The new Benefits of Working in Higher Education 2025-26 – enhancing the employee experience report, is part of UCEA’s biennial series of reports on the benefits of working in higher education, which started in 2021. This year’s report is presented as a set of easy-to-reference slides which provides an overview of the financial and non-financial benefits offered across the sector. The information is based on a 2025-26 survey of HEIs to which there were 82 respondents and UCEA’s wider expertise.
The report reflects that Higher Education Institutions status as employers of choice, by showing that HEIs offer enhanced employee benefits compared to those offered in the wider economy. It also links to pages of sources of UCEA expertise, some of which is only available to UCEA members (such as interactive dashboards for benchmarking).
UCEA is still taking responses to the survey, and the slides will be updated in October 2026 to incorporate more information on the progressive benefits that the sector offers employees.
We hope the report will help HEIs gauge their own offer to employees and help to promote and develop their employment offering through benchmarking their own benefits.
Download: Benefits of Working in Higher Education 2025-26 – enhancing the employee experience report
The report reflects that Higher Education Institutions status as employers of choice, by showing that HEIs offer enhanced employee benefits compared to those offered in the wider economy. It also links to pages of sources of UCEA expertise, some of which is only available to UCEA members (such as interactive dashboards for benchmarking).
UCEA is still taking responses to the survey, and the slides will be updated in October 2026 to incorporate more information on the progressive benefits that the sector offers employees.
We hope the report will help HEIs gauge their own offer to employees and help to promote and develop their employment offering through benchmarking their own benefits.
Download: Benefits of Working in Higher Education 2025-26 – enhancing the employee experience report
