Improving conditions a ‘lost cause’, say quitting UK academics

Survey of those who have left their roles give up hope of overturning ‘toxic work environments’

July 30, 2024
Juliette Rowsell
Source: iStock/qingwa

Managerial “amateurism” and “toxic work environments” are forcing large numbers of academics to leave the UK sector, according to those who have quit.

More than 700 scholars who have left their roles recently – or are considering it – were surveyed on their reasons why for a paper published in the International Journal of Higher Education Research.

It finds that toxic work environments (including managers and excessive workloads), a “violent awakening” following the pandemic on what working conditions academics were prepared to accept, and the belief that trying to improve conditions in the sector is a “lost cause” were major factors driving academics away.

While the extent of a “great resignation” is not yet apparent, the report says, “the strength of emotion propelling [academics] towards and over this threshold appears indisputable”.

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“UK academia is unmistakably presented by our survey respondents as a brutal work regime; a contemporary serfdom, where productive output is prioritised well and above any interest or concern in staff welfare,” the report says.

Campus resource collection: Well-being in higher education

Richard Watermeyer, professor of education at the University of Bristol and co-author of the report, noted that 11 per cent of respondents had gone on to work at non-UK institutions, suggesting that while the appetite to work in higher education remains, the problems lie within working conditions in the UK.

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Professor Watermeyer also argued that the financial struggles at universities could be placing greater pressure on university leaders, making them “too busy” to address the “toxic” culture complained of by academics and thus failing to implement more “human-centric” styles of leadership.

The funding crisis seen at universities across the UK is also leading to “an awful lot of people that are anticipating institutional failure”, he said, which creates further instability and questions over workloads for those who are left following mass redundancies.

The report notes that “perceived ineffectiveness of repeated bouts of industrial action” conducted by the University and College Union in recent years “has saturated feelings of hopelessness and sealed our respondents’ decision to leave”.

It further argues that “the villainization of senior leaders, while understandable if predictable, places further strain on already fractured relationships within institutional communities”.

This perceived “villanization” risks cementing issues of toxic leadership, Professor Watermeyer argued, because it can prevent talent wanting to enter leadership roles.

“If all we ever do is bash leadership and therefore make the idea of leadership something that for a lot of people becomes a source of real trepidation, anxiety, or even complete antipathy, then you cut the talent pipeline,” he said.

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com

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Reader's comments (19)

