# Jobs.ac.uk Job Scraper (`unfenced-group/jobs-ac-uk`) Actor

Scrapes academic job listings from jobs.ac.uk — the UK's leading higher education job board. Extracts rich structured data. JobPosting schema. No proxy required. Supports keyword, location, discipline, and job-type filtering.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/unfenced-group/jobs-ac-uk.md
- **Developed by:** [Unfenced Group](https://apify.com/unfenced-group) (community)
- **Categories:** Jobs, Automation, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 23 total users, 3 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 1 bookmarks
- **User rating**: 5.00 out of 5 stars

## Pricing

from $1.19 / 1,000 jobs

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Jobs.ac.uk Job Scraper

![Jobs.ac.uk Job Scraper](https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/ClElVyZWvQgPQIuDL/records/jobs-ac-uk)

Extract job listings from jobs.ac.uk at scale, in a clean, consistent structure ready for analysis, job boards, recruiting tools and market research. No API key required.

***

### Why this scraper?

#### 🎯 Built for the United Kingdom

A dedicated UK academic scraper, not a global tool with a country dropdown. Search, locations and currency (GBP) are tuned for jobs.ac.uk.

#### 📄 Complete job data

Full job title and description, direct listing URL and publish date for every record.

#### 💶 Salary data

Salary information parsed from the listing where the employer publishes it, in GBP. Missing salaries are returned as `null`, never guessed.

#### 📍 Location fields

Structured location data for every listing, ready for filtering and analysis.

***

### Input parameters

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `searchQuery` | string | (empty) | Job title, skills, or keywords to search for. |
| `location` | string | (empty) | City or region to search in (e.g. London, Cambridge, Edinburgh). |
| `distance` | string | (empty) | Search radius in miles from the specified location. Options: 0, 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 75, 100. |
| `discipline` | string | (empty) | Academic discipline slug (e.g. computer-science, biology, economics). See jobs.ac.uk facets for valid values. |
| `jobType` | string | (empty) | Employment type filter (e.g. academic, research, professional, technical). |
| `employer` | string | (empty) | Filter by employer name. |
| `maxJobs` | integer | `5` | Maximum number of jobs to scrape. Set to 0 for unlimited (caution: may be slow for broad searches). |
| `fetchDetails` | boolean | `false` | If true, fetches each job detail page for rich data (description, structured salary, employment type). If false, returns only listing-level data (faster, cheaper). |
| `pageSize` | integer | `25` | Number of results per search page. Max 25. |
| `concurrency` | integer | `5` | Number of detail pages to fetch in parallel. |

***

### Output schema

Every field below is present on every record. Fields the source does not publish for a given job are returned as `null` rather than omitted.

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `advertId` | string | list |
| `title` | string | list + JSON-LD |
| `url` | string | list |
| `department` | string | list |
| `employer` | string | JSON-LD |
| `employerUrl` | string | JSON-LD |
| `location` | string | list |
| `locationCity` | string | JSON-LD |
| `locationCountry` | string | JSON-LD |
| `isRemote` | boolean | JSON-LD |
| `jobLocationType` | string | JSON-LD |
| `salaryRaw` | string | list |
| `salaryMin` | number | JSON-LD |
| `salaryMax` | number | JSON-LD |
| `salaryCurrency` | string | JSON-LD |
| `salaryUnit` | string | JSON-LD |
| `datePlaced` | string | list |
| `datePosted` | string | JSON-LD |
| `closingDate` | string | list |
| `validThrough` | string | JSON-LD |
| `employmentType` | array | JSON-LD |
| `description` | string | JSON-LD |
| `descriptionMarkdown` | string | Full description converted to Markdown. |
| `descriptionText` | string | JSON-LD |
| `detailFetched` | boolean | — |

#### Example record

```json
{
  "advertId": "1080649",
  "title": "Lecturer in Mathematics",
  "url": "https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DSD100/lecturer-in-mathematics",
  "department": "Mathematics",
  "employer": "UCL",
  "employerUrl": "http://www.ucl.ac.uk",
  "location": "London, Hybrid",
  "locationCity": "London",
  "locationCountry": "United Kingdom",
  "isRemote": true,
  "jobLocationType": "TELECOMMUTE",
  "salaryRaw": "£54,931 to £62,903",
  "salaryMin": 54931,
  "salaryMax": 62903,
  "salaryCurrency": "GBP",
  "salaryUnit": "YEAR",
  "datePlaced": "02 Jul",
  "datePosted": "2026-07-02T00:00:00+00:00",
  "closingDate": "14 Jul",
  "validThrough": "2026-07-14T00:00:00+00:00",
  "employmentType": [
    "Full Time",
    "Fixed-Term/Contract"
  ],
  "description": "<p><strong>About the role</strong></p>\n<p>Applications are invited for a full-time Lecturer in Mathematics. This post is available from 1<sup>st</sup> September 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter. …",
  "descriptionMarkdown": "**About the role**\n\nApplications are invited for a full-time Lecturer in Mathematics. This post is available from 1st September 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter.\n\n**About you**\n\nAn outstanding c …",
  "descriptionText": "About the role Applications are invited for a full-time Lecturer in Mathematics. This post is available from 1 st September 2026 or as soon as possible thereafter. About you An outstanding candidate w …",
  "detailFetched": true
}
```

