Various administrations have endeavoured to broaden access to higher education, resulting in a notable surge in student enrollment. In the academic year 1995/6, there were approximately 972,000 full-time undergraduate students. By 2007/8, this figure had more than doubled, surpassing 1.8 million. However, achieving this objective could be more practical considering economic challenges. Notably, local bricklayers earned about £1,400 for a four-and-a-half day workweek, equivalent to an annual salary of £60,000. This sum nearly doubles the earnings of the average college instructor and lecturer.
Shortage of Staff for College
New research indicates that approximately 75% of colleges in England need help recruiting faculty to instruct technical and digital subjects. This poses a threat to the government’s initiatives aimed at addressing the national skills gap. The Association of Colleges, a body in the further education sector, found that 85% of the institutions it monitored reported shortages in construction courses, 78% in engineering, and 62% in IT and computing.
The data underscores a growing recruitment problem for colleges as educators leave the profession to pursue higher salaries offered in the private sector. Companies in the private sector are providing more substantial pay packages to address gaps in their workforce. The survey, commissioned by the Financial Times, examined 87 colleges in England, representing around 37% of the sector. Many colleges, three-quarters to be precise, noted difficulties filling positions due to qualified candidates being enticed by better remuneration elsewhere.
Many head teachers expressed the challenge of filling numerous vacancies, and 40% reported having to withdraw courses due to the need for additional staff. This situation highlights the urgent need to address the disparity in salaries between the education sector and the private industry to ensure the sustainability of education and bridge the skills gap.
Teachers and Instructors see strikes as a solution.
In the last few months, there has been a series of strikes by teachers in further education colleges across England over pay and conditions, and more strikes look set to impact the post-16 education sector this year. With inflation at around 10%, college teachers have experienced significant salary cuts this year following a sustained period of real-term amounts to pay. In this report, we set out how college teacher pay has changed over time, compare the payment of college teachers with that of school teachers, and look at staff retention levels in schools and colleges.
The recommended pay of college teachers has declined by 18% in real terms since 2010–11. Teacher pay scales have fallen between 5% and 13% in the same period. There have been incredibly sharp declines in recent years due to high inflation – recommended college teacher pay has decreased by 9% in the last two years. The gap between the average salary of school and college teachers has grown over time. In 2010–11, the median wage (in today’s prices) was around £48,000 for a school teacher and £42,500 for a college teacher. Median pay is now around £41,500 for a school teacher and £34,500 for a college teacher. This means that between 2010–11 and 2022–23, the median salary for a school teacher fell by 14%, while the median salary for a college teacher fell by 19%.
What figures show us?
In the academic year 2010–11, the average starting salary (adjusted for today’s prices) stood at approximately £34,000 for a college teacher and £29,500 for a school teacher. Subsequently, starting salaries have experienced a decline of 14% for college teachers and 5% for school teachers. Consequently, a newly appointed college teacher earns around £29,000 instead of £28,000 for a new school teacher. There are plans to raise starting salaries for school teachers in September to £30,000, potentially resulting in a historic shift where new school teachers earn more than their college counterparts.
Budget reductions in post-16 education have challenged colleges to allocate funds towards increased staff remuneration. Between 2010–11 and 2019–20, public spending per student (aged 16–18) dropped by 14% in colleges, while spending on classroom-based adult education nearly halved during the same period. The higher education sector witnesses a notable staff turnover rate, with approximately 25% of college teachers leaving the profession after just one year, in contrast to 15% of school teachers. Nearly half of college teachers have exited within three years, as opposed to approximately a quarter of school teachers. A decade into their teaching careers, fewer than a quarter of college teachers remain in the profession, a sharp contrast to the over 60% retention rate among school teachers.
The exit rate, indicating the percentage of staff leaving the profession each year, is notably high among college staff compared to other public sector occupations. Specifically, 16% of college teachers exit their roles annually, whereas the corresponding figures are 10% for school teachers, 10–11% for most NHS occupations, and 7–8% for the civil service.
College’s issues have been accumulated during all past years.
Jo Grady, the UCU general secretary, emphasized the genuine staffing crisis in colleges, attributing it to over a decade of austerity measures that have suppressed wages and slashed college resources. Grady highlighted that the actual pay reduction for college teachers surpasses the 18% reported by the IFS, as many colleges would prefer to adopt pay recommendations by the employer body. In this context, staff need the protection of binding national bargaining agreements, facing disappointment from local college employers who need to increase pay or address burdensome workloads sufficiently.
The gravity of the situation is underscored by the fact that approximately 4,000 college staff members have engaged in strike actions over the past six months. Grady warned that further industrial unrest is likely on the horizon unless employers raise pay, alleviate workloads, and commit to entering binding national bargaining agreements.
How do college workers think about their jobs?
The survey, encompassing over 2,000 workers from colleges across England, reveals that nearly all respondents are grappling with financial challenges (96%) due to low wages. Disturbingly, four out of five participants in the survey expressed that their financial struggles are taking a toll on their mental health (79%). Approximately half of the respondents (46%) indicate that their income falls short of covering the cost of living. Among this group, almost two-thirds frequently experience challenges heating their homes (67%), a quarter are compelled to skip meals (27%), and 6% use food banks. Even though colleges are slated to receive at least £700 million more funding in the upcoming year (2023/24) than they did three years ago, the Association of Colleges (AoC), representing employers, has thus far refrained from making any pay recommendations for the period as mentioned above.
The survey’s main findings include the following:
- Over two-thirds of respondents (69%) said they could leave the sector if pay does not improve.
- Over 19 in 20 (96%) respondents said their income either does not cover their living costs or only just about covers their cost of living.
- Almost four in five respondents (79%) said their financial situation impacts their mental health.
- Of the 48% of respondents who said their income does not cover the cost of living, about two-thirds (67%) said they heat their home less frequently, 62% said they are using savings, half said they are using credit cards, over a third (39%) said they restrict hot water, 31% said they are borrowing from friends and family, over a quarter (30%) said have a second job, and a quarter (27%) said they skip meals, and one in 20 (6%) said they use foodbanks.
