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”.
“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.
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.
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Print headline: ‘Brutal work regime’ driving out UK scholars
