Academics find strength in big-hearted co-workers rather than university executives who offer “empty promises” and “strategic deferrals” in lieu of support, an Australian study has found.
A survey of 537 university workers has revealed that relationships with colleagues and supervisors – along with pay, the “intrinsic rewards” of watching students learn and the privilege of “contributing to the knowledge of the world” – are sources of satisfaction in academic work.
But these benefits are undermined by mounting workloads, the “scope creep” of administrative responsibilities and a sense that “market-driven logics” have taken primacy over universities’ public good mission.
The report, published by the University of Newcastle, found that academics’ biggest single source of dissatisfaction was the “overwhelming” pressure produced by “unrealistic” and “opaque” workload allocation models.
Many respondents recognised that this pressure stemmed from the “interlocked challenges” of scarce funding and declining public trust. But that realisation was cold comfort to academics contemplating their futures.
