Universities and Administrative Bloat: Does it Matter?

There is a conversation occurring about administrative bloat in Universities. It is one of the explanations offered for why the cost of a degree has increased in excess of inflation. 

There is enormous variation in non-academic staffing in UK universities. The range is almost unimaginable and a look at some data is illuminating. 

Note about the data: The data are provided by HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) and if you wish to look for yourself follow the content links found here and scroll to Table 1 in each year. There are nearly 20 years of data :). The only data I will present today is 2013/14 (the most recent year for which data is available). For this discussion, I assume non-academic equates with administration. This may not be completely appropriate as there are other things non-academic staff do, however, I think it makes a good index. 

With that in mind, you might ask...

Q: Is there administrative bloat in the UK? 

A: Based on 2013/14 data, there certainly are instances that look that way. In the tables the lowest ratio of academic staff / non-academic staff is 0.09 (over 10 non-academics to 1 academic) for a section of the University of London (“institutes and activities”). According to HESA this consists of: University of London Institute in Paris, University Marine Biological Station Millport, and the School of Advanced Study  which is made up of: Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Institute of Classical Studies,  Institute of Commonwealth Studies,  Institute of English Studies, Institute of Germanic Studies and Romance Studies, Institute of Historical Research, Institute of Musical Research, Institute of Philosophy,  Institute for the Study of the Americas, and Warburg Institute. I’m am sure they do something useful but, nevertheless, a VC at the University of London might want to look at this in more detail.

Q: Is there an example of exceptionally low administration.

A: Again based on the 2013/14 data, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama has the highest ratio of academic/non-academic staff (8.47). This is nearly double the next best (4.44) found at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. 

This range was a surprise. The range of non-academic support to academic ranges over nearly 2 orders of magnitude between highest and lowest. Surely there is a conversation needed. Why do some institutions need so much non-academic staff and others so little? 

 

Q: What is typical?

A: Most institutions of higher education have more non-academic than academic staff. A histogram of the ratio is below. It is a pretty good log normal distribution centred near 1. The median value is 0.92 (more non-academics than academics) and the average 1.06.

Q: What do the best universities look like?

 

A: The top 10 ranked universities (as ranked by the Guardian) are Cambridge (1.14), Oxford (1.19), St. Andrews (0.89), Surrey (0.96), Bath (0.71), Durham (0.60), Warwick (0.63), Imperial (1.14), Exeter (0.72), and Lancaster (1.07).

The top 10 UK universities as ranked by QS are: Cambridge (1.14), Imperial (1.14), Oxford (1.19), University College London (1.46), Kings College London (1.61), Edinburgh (0.78), Bristol (0.92), Manchester (0.94), Glasgow (0.86), and Warwick (0.63). 

Conclusion: There is extreme variation in the amount of academic to non-academic staff in the UK. It does beg the question: How should Universities be staffed to perform best?

A league table is below which sorts the institutions from highest to lowest ratio. My personal opinion is that too much non-academic staff represent opportunities lost or excess fess being charged. Based on the data there is not really strong evidence that non-academic staff are either helpful or destructive.