***

### Examples

**Search for lecturer roles in London:**

```json
{
  "searchQuery": "lecturer",
  "location": "London",
  "maxJobs": 100
}
```

**Filter by contract type:**

```json
{
  "searchQuery": "lecturer",
  "location": "London",
  "maxJobs": 100,
  "jobType": "FULL_TIME"
}
```

**Larger run with a hard cap:**

```json
{
  "searchQuery": "lecturer",
  "location": "London",
  "maxJobs": 500
}
```

**Daily feed (run on a schedule):**

```json
{
  "searchQuery": "lecturer",
  "maxJobs": 500
}
```

Schedule this input in the Apify Scheduler (for example daily at 07:00) to keep an always-fresh feed of the newest listings.

***

### 💰 Pricing

**$1.49 per 1,000 results** — you only pay for successfully retrieved listings. Failed retries are never charged.

| Results | Cost |
|---|---|
| 100 | ~$0.15 |
| 1,000 | ~$1.49 |
| 10,000 | ~$14.9 |
| 100,000 | ~$149 |

> Flat-rate alternatives typically charge $29–$49/month regardless of usage.

Subscription tiers lower the rate further, down to $0.89 per 1,000 at the highest tier. Use the **Max results** cap in the input to control your spend exactly.

***

### Performance

| Run size | Typical time |
|---|---|
| 100 results | under 1 minute |
| 1,000 results | 2–4 minutes |
| 10,000 results | 20–35 minutes |

***

### Known limitations

- Salary is only returned when the employer publishes it — many listings carry `null` salary fields.
- Company details vary per listing; the scraper returns what the source publishes and never invents data.
- Very large result sets are bounded by the source's own paging limits.
- Listings can be removed by the source at any time, so a small share of URLs may expire shortly after scraping.

***

### Technical details

- **Source:** jobs.ac.uk — the United Kingdom job listings
- **Coverage:** everything the public search exposes, filterable via the input parameters above
- **Retry:** automatic retry on network errors with exponential backoff

***

### Need a custom scraper?

**[Unfenced Group](https://www.unfencedgroup.nl)** builds Apify actors for any website — for free.

If the site you need isn't in our portfolio yet, just ask. We scope, build, and publish it at no cost to you. You only pay for results — we absorb the compute and proxy costs ourselves. Same pay-per-result pricing, same quality, same standards as every actor in this portfolio.

**Get in touch:** [www.unfencedgroup.nl](https://www.unfencedgroup.nl)

# Actor input Schema

## `searchQuery` (type: `string`):

Job title, skills, or keywords to search for.

## `location` (type: `string`):

City or region to search in (e.g. London, Cambridge, Edinburgh).

## `distance` (type: `string`):

Search radius in miles from the specified location. Options: 0, 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 75, 100.

## `discipline` (type: `string`):

Academic discipline slug (e.g. computer-science, biology, economics). See jobs.ac.uk facets for valid values.

## `jobType` (type: `string`):

Employment type filter (e.g. academic, research, professional, technical).

## `employer` (type: `string`):

Filter by employer name.

## `maxJobs` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of jobs to scrape. Default is 100. Set to 0 for unlimited (caution: may be slow for broad searches).

## `fetchDetails` (type: `boolean`):

If true, fetches each job detail page for rich data (description, structured salary, employment type). If false, returns only listing-level data (faster, cheaper).

## `pageSize` (type: `integer`):

Number of results per search page. Max 25.

## `concurrency` (type: `integer`):

Number of detail pages to fetch in parallel.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQuery": "",
  "location": "",
  "distance": "",
  "discipline": "",
  "jobType": "",
  "employer": "",
  "maxJobs": 100,
  "fetchDetails": false,
  "pageSize": 25,
  "concurrency": 5
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "maxJobs": 100
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("unfenced-group/jobs-ac-uk").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "maxJobs": 100 }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("unfenced-group/jobs-ac-uk").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "maxJobs": 100
}' |
apify call unfenced-group/jobs-ac-uk --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,unfenced-group/jobs-ac-uk"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/RVXJELYecaleie56i/builds/jzdKBlHZU2cA6kveM/openapi.json