Skip to main content
KBS_Icon_questionmark link-ico

Why have universities transformed their staffing practices?

Read the summary report


Recent decades have seen enormous growth in higher education worldwide, including in the UK. Many observers, notably academics, media commentators and staff unions, have argued that during this same period there have been major associated changes in the university workforce, with consequences for both quality and efficiency; but there has been little in-depth analysis of these. This project provided extensive data on staffing developments in UK universities since 2000, with new information on both numerical trends and their underlying causes.

This research was funded by the Nuffield Foundation and carried out in partnership with UCL.