Tag: wellbeing

  • Ten Tiny Experiments to Ease Burnout for Educators – Faculty Focus

    Ten Tiny Experiments to Ease Burnout for Educators – Faculty Focus

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  • Ten Tiny Experiments to Ease Burnout for Educators – Faculty Focus

    Ten Tiny Experiments to Ease Burnout for Educators – Faculty Focus

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  • Supporting the student wellbeing supporters

    Supporting the student wellbeing supporters

    Across the UK, the sector is focused on scaling up wellbeing provision for students.

    But as the mental health needs of learners increase, so too does the invisible pressure placed on academic and professional staff.

    It’s a quiet crisis: wellbeing support for students is climbing the strategic agenda, while support for those delivering that care remains comparatively under-resourced. This is thrown into sharp relief given the turbulent times across the higher education institutions with staff facing uncertainty about stability of jobs, expectations and workload.

    Staff as emotional first responders

    Within the current HE model, academic staff are expected to be responsive to student disclosures, emotionally available during distress, and flexible with academic adjustments, all while fulfilling the core responsibilities of curriculum design, delivery, and assessment. As a result, the boundaries between rising workload, pedagogy, pastoral care, and crisis navigation are becoming increasingly blurred. A 2022 report by Education Support found that 78 per cent of academic staff felt their psychological wellbeing was less valued than productivity, and over half showed signs of depression.

    While professional staff often serve as key facilitators of institutional wellbeing initiatives, they too experience compassion fatigue and rising burnout especially in roles that bridge student-facing services and policy implementation. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on academic and professional services staff was far reaching, with an increased demand for staff to re-design teaching resources, master new technologies and approaches to engage students and support their wellbeing whilst also managing their own mental health and resilience.

    Reorganising workload and investing in their wellbeing is a necessity for retention, effectiveness, and staff morale.

    Coaching as a holistic practice of care

    Coaching in higher education is a personalised approach for investing in an individual by supporting them to reach their full potential. The way coaching approaches support for an individual is through reflection, clarify goals, developing a growth mindset and build self-awareness. Therefore, coaching has been increasingly introduced across the higher education institutions for supporting students’ resilience. As those initiatives progressed, a parallel narrative emerged “Look after the staff and staff will look after students” in the 2022 Journal of Further and Higher Education by Brewster. Academic and professional colleagues also needed a space to pause, reflect, and rebuild their own sense of clarity and confidence.

    Just as students have had to navigate the difficulties and emotional toll of the Covid-19 pandemic, so have staff had to navigate profound disruption in their lives whilst still providing support for students’ mental health. With the disruption caused by the pandemic only a few years in the past, staff now face more challenges resulting from job uncertainty, institutional restructuring, and sector-wide instability. The cumulative impact of these pressures has left many staff navigating blurred boundaries, depleted confidence, and a loss of clarity about their professional identity. In this context, coaching for staff focused on wellbeing, self-reflection, and self-compassion is a strategic necessity for supporting staff resilience.

    Coaching sessions embedded into staff work plans would provide spaces for staff to decompress and have meaningful conversations to clarify career goals. While it may be desirable to reduce workload, coaching can have indirect effect in equipping staff to manage workload more efficiently through reprioritisation. Consequently colleagues would not only feel better equipped to support students but would also be able to recognise and respond to their own emotional needs, re-align work plans with their personal and professional values enhancing their overall mental wellbeing.

    Coaching isn’t just a tool for student development, it’s a strategic investment in staff wellbeing. It’s also a reminder that institutional care must be available to all staff. As it stands right now coaching is reserved only for those in leadership management. All staff academic, professional, and operational deserve access to coaching as a tool for personal and professional wellbeing. When coaching is inclusive, it becomes a strategic lever for culture change, not just individual development.

    Reframing the culture

    In a sector often reliant on institutional employee assistance programmes or crisis-oriented interventions, staff coaching offers preventative, community-driven professional development that builds collective capacity for resilience. It reframes wellbeing not as “self-care,” but as cultural care embedded in day-to-day practice, mentoring, and reflection especially given the challenges of current circumstances.

