Gender pay gap report 2025
This is the ninth report on the gender pay gap at the University of St Andrews, utilising a framework provided by the UK Government.
Key points
- The mean gender pay gap has decreased to 15.7% in 2025 from 16.9% in 2024.
- The median gender pay gap has decreased to 14.4% in 2024 from 15.0% in 2024.
- The mean gender pay gap for those staff on the University grade scale is 2.9% or less for each individual grade, except for Grade 9 (10.4%). The gap for Grades 2, 7, and 8 is in favour of women.
- The median gender pay gap for those staff on the University grade scale is 2.6% or less for each individual grade, except for Grade 9 (11.2%) and Grade 2 (3.4%). The gap for Grades 2, and 8 is in favour of women.
- The main drivers of gender pay gap are the distribution of staff (with women forming a majority of staff at the lower paid grades and minority of staff at the higher paid grades) and the difference in pay at Grade 9.
Introduction
Equality, diversity, and inclusion is a core pillar in the University Strategy. The University is committed to promoting inclusivity and providing equal opportunity for all of its staff and students.
The University was first awarded an institutional Athena Swan Bronze Award in 2013, and was awarded an Athena Swan Silver Award in 2024, which recognised our commitments and achievement in addressing gender equality issues. All our academic schools hold a school level Athena Swan Award including one Gold and five Silver.
This is our eighth report on the gender pay gap. We continue to monitor our gender pay gaps, work to understand reasons for pay differentials, and strengthen our actions to address gender imbalance in recruitment and promotion in order to reduce the gender pay gap (see Closing the gap).
We adopt a framework provided by the UK Government in calculating gender pay gap. The gender pay gap is a measure of the difference between the average hourly pay of men and women across the whole organisation. It is not a measure of unequal pay, which is the difference in pay between men and women doing the same job. Unequal pay is against the law, as set out in the Equality Act 2010.
This analysis is based on our payroll data as at 31 March 2025. This report focuses on the gender pay gap. Our ethnicity pay gap report is available online, and further analysis will be conducted to assess the disability pay gap among the 2025 population.
Key findings on gender pay gap
The population
As at 31 March 2025, there were 4,160 staff members who were on the University payroll and who met the UK Government’s definition for inclusion in the gender pay gap population. This population includes staff on both salaried and flexible contracts, standard and fixed term, and full-time and part-time hours. Of the total 4,160 staff members, 53.9% (2,245) were female and 46.1% (1,915) were male (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Staff population by gender, 2025
Overall gender pay gap 2025
The gender pay gap is the percentage difference between the average hourly rate for male staff and female staff.
Our mean gender pay gap for 2025 is 15.7%. This means the mean average hourly pay for a woman is 15.7% lower than for a man.
Our median gender pay gap for 2025 is 14.4%. This means if you arrange all the women and all the men in order by their hourly rate, the hourly rate for the middle woman is 14.40% lower than that for the middle man.
Trends in gender pay gap
The overall mean gender pay gap has been declining since our first report in 2017 (Figure 2). It has fallen by 7.6 percentage points between 2017 and 2025. The mean gender pay gap is 1.1 percentage points lower than in 2024.
Figure 2: Mean gender pay gap, 2017 to 2025
| Year | All | Academic | Professional Services |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 23.3% | 15.3% | 13.2% |
| 2018 | 22.6% | 15.5% | 12.1% |
| 2019 | 21.9% | 16.1% | 11.3% |
| 2020 | 20.7% | 14.2% | 11.2% |
| 2021 | 20.2% | 16.1% | 10.1% |
| 2022 | 17.6% | 13.4% | 6.9% |
| 2023 | 17.6% | 12.9% | 7.4% |
| 2024 | 16.9% | 13.9% | 5.9% |
| 2025 | 15.7% | 10.8% | 6.7% |
The improvements in the mean and median pay gap have been largely influenced by the larger increase in the proportion of higher paid roles (Grades 7-9) of female staff (+0.9 percentage points, from 20.2% to 21.1%) compared with that of male staff (+0.3 percentage points, from 34.8% to 35.1%).
The mean gender pay gap for salaried (i.e. excluding flexible contracts and Graduate Teaching Assistants) academic staff of 10.8% has narrowed from 2024. The median gender pay gap salaried academic staff is 8.5%, down from 13.7% last year. Both the mean and median pay gaps for salaried academic staff are at the lowest level since 2017(15.3%, 11.1% respectively).
