A survey of more than 11,500 staff across Australia’s 42 universities has found that all universities present high or very high psychosocial risks, unless you are in senior management, where risks appear lower.
The Australian Universities Census on Staff Wellbeing, produced by Adelaide University researcher Maureen Dollard and colleagues, has also ranked 36 of the nation’s universities against psychosocial safety benchmarks, with Charles Darwin, UNSW and UQ in the happier air at the top of the list and Notre Dame, Newcastle and Southern Queensland Universities at the bottom of the list. Universities which experienced extensive campus conflict last year over industrial issues, such as ANU and UTS also recorded low results.
Professor Dollard said the research indicated that psychosocial safety risks in HE were double those of the general workforce, based on responses from staff.
“Despite multiple government reviews – including the Australian Universities Accord and a Senate Inquiry – staff wellbeing has received little direct attention,” Professor Dollard said.
She said a “productivity-driven agenda,” deregulation and increased competition had re-shaped the sector, but the extent of the issues identified indicated a whole-of-sector response was required.
There were only two categories were psychosocial safety was low or medium risk – at Dean or above and senior management. The ARC-funded project was supported by the NTEU, as well as wellbeing / mental health agencies Transitioning Well and Superfriend. Around 40% of responses were from non-union members.
Staff in the humanities disciplines reported a higher level of psychosocial risk – which the report noted was consistent with higher rates of organisational change in those areas.
Amongst other findings:
- More than 80% of staff reported high or very high levels of emotional exhaustion
- 73% disagreed that risks to their psychological health were actively monitored
- 71% reported working more than their contracted or paid hours
- 27% intended to leave their university within the next 12 months.
Increased funding for universities was one of a number of remedies that were critical to address current levels of wellbeing and risk, the report said.
Professor Dollard said there were limitations around the results, as with all research, but the extent of psychosocial risk was clear.
“Whether the sample is representative of the population is a good question,” she said.
“It is likely that those most disenfranchised responded to the survey. We think that different sampling strategies likely affect results. Nevertheless of the people that answered we know at least 8000 are in high to very high-risk PSC circumstances.
“(We) Need more government funding so that unis are not so pressured towards a corporate model of management, staff need time to think to create to innovate—not possible with heavy workloads.”
The NTEU celebrated the report release saying it, “shows Australia’s universities are living a tale of two workplaces where senior leaders say they experience relatively low levels of psychological risk while staff at every university in the study are working in conditions that put them at high risk of psychological harm.”
“Essentially this means at every single ranked institution in Australia, senior management is failing to provide an environment that adequately protects staff from psychological harm,” NTEU National Assistant Secretary Gabe Gooding said.
Australian Higher Education Industrial Association Executive Director Craig Laughton said he had not seen the survey or the reports, but he could talk about issues across the sector in general. “Data from 31 universities in our uni analytics tool shows that psychosocial safety claims in the sector have gone up from around 0.2 per 100 staff in 2019 to 0.27 per 100 staff in 2024,” he said.
“We have seen a marginal increase in claims over the past five years, but we are seeing a lack of tangible evidence in the workcover system of these issues coming through.We take psychosocial safety incredibly seriously. The most important asset the sector has is our wonderful people.”
University of Newcastle Vice-Chancellor Professor Alex Zelinsky said the survey had been undertaken during a change process and noted that just over 6% of his staff had responded – presenting trends which they were not seeing in larger samples of staff.
“We have conducted a full Your Voice survey, with 65% staff participation. Our staff engagement score was 72 – which is considered to be good. The staff wellbeing result was 57, whereas the benchmark figure against all participating organisations was 59,” he said.