The Higher Education finance and pay data review, from the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) in association with trade unions EIS, GMB, UCU, Unison and Unite, reports full-time higher education professionals earn 25% more than the average salary, and median hourly part-time earning has increased by 52% since 2001.
But staff costs have increased by 8% every year over the past six years, and the profession is struggling to fund salaries and pensions.
The report described higher education pensions as ‘excellent' with staff accumulating an additional 17% to 21% of salary at age 45 but stated ‘the cost of sustaining these valued pension schemes poses serious concerns'.
Bill Wakeham, chairman of the UCEA, said: "With higher education being such a heavily staff-intensive activity, staff costs make up nearly 60% of the sector's operating costs. These staff costs also tend to increase faster than the level of indexation of public grant and contract funding, so managing and affording them is a key financial management issue for universities and higher education colleges."
Higher education struggles to fund salaries and pensions of teaching staff
Lecturers in higher education institutions enjoy the fifth highest pay out of 44 professional occupations in the UK, with an average salary of 45,701, but the profession is expected to struggle to afford rising staff costs at the current rate of public funding.