The main driver for the decrease in both the mean and median pay gap for salaried academic staff is the greater increase in the proportion of women at Grade 7 or above (+1.9 percentage points, from 56% to 58%) compared with that of men (+0.1 percentage points, from 68.0% to 68.2%).
Figure 3: Median gender pay gap, 2017 to 2025
| Year | All | Academic | Professional Services |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 18.9% | 11.1% | 16.2% |
| 2018 | 21.0% | 11.1% | 16.2% |
| 2019 | 16.6% | 13.7% | 15.1% |
| 2020 | 15.1% | 9.5% | 14.9% |
| 2021 | 18.1% | 16.1% | 10.9% |
| 2022 | 14.9% | 13.7% | 6.3% |
| 2023 | 12.9% | 10.9% | 9.9% |
| 2024 | 15.0% | 13.7% | 5.9% |
| 2025 | 14.4% | 8.5% | 8.0% |
Gender pay quartile
There are a higher proportion of women (compared to men) in the lower, lower middle, and upper middle pay quartiles. There is a higher proportion of men in the upper pay quartile. This vertical segregation of men and women is the key driver of both the mean and median gender pay gaps.
Figure 4: Gender distribution in each quartile, 2025
Gender pay gap UK benchmarks
The mean gender pay gap for the UK is currently 13.8%, with the median pay gap at 13.1% (ONS, Gender pay gap in the UK: 2024). As gender pay gaps vary by industry, UCEA produce an annual report on higher education institutions’ pay gaps. St Andrews’ mean gender pay gap is larger than the gap for UK HEIs, and at the same level as Russell Group institutions.
Figure 5: St Andrews mean pay gap benchmarked
*UCEA data as at 31 March 2023
St Andrews’ median gender pay gap is wider than the gap for UK HEIs, and also wider than the Rusell Group’s median pay gap.
Figure 6: St Andrews median pay gap benchmarked
*UCEA data as at 31 March 2023
AdvanceHE produce gender pay gap data for salaried academic and professional services staff across all UK higher education institutions. St Andrews’ mean and median gender pay gaps for salaried academic staff are larger than those for the sector. Our mean gender pay gap for salaried professional services staff is slightly larger than the sector gap, however our median gap is smaller.
Figure 7: St Andrews mean academic and professional services pay gaps benchmarked
*AdvanceHE data as at 2022-23
Figure 8: St Andrews median academic and professional services pay gaps benchmarked
*AdvanceHE data as at 2022-23
Gender pay gap by grade
Most salaried staff of the University are employed on a 9- point grade scale, details of which can be found on the University’s website.
The highest paid grade, Grade 9 has historically seen significant gender pay gaps. Our highest mean and median gaps were recorded in 2022 at 12.2% and 12.4%. The Grade 9 mean gap is now 10.4% (compared with 9.7% in 2024), whilst the median gap has increased to 11.2% (from 8.6% in 2024).
Figure 9: Mean Grade 9 gender pay gap, 2017 to 2025
| Year | All | Academic | Professional Services |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 6.7% | 4.0% | 24.4% |
| 2018 | 7.7% | 4.4% | 25.4% |
| 2019 | 11.8% | 9.9% | 22.3% |
| 2020 | 10.9% | 8.6% | 23.0% |
| 2021 | 10.4% | 8.2% | 23.1% |
| 2022 | 12.2% | 10.0% | 24.6% |
| 2023 | 9.5% | 9.1% | 13.5% |
| 2024 | 9.7% | 10.7% | 6.7% |
| 2025 | 10.4% | 9.4% | 21.9% |
Figure 10: Median Grade 9 gender pay gap, 2017 to 2025
| Year | All | Academic | Professional Services |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 7.1% | 4.8% | 18.6% |
| 2018 | 4.6% | 2.1% | 22.7% |
| 2019 | 10.1% | 5.6% | 23.8% |
| 2020 | 7.9% | 4.2% | 24.9% |
| 2021 | 8.0% | 5.5% | 21.1% |
| 2022 | 12.4% | 8.2% | 23.4% |
| 2023 | 9.8% | 9.6% | 18.0% |
| 2024 | 8.6% | 9.6% | 7.5% |
| 2025 | 11.2% | 9.5% | 27.2% |
These gaps are driven by the fact that a much higher proportion of women are in the lowest paying Band A of Grade 9 compared with men, which can be seen in Figure 11.
| Grade 9 band | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| Legacy | 16.1% | 3.2% |
| Band A | 43.0% | 61.1% |
| Band B | 24.4% | 24.2% |
| Band C | 16.6% | 11.6% |
Note: In 2017 the University introduced a sub-grade pay banding structure within Grade 9 (i.e., 9A, 9B, and 9C). Staff are moved to the new structure during the pay review process, but some staff remain on legacy Grade 9 pay points.