	HE provider	Academic/non-academic Staff
1	Guildhall School of Music and Drama	8.47
2	Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine†	4.44
3	Royal Academy of Music	2.52
4	The Arts University Bournemouth	2.44
5	Royal College of Music	2.38
6	Ravensbourne	2.13
7	University of the Arts, London	2.07
8	Royal Northern College of Music	2.06
9	Birkbeck College	1.99
10	Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance	1.94
11	The School of Oriental and African Studies	1.89
12	The Open University	1.81
13	Heythrop College	1.70
14	The Institute of Cancer Research	1.69
15	The City University	1.64
16	King's College London	1.61
17	Royal Conservatoire of Scotland	1.61
18	London South Bank University	1.60
19	Rose Bruford College	1.55
20	London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine	1.53
21	Leeds College of Art	1.52
22	University of Ulster	1.52
23	The University of Sussex	1.46
24	University College London	1.46
25	The University of Westminster	1.44
26	The University of West London	1.36
27	The University of Northampton	1.33
28	Norwich University of the Arts	1.33
29	The University of Lincoln	1.32
30	The University of Chichester	1.29
31	Bath Spa University	1.27
32	The University of Winchester	1.26
33	The Manchester Metropolitan University	1.21
34	Goldsmiths College	1.21
35	The University of Oxford	1.19
36	Buckinghamshire New University	1.19
37	Middlesex University	1.17
38	University of Hertfordshire	1.16
39	The University of East Anglia	1.16
40	Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine	1.14
41	Kingston University	1.14
42	The University of Cambridge	1.14
43	University of South Wales†	1.14
44	Queen Mary University of London	1.13
45	Southampton Solent University	1.13
46	The University of East London	1.11
47	The University of Salford	1.10
48	Brunel University London†	1.10
49	St Mary's University, Twickenham†	1.09
50	The University of Bolton	1.09
51	University of Bedfordshire	1.08
52	The University of Central Lancashire	1.08
53	Cardiff University	1.07
54	The University of Lancaster	1.07
55	Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh	1.07
56	London School of Economics and Political Science	1.07
57	Birmingham City University	1.06
58	The University of Greenwich	1.06
59	The University of Brighton	1.06
60	St George's Hospital Medical School	1.05
61	Total Northern Ireland	1.04
62	The University of Stirling	1.02
63	University College Birmingham	1.02
64	Edge Hill University	1.02
65	Glyndŵr University	1.01
66	Staffordshire University	1.01
67	Liverpool John Moores University	0.98
68	University of Gloucestershire	0.98
69	Newman University	0.97
70	The University of Essex	0.96
71	The University of Surrey	0.96
72	Oxford Brookes University	0.95
73	The University of Southampton	0.95
74	Edinburgh Napier University	0.94
75	The University of Liverpool†	0.94
76	The University of Manchester	0.94
77	The University of Dundee	0.94
78	University for the Creative Arts	0.93
79	Bournemouth University	0.93
80	University of Wales Trinity Saint David	0.93
81	The Robert Gordon University	0.92
82	London Metropolitan University	0.92
83	The University of Bristol	0.92
84	Conservatoire for Dance and Drama	0.92
85	De Montfort University	0.92
86	Roehampton University	0.91
87	Glasgow Caledonian University	0.90
88	The University of Aberdeen	0.90
89	Sheffield Hallam University	0.89
90	The University of St Andrews	0.89
91	University of Derby	0.88
92	Cardiff Metropolitan University	0.88
93	Leeds Beckett University†	0.88
94	The University of Glasgow	0.86
95	University of the West of England, Bristol	0.86
96	University of Nottingham†	0.85
97	The University of Kent	0.85
98	Coventry University	0.85
99	University of Northumbria at Newcastle†	0.85
100	The Nottingham Trent University	0.84
101	Swansea University	0.84
102	The Queen's University of Belfast	0.84
103	Bangor University	0.83
104	The University of Sheffield	0.83
105	University Campus Suffolk	0.83
106	Central School of Speech and Drama	0.82
107	The University of Leicester	0.82
108	The University of Birmingham	0.81
109	The University of Reading	0.81
110	University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne†	0.81
111	The University of Leeds	0.80
112	University of Plymouth†	0.79
113	The University of York	0.79
114	The University of Edinburgh	0.78
115	Loughborough University	0.78
116	Royal College of Art	0.78
117	The University of Hull	0.77
118	Heriot-Watt University	0.75
119	Royal Holloway and Bedford New College	0.74
120	Glasgow School of Art	0.74
121	The University of Portsmouth	0.73
122	The University of Exeter	0.72
123	Canterbury Christ Church University	0.72
124	Institute of Education	0.72
125	The University of Strathclyde	0.72
126	The University of Bath	0.71
127	The University of Keele	0.71
128	The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts	0.71
129	Anglia Ruskin University	0.70
130	The University of Sunderland	0.70
131	Liverpool Hope University	0.70
132	The University of the West of Scotland	0.69
133	The University of Huddersfield†	0.69
134	St Mary's University College	0.68
135	Cranfield University	0.68
136	York St John University	0.67
137	Falmouth University	0.67
138	Aston University	0.66
139	Aberystwyth University	0.66
140	Teesside University	0.64
141	Bishop Grosseteste University	0.64
142	The University of Warwick	0.63
143	University of Worcester†	0.61
144	University of Abertay Dundee	0.61
145	The University of Wales (central functions)	0.60
146	University of Durham	0.60
147	University of Cumbria	0.57
148	The University of Buckingham	0.57
149	The University of Wolverhampton	0.55
150	University of Chester	0.55
151	Leeds Trinity University	0.54
152	The University of Bradford	0.52
153	Writtle College	0.49
154	The Royal Veterinary College	0.48
155	Courtauld Institute of Art	0.44
156	University of St Mark and St John	0.44
157	Stranmillis University College	0.44
158	Harper Adams University	0.38
159	SRUC	0.37
160	Royal Agricultural University	0.30
161	University of the Highlands and Islands	0.18
162	London Business School	0.17
163	University of London (Institutes and activities)	0.09
	† See relevant HE provider note.