Key findings from the 2024 Higher Education Staff Statistics

Section 1 – Full-time, fractional full-time (part-time) and casual staff data

Total staff full-time equivalent (FTE) and numbers highest they have been in 10 years

• Overall total staff FTE (full-time, fractional full-time and casual ^[1]) has increased by 5.2 per cent from 136,212.2 in 2023 to 143,268.1 in 2024. 
• The number of full-time staff continued to increase (5.6 per cent), from 98,717.5 in 2023 to 104,286.8 in 2024 ^[2].
• Fractional full-time staff numbers increasing by 2.3 per cent from 17,893.1 in 2023 to 18,303.3 in 2024.

^{Note: Values between 2015 – 2023 are the actual casual staff FTE, whereas the value for 2024 is a projection provided by universities known as ‘estimated casuals’}

Section 2 – Full-time and fractional full-time staff data

This section contains data for full-time and fractional full-time staff employed at Public (Table A) and Private (Table B) universities as of 31 March 2024. This section does not include casual staff.

Staff Full-time equivalent (FTE) by current duties term 

• In 2024, the FTE of tenurial term staff almost doubled limited (fixed) term staff FTE. 
  • Tenurial term FTE increased by 6.8 per cent from 75,353.6 in 2023 to 80,500.8 in 2024. An increase of 22.9 per cent from 2015.
  • Limited term FTE increased by 1.9 per cent from 40,747.6 in 2023 to 41,517.6 in 2024. An increase of 11.4 per cent from 2015.
• Staff on limited term contracts accounted for 39.9 per cent of all academic staff FTE in 2024. Figure 2 shows this broken down by length of contract. 
• Staff on limited term contracts accounted for 29.5 per cent of non-academic staff FTE in 2024.  

Industrial relations reforms

• From 6 December 2023, new employment laws were introduced that restrict the use of fixed term contracts to 2 years or 2 consecutive contracts, whichever is shorter, for workers in Australia.
• However, additional fixed term contract exceptions are in place for the higher education sector until 1 November 2025 for employees covered by either the Higher Education Academic Staff Award or the Higher Education General Staff Award.
• Therefore, the full impact of the industrial relations reform on the higher education sector is not yet observed in these data.
  • The 2024 data shows a 23 per cent reduction in FTE for staff on fixed term contracts greater than 5 years from 2023 to 2024, to the lowest level since 2016.
  • However, the FTE of staff on fixed term contracts between 2-5 years increased by 7.2 per cent from 2023 to 2024. 
• In 2024, there were 20,499 staff (headcount) with current fixed term duties greater than 2 years, which accounted for 14.9 per cent of all staff. There were 29,226 staff (headcount) with limited term contracts up to 2 years, and these staff accounted for 21.3 per cent of all staff.
• Since 2015, staff on limited term contracts (both greater than 2 years and up to 2 years) have slowly declined in terms of the proportion of total staff headcount they account for, from 18.4 per cent in 2018 to 14.9 per cent in 2024.
• While the proportion of limited term contracts has been decreasing, the proportion of staff by headcount on tenurial term contracts has increased from 58.4 per cent in 2018 to 63.3 per cent in 2024.
   

Staff full-time equivalent (FTE) by function 

• The FTE of staff with a Research only function has increased over the past decade (since 2015) (Figure 3a). This group was only minimally impacted by the pandemic, experiencing a 1.7 per cent decrease from 2020 to 2021, which was relatively smaller than staff with other functions (Figure 3b).
  • Research only FTE has exceeded pre-pandemic numbers in 2024 reaching 17,867.1 FTE, an increase of 5.2 per cent from 2023, and an increase of 21.9 per cent from 2015.
• The FTE of staff with a combined Teaching and research function was relatively stable between 2014 and 2020, then decreased by 5.7 per cent in 2021 as a result of the pandemic.
  •  Teaching and research FTE has exceeded pre-pandemic levels with 28,353.0 FTE in 2024. This is an increase of 3.9 per cent from 2023 and an increase of 5.3 per cent since 2015. 
• A small proportion (5.2 per cent) of full-time and fractional full-time staff are Teaching only – this academic function is dominated by casual staff see figure 9). Teaching Only FTE has seen the largest proportional increase over the decade seemingly due to the conversion of these roles from casual to permanent. Teaching Only FTE has increased by 98.9 per cent from 2015 to 2024 from a very small base. 
• Since 2015, the proportional share of Teaching only FTE has steadily increased, while Research only and Teaching and research proportional shares have both decreased slightly. In 2024, 
  • Research only staff accounted for 14.6 per cent of the total staff FTE. 
  • Teaching and research staff accounted for 23.1 per cent of the total FTE. 
  • Teaching Only staff accounted for 5.2 per cent of the total FTE. 
• The Other category includes all staff not involved in teaching or research. In 2024, the proportion of total FTE accounted for by the Other category grew to 57.1 per cent exceeding pre-COVID numbers.

