More than half of Warwick lecturers are on non-permanent contracts

Trade Unions have accused us of ‘importing the Sports Direct model’ for salaries


A report has revealed that Russell Group universities employ more staff on insecure contracts than other institutions.

The University of Warwick has one of the largest proportion of frontline teaching staff on short-term or zero-hours and other flexible contracts.

The figures, which came from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, show that 68 per cent of teaching staff at the University of Warwick are on short-term or zero-hours and other flexible contracts.

A recent article by The Guardian highlighted that the richest Russell Group universities rely most heavily on insecure academic workers, and that temporary and zero-hour contracts are now widespread among undergraduate lecturers.

This has led trade unionists to accuse vice-chancellors of “importing the Sports Direct model” into British universities.

The NUS have also warned that under-paid tutors may not be providing the high quality education that would be expected to undergraduates paying tuition fees of up to £9,000 a year.

This has also raised concerns as many universities are building and expanding their business models, even while many of their frontline teaching staff are struggling to get by.

Peter Dunn, the Director of Press and Policy at Warwick said: “We do not recognise the figure they [The Guardian] quote for temporary contracts among teaching staff.

“Looking across the University at all staff who are either specialist teachers, or are undertaking both research and teaching, on a full time equivalent basis, 15 per cent are on fixed term or hourly paid contracts and the remainder are employed on permanent contracts.

“There will always be a need in Universities to have some staff on flexible arrangements but we do appreciate that this needs to be kept in balance at all times.”