Tag Archives: HESA

Get the data: ‘atypical’ staffing in Midlands universities

The University and Colleges Union (UCU) recently revealed that more than half of higher education institutions in the UK use controversial zero hour contracts.

The story was based on comparing FOI responses on zero hour staffing with official overall staffing figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). However, some figures showed some institutions as having more zero hour staff than staff overall, so we called up HESA to find out why those numbers weren’t adding up.

The answer may lie in how staffing is counted by HESA. The ‘definitions‘ link on that staffing data above specifies that:

“Atypical staff are those members of staff whose contracts involve working arrangements that are not permanent, involve complex employment relationships and/or involve work away from the supervision of the normal work provider. For atypical staff only a minimum data set is required.”

In some cases zero hour staff may come under this category. On the same topic: Continue reading