To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the gender pay gap in the higher education sector.
This answer is the replacement for a previous holding answer.
Answered on
6 July 2018
This answer is a correction from the original answer.
The transparency created through reporting, is crucial to accelerating progress to close the gender pay gap. The data on the gender pay gap in the higher education sector can be found at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/annualsurveyofhoursandearningsashegenderpaygaptables.
From 2018, the OfS will require registered providers to disclose the relationship between the remuneration of the head of the provider and that of all other employees, expressed as a pay multiple. It will also require providers to publish the number of their staff paid more than £100,000 per annum, the total remuneration package of the head of the provider, and a justification for this remuneration package.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England, which preceded the OfS, commissioned a project that aims to equalise the gender balance and ethnic diversity of higher education governing bodies. This work will include establishing an online exchange to recruit board members.
Original answer
The Higher Education Statistics Agency publishes information on staff salaries in the higher education sector. The most recent publication can be found at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/publications/staff-2016-17. The government has made no estimate regarding the difference in earnings between the highest and lowest paid employees in the sector.
Higher education providers are autonomous and it is for them to set pay levels for their staff. Universities receive significant amounts of public funding, so it is only right that their senior staff pay arrangements command public confidence and deliver value for money for both students and taxpayers.
The government consulted on behalf of the Office for Students (OfS) on making arrangements for the publication of data on senior staff remuneration.
From 2018 the OfS will require registered providers to disclose the relationship between the remuneration of the head of the provider and that of all other employees, expressed as a pay multiple. It will also require providers to publish the number of their staff paid more than £100,000 per annum, the total remuneration package of the head of the provider, and a justification for this remuneration package.