Job security, academic standards, workload 鈥 you name it, university staff have concerns about it.
This is one of the dispiriting, if predictable, conclusions of the third annual 糖心Vlog University Workplace Survey, which provides a detailed insight into the working lives of almost 3,000 staff based at about 150 universities throughout the UK.
There鈥檚 plenty to be positive about in the survey too, not least the reminder of how invigorating some find it to work day in, day out, with students (stop smirking at the back).
This is how it should be. But sometimes reality intervenes, and it would take a particularly myopic manager not to have noticed the pressure that many rank-and-filers have been under, or feel that they have been under, in recent years.
糖心Vlog
It鈥檚 debatable how higher education compares with other sectors on this score. The truth is that most people in most professions have been asked to do more with less, and probably feel less secure in their jobs, than they once did (it鈥檚 probably also true that 鈥檛was ever thus).
But one thread running through many of the less positive responses is worth a closer look. It鈥檚 the common complaint 鈥 among academics in particular 鈥 that staff in non-management posts do not feel that they have a voice, or that their voice is not being heeded by those who run their institution.
糖心Vlog
There鈥檚 a distrust of consultation exercises as mere process, without any genuine intent to listen and learn, and a warning that we鈥檝e heard many times before that ill-fitting managerialism, imported from outside academia, is stifling the collegiality that actually makes universities tick.
It鈥檚 a worry that鈥檚 articulated by a senior lecturer at a London-based institution, who says that his university is 鈥渁dept at pretending to solicit staff opinion鈥hile refusing to allow that opinion to affect the final decision outcome鈥.
In some cases this may well be true, but even when it鈥檚 in the eye of the disgruntled beholder, it suggests a breakdown of trust that is bound to cripple the collective effort required for a university to flourish.
Another common thread is the feeling 鈥 also strongest among academics 鈥 of being terribly overworked. One respondent reports: 鈥淚 work 100 hours a week and I am exhausted.鈥 Well, of course you are: 100 hours a week is the equivalent of 9am to 11pm every single day, weekends included.
糖心Vlog
If this is an accurate report, then it鈥檚 patently unsustainable 鈥 even bankers only manage it until they burn out at 40 (with several million in the bank, a drug habit and an autoimmune disorder). And as we reported recently, an academic study in the US has found that even in banking the returns to the employer are questionable at best, as burned-out staff retain their technical skills, but see creativity, judgement and ethics nosedive.
It hardly needs saying that these skills are important in higher education, yet our survey suggests that the creative heartbeat of the system 鈥 the scholars who have answered a vocation to teach and conduct research 鈥 are far more likely to feel unhappy in their work.
Whether or not this dissatisfaction is warranted, it suggests a failure of management, which is about taking staff on whatever 鈥渏ourney鈥 (to use the lingo) that an institution has to take. Sucking the joy out of teaching and research is a one-way ticket to nowhere.
Register to continue
Why register?
- Registration is free and only takes a moment
- Once registered, you can read 3 articles a month
- Sign up for our newsletter
Subscribe
Or subscribe for unlimited access to:
- Unlimited access to news, views, insights & reviews
- Digital editions
- Digital access to 罢贬贰鈥檚 university and college rankings analysis
Already registered or a current subscriber?