#1 Submitted by kjk on July 30, 2024 - 6:48am
I wonder why Professional Services staff weren't surveyed as the conditions for these are generally worse than those of Academics and are subject to the same toxic culture with even less power to challenge it ? Presumably the numbers would show significantly more of these staff had left the sector many for the same reasons, particularly those that had participated in the ineffective strikes ( which were also predominantly reported at the time as if they only related to academics).
#2 Submitted by ribolden on July 30, 2024 - 1:14pm
We did survey Professional Services staff as well and found a very similar pattern of response to Academics, albeit that academics tend to hold more negative views of job security and perceived purpose/meaningful work than their PS colleagues. Unfortunately there was not space to explore these findings within the current paper, although they are explored in a separate article that is currently under review and will hopefully be published soon.
#3 Submitted by m.beverland on July 30, 2024 - 8:12am
Managerial amateurism- see literally every VC in this countries
#4 Submitted by SpammerSlammer on July 30, 2024 - 8:17am
^ That's because professional services staff don't train for 20 years for this particular field of work and because there is less competition for these jobs. As a consequence, they can more easily move in and out of university employment. When an academic leaves academia, the academic can't go back. Professional services staff leaving a job at a university is more reversible and is like yet another type of public sector employment while it's more insulated and cult-like for academics.
#5 Submitted by michael_irwintazzar_plymouth_ac_uk on July 30, 2024 - 8:25am
Responding to kjk, I believe it's because the THE editorial team and journalists generally consider Professional Services staff to be either irrelevant to project of HE, or an actual hindrance to that project.
#6 Submitted by SpammerSlammer on July 30, 2024 - 8:29am
VCs are not "too busy" to care for their academics due to financial struggles. They try to plug the financial holes by squeezing more out of academics and micromanaging them to game the rankings. It's not negligence as portrayed here, it's just easier in the short run to squeeze money out of academics than to cut the services offered to the customers because it has a less direct impact on key metrics. Of course it makes academics miserable. When I see the headlines in the news that wage increases across the economy have on average made up for inflation in recent years and then see how my university even freezes the sub-inflation pay raise, it drives tears into my eyes. It all worked for as long as university leaders voluntarily offered perks on the job, but these are also being taken away all the time, which further tilts the balance between the attractiveness of academic and non-academic employment. If you kill what people love about their jobs, they are no longer willing to tolerate some of the stuff that comes with it, like voluntary long hours etc.
#7 Submitted by kjk on July 30, 2024 - 10:30am
They squeeze all staff not just academics and it makes everybody miserable ! I'm not unsympathetic to what you are saying but the sector consists of more than just academics. It is extremely sad that people are having to leave due to the worsening conditions but its a lot worse at the other end of the spectrum for the cleaners, catering staff etc. who never get a mention.
#8 Submitted by Happy on July 30, 2024 - 10:21am
The middle managers are told to use any means to ensure that their departments/schools improve in the NSS, QS and all manner of rankings (PTES, PRES, the lot). In turn, the managers push the academics to do more but this means (bizarrely) that quality of teaching suffers. For example, one top university has increased the number of personal tutees that an academic should look after (from 30 to up to 100 tutees per academic) while expecting the same REF output, and while covertly maintaining the high teaching and marking load. No concerns about whether staff can physically cope with this increased workload. This has now resulted in staff taking early retirement or moving to non academic jobs in the private sector. This is predicted to get worse come September. Brace yourselves ...
#9 Submitted by m.beverland on July 30, 2024 - 10:25am
As an outgoing HoD we are told to get NSS up etc but given no tools to do so and not even listened to when we go through all the data. At my university I’ve seen the same issues year on year, had the same issues arise with Reps and while we have worked to improve areas like feedback and also support teaching practice the university has done nothing other than to lower standards and remove spend from the classroom and technology. Now all the complaints that are left are basically institutional factors. Our leaders however are away with the fairies.
#10 Submitted by k_w_ac_uk on July 30, 2024 - 12:38pm
“perceived ineffectiveness of repeated bouts of industrial action” conducted by the University and College Union in recent years “has saturated feelings of hopelessness and sealed our respondents’ decision to leave”. Wonder if the UCU would ever acknowledge this.
#11 Submitted by Polar Star on July 30, 2024 - 12:44pm
Academics leaving the sector is just the tip of the iceberg. Not all academics are in a position to move and many who have been broken by their institutions have been forced into quietly quitting. I'm referring to academics who have had mid-level leadership positions and who have given their all through the pandemic and through institutional restructures, academics who have absorbed hugely increased workloads due to VSS staff losses and hiring freezes, who have been under immense pressure to meet the demands of students and staff, and improve their department's perfomance for NSS, TEF, REF... Senior leaders have in some cases decieved these staff into believing that if they just gave 8, 9 10 years of this hard labour, they would be rewarded through promotion. But then, they're turned down because they've been unable to tick all of the boxes in whatever punitive 'academic promotions process' their University runs. If I promised my students success and then failed them I would be rightly castigated but senior management do this to staff with impunity. Quiet quitting results when a staff member's mental health is at breaking point, but to put this into a language that senior leadership might understand, it means that Universities are losing years of experience and the continuing contribution of the very people who were willing give it their all.
