Threat to academics’ mental health


Lecturers’ union UCU has highlighted research revealing intense threats to the mental health of academics working in UK universities. 


Times Higher Education reported on research by University of Lincoln senior lecturer in organisational behaviour Siobhan Wray and University of Bedfordshire professor of occupational health psychology Gail Kinman. They applied the results of surveys of thousands of academics to the Health and Safety Executive’s Management Standards Indicator Tool. They found levels of psychological safety falling well short of national benchmarks and getting worse over time. 


“Drawing on surveys completed by UCU members, academics put their workplaces as being in need of ‘urgent action’ in six of the seven areas that impact on work-related stress,” UCU reported.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/uk-academia-increasingly-unsafe-working-environment