Scientific and support staff by university and discipline
In short
- On average, the share of scientific personnel is 59%.
- Wageningen University (WU) has the largest share of scientific personnel, compared to the other universities.
- Of the scientific personnel, the majority works in Engineering.
Overview of graphs
Graph 1: University personnel by university, by main category
Graph 2: Percentage scientific personnel by university
Graph 3: University personnel by scientific area, by main category
Graph 4: Percentage scientific personnel by scientific area
1. University personnel per university, by main category
| Scientific personnel | Non-scientific personnel | |
| TUD | 4460,73 | 2745,79 |
| UU | 3347,73554 | 2505,54438 |
| UVA | 3565,32509 | 2251,47545 |
| LEI | 2931,0395 | 2255,8617 |
| RUG | 2753,2168 | 2181,0758 |
| VU | 2606,26 | 1770,69 |
| RU | 2363,1874 | 1942,3326 |
| TUE | 2609,264 | 1426,922 |
| UT | 2194,914 | 1532,856 |
| WU | 2370,2004 | 1214,2782 |
| UM | 1402,196 | 1438,527 |
| EUR | 1441,4432 | 1374,7224 |
| TiU | 1296,945 | 962,844 |
| OU | 383,9471 | 320,2565 |
2. Percentage scientific personnel by university
| 1998 | 2023 | |
| WU | 46,1 | 66,1 |
| TUE | 54,2 | 64,6 |
| TUD | 45,4 | 61,9 |
| UVA | 48,8 | 61,3 |
| VU | 50,4 | 59,5 |
| Total | 49,2 | 58,5 |
| UT | 48,7 | 58,9 |
| UU | 48,5 | 57,2 |
| TiU | 54 | 57,4 |
| LEI | 53,8 | 56,5 |
| RUG | 51,3 | 55,8 |
| RU | 48,8 | 54,9 |
| OU | 43,3 | 54,5 |
| EUR | 50,6 | 51,2 |
| UM | 41,3 | 49,4 |
Analysis graph 1 and 2
In total, the Dutch universities have 33,947 fte scientific personnel in 2023. The share of scientific personnel varies from 49% for the Maastricht University to 66% for Wageningen University (WU). On average, the share of scientific personnel is 59%. The share of scientific personnel as percentage of total university personnel has increased at all universities since 1990.
3. University personnel by scientific area, by main category
| Non-scientific personnel | Scientific personnel | |
| Agricultural sciences | 677,0853 | 2367,9741 |
| Law | 856,23292 | 2567,2029 |
| Economics | 870,00793 | 2675,37584 |
| Humanities | 1211,53425 | 3666,17207 |
| Social sciences | 2079,78846 | 6644,61175 |
| Natural sciences | 2498,04867 | 6889,93224 |
| Engineering sciences | 2010,958 | 8610,582 |
| Other | 13836,95786 | 525,04967 |
4. Percentage scientific personnel by scientific area
| 1990 | 2023 | |
| Other | 8,500973394 | 3,7 |
| Total | 49,18008437 | 58,5 |
| Natural sciences | 56,68088131 | 73,4 |
| Humanities | 79,12713472 | 75,2 |
| Law | 73,34801762 | 75 |
| Behavioural sciences | 73,90149686 | 76,2 |
| Economics | 76,75574891 | 75,5 |
| Agricultural sciences | 53,72285419 | 77,8 |
| Engineering | 55,67346939 | 81,1 |
Analysis graph 3 and 4
Of the scientific personnel, a major share works in Engineering, followed by Nature. The scientific area with the largest share of scientific personnel in 2023 (as percentage of total personnel) is Engineering (81%). Between 1990 and 2023, the share of scientific personnel has inclined relatively strong in the scientific fields of Engineering, Agricultural and Natural sciences.
The data are obtained from the WOPI-file of Universities of the Netherlands. The WOPI-data (Information on scientific education personnel) is annually requested by Universities of the Netherlands from fourteen universities, conform a standardized format and agreed definitions. The reference date for the WOPI-data is 31st December for each year. All personnel is included who have a permanent or temporary employment contract or contractual agreement for a fixed number of working hours at a university. Student-Assistants excluded.
Over time, the personnel of almost all the academic hospitals have moved from the medical faculty or university as employer towards the academic hospital or the university medical centre (umc). The scientific field (HOOP-classification) Health sciences therefore shows an inconsistent pattern over time and is therefore not included in the data and graphs.
For an explanation of the used definitions and acronyms we kindly refer to the web page Definitions for Science in Figures.
Downloads
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Download factsheet NL-Cijfers over universitair personeel(WOPI).xlsx
NL-Cijfers over universitair personeel(WOPI).xlsx
file type xlsx - file size 318.96 KB