#12 Submitted by k_w_ac_uk on July 30, 2024 - 12:46pm
Maybe we need more senior leaders from either outside the sector or, who are not of academic background but have a proven track record in running complex organisations. Transformation of the type that is needed in many places is not easy so a different perspective could help (and its not all about academics, Professional Services colleagues have much to contribute and experience many of the same kind of challenges just in a slightly different context).
#13 Submitted by k_w_ac_uk on July 30, 2024 - 12:46pm
Maybe we need more senior leaders from either outside the sector or, who are not of academic background but have a proven track record in running complex organisations. Transformation of the type that is needed in many places is not easy so a different perspective could help (and its not all about academics, Professional Services colleagues have much to contribute and experience many of the same kind of challenges just in a slightly different context).
#14 Submitted by kjk on July 30, 2024 - 1:44pm
Or perhaps maybe more promotion into senior leadership positions from within. Staff who have given decades of service to an institution and understand the business properly should be given a chance rather than the usual transients and their ex colleagues being brought in only to stay until there looks like they might be accountable for their failures.
#15 Submitted by DrHMcCoy on July 31, 2024 - 6:01am
The sad thing is that it doesn't matter how accurate the findings are, or how true the comments here or in the paper are. It doesn't matter how much data is collected, or how clearly it shows the correlation between negative student experience and management decisions or strategic priorities affecting quality of practice. Senior leaders will continue to squeeze more from staff, and continue to ignore the need to address management bloat and dilution of quality by spreading responsibility and accountability so thin nothing ever really gets seen through. It is just the way things are, and it's certainly not limited to HE. It shouldn't be of course. But you see the same commentary year on year, we all have to assume university leaders and mid-high management with the power to act see that commentary, but nothing changes. So it's an active decision not to listen, or to listen to the wrong people whispering in ears or steering agendas. Yes there are limits on what can be done, hands are often tied by sector or market or government, and union and legal mandates that can't be ignored. But there is also clearly no balance, no middle ground being struck either.
#16 Submitted by naomityrrell on July 31, 2024 - 9:33am
Sad but not surprising. Since 2020 the Alt Ac Careers Facebook Group has provided free advice and support for people leaving academia, particularly those in the UK who have experienced a lot of the issues this article and the comments highlight.
#17 Submitted by elena_8 on August 1, 2024 - 3:46pm
I feel strongly that at the back of the many problems universities are facing is the move to make HE a market. Most people will only study for one undergraduate degree in their lives, so choosing one is not at all like buying a T.V.
#18 Submitted by tpsullivan84 on August 4, 2024 - 3:47pm
The comment that mentioned professional staff can just pick up and go is a completely false and dangerous narrative. I’ve worked in leadership staff roles within academia for over 14 years and I cannot leave. No private company wants to touch you because you have this jack of all trades role that’s basically keeping the plates spinning for a bunch of 60 yr old tenured children. The reason academics can’t leave is because their expectations of work and job security are more closely tied to that of an elitist snob than of someone willing to role up their sleeves and put in the work. Studying the mating habits of fire ants for 25 years may make you an expert in your field, but it’s highly unlikely you have any leadership, management or even people skills. I feel for the adjuncts who can’t catch a break, but anyone in a tenured role is the entire reason higher education is in the shape it’s in. No accountability or resourceful decision making have led to everyone running for the hills.
#19 Submitted by Lora34 on August 5, 2024 - 11:12am
Universities are micromanaging academics and manipulating work load models. For example, in the latter, over the last 10 years, time allotted for teaching , marking, administration, supervision etc. has been continually reduced downwards. This creates a dilemma - do we work to the work load time or do we work to give the best student experience and research results etc.? Our university has, for years, promised students more detailed and helpful feedback but, significantly, when staff have highlighted that this requires more time, the university has refused to discuss this as it has 'resource implications' that need to be considered by a committee somewhere. This manipulation of time and workload highlights a cynical view of academics and a lack of understanding of the work we do and the targets we have to meet as we try to deal with a wide variety of tasks/interactions etc. while also striving to achieve national, international or world leading status for our research.

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