The mean and median pay gap for academic Grade 9 staff are 9.4% and 9.5% respectively. Both the mean and median academic Grade 9 gender pay gaps had been growing since 2017 (Figures 9 and 10), as a result of the actions we have taken to improve the representation of women in the professoriate, as newly promoted Professors are appointed into Band A. This year represents a slight decrease in both mean and median gaps for academic Grade 9 staff, as we start to see an increase in the proportions of women in the higher paid Bands B and C.
After a sharp fall last year in the mean and median pay gap for professional service staff at Grade 9, both the mean and median pay gap have increased by 15.2 percentage points (from 6.7% to 21.9%) and 19.7 percentage points (from 7.5% to 27.2) respectively. The number of professional services staff at Grade 9 is relatively small (32 staff in 2025), meaning that a small number of changes can have a large impact on the size of the gap.
The mean gender pay gaps by grade for Grades 1 to 8 are 2.9% or less, and in some cases (Grade 2, 7, and 8) are in favour of women. The median gender pay gaps by grade for Grades 1 to 8 are also low, at 2.6% or less, save for Grade 2 where it is 3.4%. At Grades 2 and 8 the gap is in favour of women.
The mean gender pay gap for all staff on Grades 1 to 8 inclusive is 9.3%, whilst the median gap is 10.4%. This tells us that even outwith Grade 9 we see more men in the higher paid grades, and more women in the lower paid grades.
Gender pay gaps for flexible contracts
Flexible contracts are for work that is on an adhoc basis, is flexible in terms of hours, and where there is no mutual obligation to offer or accept an offer of work. Our staff on flexible contracts are generally hourly paid. This group of staff account for 21.7% (904 headcount) of the gender pay gap population and are typically amongst the lower paid of our staff.
The mean and median gender pay gaps for staff on flexible contracts are 3.9% and 12.5% respectively. Figure 8 shows that 70.1% of male staff on flexible contracts are academic staff, compared with 57.6% of female staff on flexible contracts. Given the higher hourly pay for academic flexible contracts, this gender imbalance has resulted in the overall gender pay gap for flexible contracts.
Figure 12, Flexible contract staff by job family
Gender pay gap for other groups
Gender pay gap for Apprentice, Off-scale (various roles are included in this category) and NHS (staff on NHS pay scale) are not covered in this report. These groups of staff are not on the University grade scale. Total number of staff members in each of these groups are small. When figures for each of these groups are broken down for analysis, some numbers are too small for publishing.
Bonus payments
The University currently has no contractual bonus arrangements.
Closing the gap
Actions since 2017
Since 2017, we have taken a series of actions to enhance gender equality and contribute to closing the gender pay gap. These include:
- enhancing recruitment processes to increase the proportion of women joining the University, especially in senior academic roles
- restricting single-sex recruitment shortlists for academic posts
- developing and implementing Academic Review and Development Scheme (ARDS) guidance for Heads of School
- revising the promotions procedure to give a clear pathway for staff in education-focused roles (who are predominantly women)
- enhancing participation in mentoring and leadership programmes to support women’s career development, including through our bespoke Elizabeth Garrett programme
- undertaking regular pay reviews for Grade 9 staff
- improving family-friendly policies to support staff with caring responsibilities, such as reduced workload for academic staff returning from parental leave
At the same time, we are committed to making further progress and have identified closing the gender pay gap as a continuing key priority in our 2024 Athena Swan Silver submission. As part of that we have set out a number of actions including to:
Future actions
- Develop a comprehensive report on use of pay levers over last 5 years to ensure there are no inconsistencies that may contribute to the gender pay gap.
- Model the impact of different interventions on the gender pay gap and associated costs to identify concrete mechanisms to drive progress and support a business case to the Principal’s Office.
- Review criteria and provide greater clarity around distinction between banding of Grade 9 roles and purpose of Professorial and Senior Salary Reviews to support transparency and understanding.
- Positive action plan – bringing together positive actions from all our EDI action plans which are intended to enable the closure of the gender pay gaps
- Actions on increasing representation of women in senior roles, such as reviewing recruitment and promotions related processes, set out in the Athena Swan Action Plan will also contribute to closing the gender pay gap.
Progress on delivering these actions and their impact is overseen by the Athena Swan Implementation Group.