This article deals with senior academic staff, including the head of the institution who is usually known as the vice-chancellor or principal, and non-academic professionals in areas such as human resources, finance, estates, marketing, security, information services and information technology.
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) produces an annual staff record providing detailed information regarding higher education staff, including senior academic staff and non-academic staff in management roles for the whole of the UK. It includes staff numbers and characteristics such as ethnicity and nationality; contracts and terms of employment; and staff numbers working in different academic subject disciplines. The 2018/19 staff record is available on the HESA website. For detailed information regarding these categories of staff, see the subheading ‘Promotion, Advancement’ in the article on ‘Conditions of Service for Academic Staff in Higher Education’.
Requirements for appointment
As is the case with academic staff, non-academic staff in higher education institutions (HEIs) are employees of the individual institution and are not civil servants. They are not guaranteed employment at any stage of their professional life and must apply for specific posts.
Organisational structures are a matter for the institution and arrangements vary widely, although the trend in recent years has been to develop strong executive structures to replace management by committee. Each institution is responsible for deciding on the number of non-academic staff and for determining the job specification, the qualifications required for the job and other selection criteria.
The appointment of senior post holders is a matter for the Governing Body or the Council of the institution. The arrangements to be adopted for the selection of the head of institution (normally known as the vice-chancellor or principal) may be directed by institutional statutes.
Conditions of service
There is a national Framework Agreement for the Modernisation of Pay Structures which was agreed in 2003 by the original Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff (JNCHES), now replaced by New JNCHES. This sets out a broad national framework for pay and conditions, within which institutions are free to adapt the detail to their own missions and circumstances.
The agreement and its 51-point pay spine cover both academic and non-academic staff, although Queens University Belfast and Ulster University have implemented separate career pathways for academic and non-academic staff within the framework.
The employing authority for all staff of the institution is the institution’s Governing Body or Council. According to best practice guidance from the Committee of University Chairs is that the Governing Body or Council should establish a human resources strategy, which includes details of staff resources and costs, recruitment and retention, average salary levels, pay awards and training and development.
The Governing Body or Council is also responsible for the appointment, grading, suspension, dismissal and determination of the pay and conditions of service of senior post holders, whose pay and conditions are negotiated individually. The Governing Body or Council establishes a remuneration committee for this purpose.
The Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, part of the sector organisation Advance HE, offers a range of programmes for current and future leaders, including:
- the Top Management Programme (TMP) for strategic leaders, e.g. vice-chancellors/principals
- the Senior Strategic Leadership Programme for deans of faculty, senior professors or leaders of professional service departments
- Higher Education Insights for managers new to higher education.
Article last reviewed December 2020.