Staff full-time equivalent (FTE) by current duties classification 

• The pandemic affected non-academic staff more than academic staff, with an 8.6 per cent decrease in non-academic staff FTE in 2021 compared with a 4.4 per cent decrease among academic staff. Post 2021, academic staff FTE also recovered more quickly than non-academic staff FTE to pre-pandemic levels. 
  • In 2024, the total FTE for academic classifications was above pre-pandemic numbers, reaching a 10-year high of 51,390.3 staff FTE. This represents a 4 per cent increase from 2023 (49,402.8) and a 17.1 per cent increase from 2015. 
  • The FTE of non-academic staff increased from 61,902.3 in 2021 to 71,198.8 in 2024, an increase of 15 per cent. 

Observations within academic classifications

• The highest academic classification^[3] , above senior lecturer, continues to increase, reaching a 10-year high of 15,976.1 staff FTE in 2024. This is an increase of 5.2 per cent from 2023, and a 10-year increase of 23.4 per cent.
• The academic classification above senior lecturer made up 31.1 per cent of the total academic FTE in 2024 after surpassing lecturer (level B) in 2022, which has historically accounted for the largest proportion of academic staff.

Staff full-time equivalent (FTE) by academic classification by gender 

The FTE of females in senior lecturer or above academic roles has grown by 46.3 per cent over the last decade (since 2015). In 2024: 

• the FTE of females in senior academic classifications increased from 11,491.3 in 2023 to 12,283.8 in 2024 (a 6.9 per cent increase), and 
• females made up 44.8 per cent of the total senior lecturer or above FTE, up from 43.8 per cent in 2023. 
• Notably the proportion of females holding senior lecturer (level C) positions has reached parity at 50.7 per cent (5,813.5 FTE) compared with males at the same level, 49.1 per cent or 5,624.7 FTE.

First Nations staff

First Nations identification data were largely unreported in 2024, with approximately 30 per cent of data collected missing in this field. The following numbers should therefore be interpreted with caution as they may be an under-estimate of First Nations staff employed by the sector.

• The headcount of First Nations staff has more than doubled (103 per cent increase) over the last decade (since 2015) however this largely aligns with population growth over the decade. The growth in proportional share of First Nations staff is more modest, growing from 1.0 per cent of total staff to 1.7 per cent of total staff. In 2024: 
  • The headcount of First Nations staff increased from 2,135 in 2023 to 2,424 in 2024 (an increase of 13.5 per cent), and 
  • First Nations staff make up 1.8 per cent of the total staff in 2024, an increase from 1.6 per cent from 2023. 
• The proportion of reported First Nations staff is still well under the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the wider Australian population (3.1 per cent of working age population^[4]).

Section 3 – 2023 actual casual staff data

This section contains the latest data available to the department on the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) actual casual staff, with the data including the full-year 2023. Headcount data are not collected for casual staff.

Historically, the estimated casual data are a good predictor of the actual casual data. In 2023 the actual casual staff FTE was 19,602.6 compared to the estimated casual staff FTE of 21,079.0.

