There is no argument about the fact that the quality of student experience at university starts with the quality of the services provided by the university staff: academics and professional support staff. In order for all staff to provide these quality experiences, they need to feel well and supported themselves. “You cannot pour from an empty cup”.
The pivot to online teaching caused significant disturbance to both staff and students. For staff, job insecurity, loneliness, new ways of working and a shift in professional identity, increased workloads, pressure to deliver high quality services, the inability to detach from work and maintain healthy work-life balance, have significantly impacted on staff wellbeing. These conditions placed an additional burden on the workforce that had been at a high risk of overload, job-related stress and poor mental health, even before the pandemic.
In 2021 almost 1,200 HE employees from 92 UK universities participated in a survey to reflect on the state of their wellbeing. Half said they had experienced chronic emotional exhaustion, worry, stress and poor mental health during the academic year 2020/21. This is 1.5 times worse than in other sectors (Dougall, et al., 2021).
