Por Redaccion 
A total of 18,251 professionals dedicated to research carry out their activities in public universities in Andalusia during the 2023/2024 academic year, allowing Andalusia to hold the top position in the national ranking of territories with the highest number of these professionals in absolute terms. Following closely are the Community of Madrid, with 17,869 professionals, and Catalonia, with 14,227. The entire Spanish university system employs a workforce of 98,456 professionals in this field. These figures come from data compiled by the Integrated University Information System, under the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities.
This data also reveals that this workforce represents 98.6% of the personnel engaged in this activity within the university system of the community. The remaining 1.4%, equivalent to 256 individuals, are linked to the private sector of higher education, which in that academic year was associated with a single private university, Loyola Andalusia.
Furthermore, the overall workforce, totaling 18,507 professionals (10,392 men and 8,115 women), has experienced a growth of 17.2% since the 2019/2020 academic year, when the number of professionals was 15,788, with 15,607 in public institutions and 181 in private ones, representing 98.85% and 1.15% respectively, with minimal variation in both percentages.
This workforce includes researchers, encompassing teaching and research staff (PDI) engaged in R&D activities, as well as research employees contracted by universities solely for research through various incentive programs. It also includes R&D support technicians and those involved in the management and administration of research tasks. In the Andalusian university system, considering all these segments, PDI with research activities is the largest group, with 12,884 workers, followed by research employees at a distant second with 3,087 individuals, while support staff adds up to 2,536.
In the case of public institutions, this breakdown consists of 12,700 individuals categorized under PDI, with 3,015 assigned to research employees. As for the support staff, the 2,536 individuals in the general system are all linked to public universities.
According to Ministry statistics, in the 2023/2024 academic year, 51.8% of the workforce in public universities are engaged in research-related activities, translating to one in every 2.5 staff members. Of these, 55.7% are men and 47.5% are women.
A workforce of 35,875 individuals for the Andalusian university system
Similarly, the data reveals that the total number of individuals working in Andalusian universities during the 2023-2024 academic year amounts to 35,875 professionals, marking a 0.1% increase compared to the previous academic year. Out of this total, 35,261 belong to the public system, accounting for 98.28%, while the remaining 614 individuals (1.72%) were employed in private institutions during that period.
Across the rest of the country, Spanish universities employ 245,202 individuals, representing a 3.7% increase compared to the 2022-2023 academic year. Out of these, 201,022 individuals work in public universities (82%) and 44,180 in private institutions.