Higher education

Sector introduction

The UK Higher Education (HE) sector is the principal employment sector for UK doctoral graduates, and the sector that most doctoral graduates are familiar with.

This sector currently covers 165 HE institutions, 115 of which are universities. In 2009, HE employed 372,000 people directly, of whom around 179,000 were academic staff. In 2007/8, the total financial turnover of the sector came to £23.4bn [The impact of universities on the UK economy], and HE received £2bn in public grants and contracts for research and £1.7bn in private and international grants and contracts.