key: cord-0892305-m1p7oywj
authors: Wray, Siobhan; Kinman, Gail
title: The challenges of COVID-19 for the well-being of academic staff
date: 2021-02-15
journal: Occup Med (Lond)
DOI: 10.1093/occmed/kqab007
sha: d758e1571eb3ca2569dad48f8af55e942b01d2ca
doc_id: 892305
cord_uid: m1p7oywj

nan

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, universities in the UK have been obliged to make major shifts in the management and delivery of teaching and student support. These changes have been implemented against a backdrop of increasing work-related stress and worsening mental health in the sector prior to the pandemic. This editorial provides an overview of the working conditions for academic staff in the UK and considers how the additional pressures of the pandemic and the actions taken by universities to control the virus might have further challenged their well-being.

The traditional image of the university academic as an autonomous worker, driven by their own interests and ideas and loosely coupled with their institution, has been challenged over the last 20 years or so. Studies conducted in the UK and internationally have highlighted significant shifts in the nature and structure of academic work due to the marketization of higher education, increasing student numbers and the move to a consumerist approach to higher education, along with the growing importance of league tables and other performance indicators to measure quality [1] [2] [3] . Moreover, academics are experiencing greater pressure to publish impactful research and contribute to income generation via grant generation and consultancy in an increasingly competitive financial environment [4] .

National surveys conducted between 2008 and 2014 [5] , that used the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Management Standards Indicator Tool and other validated measures, have enabled the examination of levels of key psychosocial hazards (i.e. job demands, control, manager support, peer support, relationships and change) and mental health against national benchmarks and across waves. Findings indicated that, with the exception of control, scores across all hazard dimensions were lower among academic staff than the HSE benchmark, with job demands, manager support and peer support failing to meet the fifth percentile of benchmarked data in any of the three waves of data collection. Comparisons across waves also found significant increases over time in hazards associated with demands, control, relationships, role and change. Mental health, using the General Health Questionnaire, was also found to be poor at each wave, with more than 6 out of 10 respondents achieving 'caseness' levels of psychological distress.

These findings show that, prior to the pandemic, job demands were already high in UK universities and key resources, such as support, role clarity and effective management of change, were low. Against this backdrop, universities in the UK have recently undergone significant shifts in their activities in response to the pandemic. Although measures taken by institutions have varied, in March 2020, there was a sudden and significant move to online and blended learning across the sector to ensure continuity of learning for current students. This approach was then developed further at the beginning of the new academic year, with many universities opting for a blended approach that combined reduced face-to-face teaching with online provision to comply with government guidance. These changes required a considerable level of flexibility by staff to rapidly adapt teaching materials to be suitable for online delivery, meet the requirements for expanded teaching hours to comply with the regulations for social distancing, and cover for colleagues who were either sick or isolating or meeting family caring responsibilities. In addition to the significant changes to teaching practice, universities were required to provide practical and pastoral support for all students. These measures ranged from offering regular support via online personal tutoring systems for students who were diagnosed with COVID-19 or who were self-isolating, to ensuring they had access to food and medicines and could access mental health support.

These wide-ranging changes in working practices and the nature and extent of demands experienced by academic staff have placed an additional burden on a group of professionals who were already at high risk of workrelated stress and mental health problems [6] . A combination of increased demands and reduced resources will have serious implications for a profession already at risk. Additionally, institutional responses to shifting governmental guidelines, along with the need to retain students and remain competitive, are likely to have further increased the pressure and reduced the autonomy experienced by academic staff. Access to formal and informal sources of support is also likely to be reduced due to several factors, such as increased workloads, the widespread move to online working and the need to socially distance when staff are on campus.

At the time of writing, universities are exempt from the lockdown restrictions, but institutions vary in the amount of face-to-face teaching that is being delivered and the future is uncertain. Insight is clearly needed into how the demands and uncertainties currently experienced by academic staff have impacted on their well-being and the type of support that will help ameliorate these effects. To accomplish this, a new national survey is being launched in January 2020 that will revisit the psychosocial hazards perceived by academic staff, the type of support currently available to them, and the support that they would find most helpful in meeting the demands and remaining healthy. It is hoped that the findings will inform an effective and robust occupational health response for academic staff and ensure that systemic interventions are in place to help them cope with the demands they are facing and inform any longer term changes to working practices post-pandemic.

University of Lincoln e-mail: SWray@lincoln.ac.uk

Can work make you sick? A meta-analysis of the relationships between job stressors and physical symptoms

University leaders and university performance in the United Kingdom: is it 'who' leads, or 'where' they lead that matters most?

External pressures affecting the adoption of employee performance management in higher education institutions

Performance management and well-being: a close look at the changing nature of the UK higher education workplace

The psychosocial hazards of academic work: an analysis of trends

Well-being in academic employeesa benchmarking approach

Birkbeck University of London e-mail: g.kinman@bbk.ac.uk