A rapidly worsening staff recruitment crisis could push universities to breaking point if student expansion continues without a massive cash injection, employers have warned.
"Deeply worrying" recruitment and retention difficulties, caused largely by low pay, have forced universities to take on academics with "major gaps in experience" and to accept foreign lecturers who cannot speak English well, according to a survey for the Universities and Colleges Employers Association.
The crisis, which has worsened every year since the survey began in 1998, is preventing some institutions from delivering courses and carrying out research.
And the situation was likely to deteriorate further, said Philip Love, vice-chancellor of the University of Liverpool and chairman of Ucea.
"Unless effective remedial action is taken, these problems will be exacerbated by the impending bulge in retirements and by the need for large numbers of extra staff to meet the government's expansion target," he said.
Baroness Warwick, chief executive of Universities UK, said the findings showed that it was of "paramount importance" that ministers provided the £10 billion extra investment needed for 2003-04 to 2005-06.
The survey, published today, found that one in five institutions frequently experienced difficulties in filling academic, administrative and professional, technical or clerical positions in 2001. Some 61 institutions, employing more than 130,000 staff, had advertised more than 20,000 vacancies in the past 12 months but had failed to fill 1,250 after three months.
Finding and keeping the right academic staff was a cause of concern. In 2001 one in five institutions reported that it experienced recruitment difficulties "most of the time", a threefold increase since 1998. Almost 8 per cent of institutions reported retention problems "most of the time" in 2001, against 2.2 per cent in 1998.
Almost 60 per cent of institutions reported difficulties in recruiting lecturers, more than one-third of institutions reported that recruiting professors was a problem and more than a quarter of institutions reported difficulties recruiting research assistants.
Computing, business, engineering, biological sciences and education were experiencing the worst problems.
Some institutions reported that the problem was affecting the quality of courses and capacity to undertake research. One institution said academics were not getting the support needed to deliver some of their teaching.
In accountancy and finance, 68 per cent of vacancies were either not filled or resulted "in the appointment of a member of staff who did not fulfil all the requirements of the post". The figure was 46 per cent in computing.
In some areas, institutions were recruiting heavily from overseas, and there were concerns about the impact of poorly spoken English on teaching quality. At one university, the number of academic staff from abroad being processed for work permits had trebled in a year.
The researchers found that in one university, there was only one "feasible candidate" for a senior post in law, but they turned down the job. The post was readvertised and an appointment made even though none of the applicants had "the experience... that would make you completely confident".
The report says low pay is to blame. Higher pay in the private sector, notably in law, computing and engineering, was luring potential academics away.
Sally Hunt, general secretary of the Association of University Teachers, said: "This report is an alarm call to ministers. But before lecturing the government, it is time (for vice-chancellors) to put their own house in order and spend the money (they have been) given to reward and develop staff on raising basic starting salaries and tackling the gender pay gap."