| No.1 March 1999 first page CONTENTS Who are the Contract Researchers? |
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Who are the contract researchers?The population of contract researchers is very unevenly spread across Scottish universities. Four universities – Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee - account for the bulk of the sample, with a significant proportion of contract research workers also located in St. Andrews and Strathclyde. In overall terms, contract researchers appear almost equally divided between males and females (49 per cent and 51 per cent, respectively). However, there are considerable differences between institutions. Heriot Watt and Paisley, for instance, have an above average proportion of male contract researchers, while the proportion of females is above average in Stirling and St Andrews. Differences in the gender structure of research employment most likely reflect well known gender differences in the disciplinary areas in which researchers work. Male employment tends to be higher in areas such as engineering and computing while females tend to be over-represented in areas such as biology, art and humanities. The great majority (80 per cent) of contract research workers are aged between 25 and 39 years of age. However, female contract researchers are slightly less well represented amongst those aged 30-39 and somewhat above average in all other age groups. There are age differences across subject areas. Researchers in science, medicine and engineering are more likely to be in the age range of 25-39 years of age. While researchers in this age range are also the most numerous in art, social science and education, it is somewhat more common for such researchers to be older. Around a third of researchers in medical, science and engineering research are aged 25-29 years, whereas less than a quarter of those in the social sciences, humanities, art and education are in this age range. A significant proportion of researchers are over the age of 50 in both education and arts research (21 per cent and 14 per cent respectively). |
