Occupational stress in UK higher education institutions: a comparative study of all staff categories

TLDR

The UK higher‑education sector is undergoing rapid change—restructuring, short‑term contracts, increased scrutiny, and funding cuts—leading to rising reports of workplace stress. Researchers sampled all staff categories from 14 UK universities and colleges using a stratified random design and assessed occupational stress with the ASSET model. Job insecurity emerged as the chief stressor, with elevated stress in relationships, control, resources, and communication, while work‑life balance, overload, and physical ill‑health were lower, and differences by university age and staff category confirm that universities are no longer low‑stress environments.

Abstract

The higher education sector in the UK continues to experience significant change. This includes restructuring, use of short‐term contracts, external scrutiny and accountability, and major reductions in funding. In line with this, reports of stress at work in higher education institutions have also increased. The study reported here was carried out using a stratified random sample of all categories of staff (academic and non‐academic) from 14 UK universities and colleges. Levels of occupational stress were measured using the ASSET model. The results showed that the most significant source of stress for all higher education staff (irrespective of category of employee) was job insecurity. In comparison to the normative data, staff also reported significantly higher levels of stress relating to work relationships, control, and resources and communication, and significantly lower levels of commitment both from and to their organization. However, they also reported significantly lower levels of stress relating to work‐life balance, overload and job overall, and lower levels of physical ill‐health. Significant differences were identified between staff working at Old versus New universities and by category of employee. These results support the growing evidence that universities no longer provide the low stress working environments they once did.