time and 70% of non-academic contracts were full-time.
• Of those who weren’t on an academic contract, 4,340 were in professional or technical occupations. 3,620 were in administrative and secretarial occupations and 765 were in ‘elementary occupations’.
• 55% of all staff positions were filled by women. However, they held 47% of academic contracts. Just over two thirds of all part-time staff were female (67%).
• 11% of academic staff members reported they were able to teach through Welsh and 54% of those were actually doing so.