Universities would be £4.5m poorer without chaplains

University chaplains play an important role in the lives of students of many different faiths and are believed to contribute around £4.5 million per year of volunteer labour to the UK Higher Education sector. That's the finding of a new report, which has calculated that volunteer university chaplains give around 3,500 hours of free labour each week, in total. Pastoral care The report, co-authored by a Durham University researcher, found that university chaplains spend the most amount of time on pastoral activities and welfare provision including one-to-one support, counselling and working with socially marginalised students. Religious activities, including conducting religious services and running inter-faith events, were their second priority. Religious diversity Many chaplaincies follow a multi-faith model, with a full-time coordinating chaplain who is most likely to be Anglican. The Christian proportion of chaplains has fallen from 70 percent to 59 percent since 2007 and there has been a rise in the proportion of chaplains who are Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Baha'i, as well as a significant rise in numbers who are humanist, inter-faith, or Pagan. Varied provision The provision for religious students varies widely, with universities having between zero and 54 chaplains.