UK higher education staff's mental health and wellbeing during Covid-19
| Date | 15 December 2023 |
| Pages | 229-249 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-03-2023-0166 |
| Published date | 15 December 2023 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Rasha Kassem,Fotios Mitsakis |
UK higher education staff’s mental
health and wellbeing during
Covid-19
Rasha Kassem
Business School, Aston University, Birmingham, UK, and
Fotios Mitsakis
Department of Human Resource Management, Nottingham Trent University,
Nottingham, UK
Abstract
Purpose –This paper examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and wellbeing of
academic and professional Higher Education (HE) staff in the UK.
Design/methodology/approach –A mixed-method survey questionnaire was sent to almost 300 UK HE
staff to secure qualitative and quantitative data to enable data triangulation.
Findings –Thestudy found anadverse impacton academic and professionalstaff’smental health and we llbeing,
furtherresulting in stressand anxiety. Severalreasons for the increasedstress and anxietylevels were identified,
but socialisolation and the increasedworkload were themost commonly reported.The most affected groupsby
the pandemicwere females, younger staff,full-timers and those withdisabilities or caring responsibilities.
Practical implications –This study offers a range of strategies to support staff’s mental health and
wellbeing; as such, it is of great interest to policymakers to inform their decisions of similar crisis events in the
future. It also addresses some of the COVID-19 areas of research interest for the UK parliament.
Originality/value –The study’s originality derives from exploring the pandemic’s impact on UK HE staff’s
mental health and wellbeing by including professional staff’s experiences alongside those of academics. It also
expands the scant evidence concerning the pandemic’s impact on HE staff in the UK.
Keywords Higher education, Mental health, Well-being, COVID-19, Stress, Anxiety
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic was a significant and unexpected public health crisis that impacted
academic institutions worldwide. The pandemic severely impacted the UK Higher Education
(HE) sector, resulting in students’enrolment opportunities and courses being cancelled. The
impact of the pandemic has also been exacerbated by the financial insecurity caused by the
severe losses suffered by universities and the uncertainty surrounding the future of the HE
sector. Financial insecurity has added to the stress and anxiety experienced by academic and
professional staff, who have been forced to worry about their job security and financial
stability when their workload has increased due to new working modes (Hadjisolomou et al.,
2022). The sudden shift to remote working and the social distancing measures resulted in
COVID-19 and
staff wellbeing
229
The authors would like to thank Professor Dennis Nickson for his support and invaluable feedback
throughout the review process. The authors would also like to extend their gratitude to the reviewers for
their constructive feedback.
Funding: This research is funded by the Open University, UK.
This work was supported by the Open University, UK. There is no funding number as this was an
internal funding provided by the University.
Ethics: The authors confirm that the research presented in this article was carried out with due
consideration to all relevant ethical issues.
Data availability: Raw data from the questionnaire cannot be shared due to confidentiality
agreements with research participants.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 29 March 2023
Revised 2 August 2023
22 November 2023
Accepted 27 November 2023
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 46 No. 2, 2024
pp. 229-249
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-03-2023-0166
significant changes to how people live and work, leading to increased stress and anxiety
(Knight et al., 2022). Besides remote working, there was an urgent shift to online teaching,
revealing the unpreparedness of most educational institutions to meet the unprecedented new
circumstances (Shaya et al., 2023).
Despite its impact, we have very little knowledge of how the pandemic impacted staff in
UK HE, with only very few studies exploring this topic (Shen and Paul, 2021;Dinu et al., 2021;
Hughes and Donnelly, 2022). Besides, the literature has focused on academic staff, giving
very little attention to the pandemic’s impact on professional staff in HE (i.e. all non-academic
employees such as those being employed in human resources, finance, cleaning services,
administration, librarians, information technology officers, etc.). This study addresses this
knowledge gap by examining the pandemic’s impact on both academic and professional
staff’s wellbeing and mental health in UK HE, as the latter’s contribution is of equal
significance to the successful implementation of the institutional mission, as well as their
work highly informs a positive student experience (Van Straaten et al., 2016).
We used a mixed-method online questionnaire to secure qualitative and quantitative data
to enable data triangulation. The online questionnaire included closed-ended and open-ended
questions to gain deeper insights into the current research issue. Our research questions
sought to address the following: (1) How has the pandemic impacted HE academic and
professional staff’s wellbeing and mental health in the UK? and (2) How has the pandemic
impacted the wellbeing and mental health of HE staff with different genders?
We find an adverse impact on academic and professional staff’s mental health and
wellbeing, further resulting in stress and anxiety. We identified several reasons for the
increased stress and anxiety levels, but social isolation and the increased workload were the
most commonly reported. The most impacted groups by the pandemic were females, younger
staff, full-timers and those with disabilities or caring responsibilities. The findings have
implications for research, policy and practice later discussed.
A breadth of research studies examined HE staff’s mental health and wellbeing before the
pandemic, yet they primarily focused on academics (Bell et al., 2012;Lovett and Lovett, 2016;
Darabi et al., 2017;O’Brien and Guiney, 2018). Other studies also looked at HE staff alongside
university students’mental health and wellbeing (Levecque et al., 2017;Abery and Shipman
Gunson, 2016;Bowman, 2010;Bewick et al., 2010). Appropriately, many studies further
examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on HE staff’s mental health and wellbeing
(see Table 1), yet again with limited to have focused on professional staff and only three of
them being conducted in the UK (Shen and Paul, 2021;Dinu et al., 2021;Hughes and Donnelly,
2022). Therefore, our study’s originality derives from exploring the COVID-19 pandemic’s
impact on staff’s mental health and wellbeing within an understudied context such as the UK
HE sector and by including professional staff’s experiences alongside those of academics.
The paper is organised into four sections preceding this introduction. Firstly, we critically
review prior studies on the pandemic’s impact on staff’s wellbeing and mental health.
Afterwards, our research methodology is discussed, followed by the presentation and
discussion of our empirical findings. Finally, we discuss the implications of the findings and
provide new directions for future research.
2. Literature review –insights and gaps
This section highlights previous studies’findings on the pandemic’s impact on HE staff’s
wellbeing and mental health. It also identifies gaps in the literature and elucidates how the
current study addresses them. While most of the previous studies adopt a Social Exchange
Theory and Boundary Theory perspective, we theoretically posit our study around the fair
work dimensions (Fair Work Convention, 2016), more precisely to the fair conditions/respect
principle, suggesting that similar work conditions should be offered to all HE staff (e.g.
remote working, manageable workload), alongside any additional support to alleviate the
ER
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