• Despite actual casual staff FTE increasing from 2014 to 2019, there is no ongoing evidence of increased casualisation of the university workforce in the recent data – both at aggregate levels and for key characteristics such as academic classification, gender, function. 
• Prior to the pandemic, actual casual FTE increased by 25.0 per cent (from 19,487.3 to 24,349.8) between 2013 and 2019. However, since 2020 actual casual FTE has decreased substantially (by 19.5 per cent) while full-time and fractional full-time staff FTE have increased.
• There has been no change in the FTE of actual casual staff between 2020 and 2022, with just under 20,100 FTE actual casual staff recorded in each of these years.  
• However, in 2023 the FTE of actual casual staff decreased by 2.5 per cent to 19,602.6. 
• Casual staff made up an increasing proportion of the total FTE from 2013 to 2019 reaching 17.8 per cent of the total FTE in 2019. Consistent with the large decrease in numbers, the total share of casual staff dropped in 2020 to 14.7 per cent of all FTE. 
• In 2023, casual staff made up 14.4 per cent of the total FTE, down from 15.3 per cent in 2022 and 16.5 per cent in 2014.
• In March 2021, the Fair Work amendment (FWA) was introduced entitling casual employees with consistent hours offers to permanent part-time or full-time work. This may have contributed to the reduced number and proportion of casual staff in the sector.
• The FWA has been further amended in 2023 and 2024, which is starting to show in the data. This is reflected in the continuing decrease in casual staff FTE since 2020 as shown in Figure 7, disrupting the upwards trend from 2014–2019.  
   

Actual casual data by academic classification 

• Lower academic classifications have substantially higher proportions of casual staff than higher academic classifications. In 2023: 
  • 53.5 per cent of all Level A (Below lecturer) academic FTE were casual. 
  • In contrast, 11.6 per cent of Level B (Lecturer), 1.8 per cent of Level C (Senior Lecturer) and 3.6 per cent of Above Senior Lecturer were casual. 
  • 9.7 per cent of non-academic staff FTE were casual. 
• The 10-year trend by academic classification largely follows the trend for all casual FTE, with both academic and non-academic casual FTE increasing from 2014 to 2019 before a rapid decline in 2020 due to the pandemic and updated Fair Work legislation.

Actual casual data by function

• The teaching only function remained dominated by casual staff in 2023, with almost twice as many casual staff in teaching only roles than full-time and fractional full-time. Casual staff made up 64.7 per cent of the total teaching only FTE. 
• Teaching only roles are often used to cater to growing student numbers, however, there has been criticism these roles are career limiting for academics given there is no paid research component. 
• Teaching only casual positions are often occupied by higher degree research students in which the research component of their career is paid for by scholarship separate to their employment contract.

Section 4 – Student to staff ratios (Table A and B universities) 

The student to staff ratios presented in this section should be considered indicative only as they only provide a macro indicator. Student to staff ratios vary considerably between courses, course types and provider. These nuanced factors are not reflected in these data. 

• The student to staff ratio measures the full-time equivalent student load for students studying onshore to the academic teaching staff FTE for Table A and B universities. 
• In 2023, the student to staff ratio increased to 22.10 from 21.83 in 2022. This means there are roughly 22 students per academic staff member. The slightly higher ratio may indicate an increased workload on academic staff, however there are many factors to be considered such as ratios of individual providers and courses. 
• The rising ratios in 2020 and 2021 were due to academic teaching FTE declining relatively more than onshore student full-time equivalent student load (EFTSL). The increase in 2023 is driven by a 3.2 per cent increase in onshore students studying higher education in 2023, offset by a smaller (0.5 per cent) increase in academic teaching staff FTE.

^{[1] Values between 2015 – 2023 are the actual casual staff FTE, whereas the value for 2024 is a projection provided by universities known as ‘estimated casuals’.}

^{[2] The number of full-time staff can be fractional due to full-time staff working in dual-sector institutions working across both Higher Education and VET. This collection reports the proportion of that staff member assigned to Higher Education as reported by the institution.}

^{[3] Above Senior Lecturer consists of: Vice‑chancellor, Deputy vice‑chancellor, Professor, Head of school, College fellow and other academic staff in the Level E salary classification Associate Professor, Principal lecturer and other academic staff in the Level D salary classification}

^{[4] Source: Estimates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 30 June 2021, Australian Bureau of Statistics.}