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High stress and long hours blight universities

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University staff are suffering 'damaging' stress levels arising from intense workloads and a long hours culture, union research has found. A report of a UCU survey of 14,000 higher education academic and academic-related staff ranks nearly 100 institutions by reported levels of stress. It concludes stress levels related to workload at all of the institutions were higher than for the British working population as a whole. A second table ranks universities by the percentage of full-time respondents who work more than 50 hours a week. The report's launch marked the start of UCU's campaign against excessive workloads in post-16 education. The union warned the problem of workload and stress is likely to get even worse if universities do not act now. It said as funding cuts start to bite in higher education, workloads will increase and there will be even greater pressure from students and parents expecting much more for heavily increased university fees. UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'We call on institutions to hear this collective cry for help and take action to mitigate the increasingly intolerable pressure on stressed-out staff.' She added: 'As the survey shows, the problem has got worse over the past four years and with funding cuts, increased workloads and rising expectations from students and parents paying much more for their education, the situation is likely to become even worse. Many academics and academic-related staff are clearly under far too much pressure and we know this level of stress in the workplace can be very damaging to mental and physical health.'


UCU news release and workload campaign.

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