Zero-hours contracts in higher education

The extent of casualisation among teaching staff at higher education institutions has been revealed in a survey by the UCU university and college lecturers’ union.

Over three-fifths (61%) of further education colleges in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have teaching staff on zero-hour contracts and over half (53%) of UK universities, that responded to the union’s Freedom of Information request, use them. The use of zero-hour contracts is rather haphazard and it is difficult to pin down just how widespread their usage is, the union said. Despite the large numbers of colleges and universities using zero-hour contracts, only a handful of institutions said they had policies on them

Of the universities that reported they use zero-hour contracts:

• just under half (46%) had more than 200 staff on zero-hour contracts;

• in the remaining 54% of institutions the number employed on zero-hour contracts ranged from one to 199;

• five institutions had more than 1,000 people on zero-hour contracts;

• of the institutions that supplied information about zero-hour staff in work, just one in four (24%) said all their staff on zero-hour contracts currently had work; and

• zero-hour contracts are far more prevalent for university staff involved in teaching than in research.

The number of zero-hour teaching contracts in universities equates to 47% of the total number of “teaching-only” posts that institutions report annually to the national statistical agency.

www.ucu.org.uk/6749