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College Staffing key points 2022-23
This report is an overview of staff employed in the college education sector in Scotland from 2014-15 to 2022-23. It provides sector summary data on headcount and teaching and non-teaching (support) staff data by full-time equivalent (FTE) staff.
The publication is split into two sections:
FTE is based on the number of full-time equivalent staff employed in the college sector. Contracted hours are used as the basis for calculating FTEs and a full-time member of staff employed for the year would equate to an FTE of 1.
Headcount is based on the number of staff employed in the college during the academic year. Each member of staff is counted once, regardless of the number of hours/contracts for which they are employed.
The key points from this report are:
Full-time equivalent
There were 10,957 FTE staff employed in colleges in 2022-23, a decrease of 120 (1.1%) from the previous year.
The nine-year trend from the 2014-15 starting position represents an increase of 1.5% (160).
5,369 FTE (49.0%) were teaching staff and 5,589 FTE (51.0%) non-teaching staff.
Teaching staff decreased by 0.1% (3 FTE) between 2014-15 and 2022-23 while non-teaching staff showed an increase of 3.0% (163 FTE).
Full-time staff (7,531) decreased by 2.3% since 2014-15.
Part-time staff (3,426) increased by 11.0% since 2014-15.
Headcount
The staff headcount decreased by 174 (1.2%) to 14,147 from 2022-22 (14,321).
Females account for 61% of all staff headcount in 2022-23, 54% of teaching and 68% of non-teaching staff.
Of the 236 senior management roles in 2022-23 the proportion of females decreased by 2.4pp to 52.1%.
The 51 and over age group accounted for 46.8% of the overall staff in 2022-23, a 6.1pp increase from 2014-15.
Black and minority ethnic (BME) staff made up 2.6% (361) of all headcounts in 2022-23. The proportion of BME female teaching staff has decreased by 0.2pp in the past year to 2.2% in 2022-23. In contrast, the proportion of BME male teaching staff has increased by 0.1pp in the past year to 3.0.% in 2022-23.
Those with a declared disability made up 7.5% (1,059) of all headcounts in 2022-23.
The proportion of full-time permanent college teaching staff with a formally recognised teaching qualification increased by 1.9pp from 86.3% in 2021-22 to 88.2% in 2022-23.
College staff known nationality proportions were as follows: 93.9% UK, 4.1% EU, 2.0% Non-EU international.
Section 1: Full-time equivalent staffing data
The charts presented in the following section show different breakdowns of staff full-time equivalents (FTEs) by mode and occupation type.
Figure 1: Staff FTE by mode of employment 2014-15 to 2022-23
Figure 2: Staff FTE by occupation 2014-15 to 2022-23
Figure 3: Teaching Staff FTE by mode of employment 2014-15 to 2022-23
Section 2: Headcount staffing data
The following three charts show information about staff headcount by sex and age band.
Figure 4: Staff (teaching & non-teaching) headcount by sex 2014-15 to 2022-23
Figure 5: Teaching staff headcount by sex 2014-15 to 2022-23
Figure 6: Staff headcount (teaching & non-teaching) by age band 2014-15 to 2022-23
The remaining charts and tables show information about staff headcount by demographics, occupation type and qualification classification.
Figure 7: Population pyramid of age band population all staff by sex 2022-23
Figure 8: Proportion of the Scottish population: disability by age
Figure 9: Proportion of staff from a minority ethnic background by sex & role 2017-18 to 2022-23
Figure 10: Known nationality for all college staff 2022-23
Figure 11: Proportion of teaching staff by qualification category 2014-15 to 2022-23
Table 1: Number and proportion of staff with recognised teaching qualification 2014-15 to 2022-23
Note, additional figures on college headcount by teaching grade and qualification are shown in the publication appendix document.
| Academic Year |
Permanent Full-time | Permanent Part-time | Temporary Full-time | Temporary Part-time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-15 | 3,277 | 1,736 | 49 | 635 |
| 2015-16 | 3,246 | 1,752 | 41 | 582 |
| 2016-17 | 3,200 | 1,820 | 41 | 676 |
| 2017-18 | 3,209 | 1,947 | 41 | 479 |
| 2018-19 | 3,222 | 2,017 | 58 | 436 |
| 2019-20 | 3,202 | 2,238 | 43 | 370 |
| 2020-21 | 3,124 | 2,277 | 51 | 301 |
| 2021-22 | 3,175 | 2,267 | 48 | 291 |
| 2022-23 | 3,129 | 2,260 | 40 | 309 |
| Academic Year |
Permanent Full-time* | Permanent Part-time | Temporary Full-time | Temporary Part-time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-15 | 87.8% | 78.8% | 60.5% | 43.1% |
| 2015-16 | 88.4% | 78.9% | 58.6% | 46.3% |
| 2016-17 | 88.9% | 81.1% | 48.8% | 50.8% |
| 2017-18 | 87.9% | 80.0% | 45.6% | 40.9% |
| 2018-19 | 86.7% | 76.6% | 53.2% | 40.3% |
| 2019-20 | 88.8% | 81.3% | 46.7% | 41.7% |
| 2020-21 | 86.8% | 77.2% | 53.7% | 44.1% |
| 2021-22 | 86.3% | 78.8% | 37.2% | 43.4% |
| 2022-23 | 88.2% | 81.8% | 37.7% | 46.7% |
| * Figures represent the national college performance measure: Proportion of full-time permanent teaching staff with a recognised teaching qualification | ||||
For further information on the staffing collection please refer to College Staffing Guidance