    In an age increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence and automated systems, the need to preserve human connection, emotional intelligence, and identity within education has never been greater. Coaching provides space to foster not just personal and professional growth, but a grounded sense of self, anchoring staff in their purpose and values in a period of rapid technological change. We cannot afford to treat staff wellbeing as secondary to student success as they are interdependent. When staff are supported, resourced, and cared for, they are better positioned to create the conditions in which students can thrive.

    If the higher education institutions wants to retain engaged, resilient and emotionally intelligent educators, then coaching shouldn’t just be something we only offer to students and leadership staff. Leadership plays a critical role in setting the tone for this culture, ensuring that wellbeing is not just encouraged but embedded in everyday practice for all staff. It requires visible leadership commitment to wellbeing, through coaching, open dialogue, and consistent reinforcement of values of empathy, inclusion, and respect. One powerful way to enact this commitment is through institutionally supported coaching not just for leaders, but for all staff.

    Many institutions already have a valuable but underutilised resource; trained internal coaches. These individuals bring deep contextual understanding of the higher education institution itself. Encouraging and enabling internal coaches to work with staff across all roles not just those in leadership can embed a culture of care and reflection at scale. When coaching is normalised as part of everyday professional development and wellbeing, it signals that the institution values its people not just for what they produce, but for who they are.

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  • Building Your Teaching Mind Budget – Faculty Focus

    Building Your Teaching Mind Budget – Faculty Focus



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  • Building Your Teaching Mind Budget – Faculty Focus

    Building Your Teaching Mind Budget – Faculty Focus



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  • Understanding how inflation affects teacher well-being and career decisions

    Understanding how inflation affects teacher well-being and career decisions

    Key points:

    In recent years, the teaching profession has faced unprecedented challenges, with inflation emerging as a significant factor affecting educators’ professional lives and career choices. This in-depth examination delves into the complex interplay between escalating inflation rates and the self-efficacy of educators–their conviction in their capacity to proficiently execute their pedagogical responsibilities and attain the desired instructional outcomes within the classroom environment.

    The impact of inflation on teachers’ financial stability has become increasingly evident, with many educators experiencing a substantial decline in their “real wages.” While nominal salaries remain relatively stagnant, the purchasing power of teachers’ incomes continues to erode as the cost of living rises. This economic pressure has created a concerning dynamic where educators, despite their professional dedication, find themselves struggling to maintain their standard of living and meet basic financial obligations.

    A particularly troubling trend has emerged in which teachers are increasingly forced to seek secondary employment to supplement their primary income. Recent surveys indicate that approximately 20 percent of teachers now hold second jobs during the academic year, with this percentage rising to nearly 30 percent during summer months. This necessity to work multiple jobs can lead to physical and mental exhaustion, potentially compromising teachers’ ability to maintain the high levels of energy and engagement required for effective classroom instruction.

    The phenomenon of “moonlighting” among educators has far-reaching implications for teacher self-efficacy. When teachers must divide their attention and energy between multiple jobs, their capacity to prepare engaging lessons, grade assignments thoroughly, and provide individualized student support may be diminished. This situation often creates a cycle where reduced performance leads to decreased self-confidence, potentially affecting both teaching quality and student outcomes.

    Financial stress has also been linked to increased levels of anxiety and burnout among teachers, directly impacting their perceived self-efficacy. Studies have shown that educators experiencing financial strain are more likely to report lower levels of job satisfaction and decreased confidence in their ability to meet professional expectations. This psychological burden can manifest in reduced classroom effectiveness and diminished student engagement.

    Perhaps most concerning is the growing trend of highly qualified educators leaving the profession entirely for better-paying opportunities in other sectors. This “brain drain” from education represents a significant loss of experienced professionals who have developed valuable teaching expertise. The exodus of talented educators not only affects current students but also reduces the pool of mentor teachers available to guide and support newer colleagues, potentially impacting the professional development of future educators.

    The correlation between inflation and teacher attrition rates has become increasingly apparent, with economic factors cited as a primary reason for leaving the profession. Research indicates that districts in areas with higher costs of living and significant inflation rates experience greater difficulty in both recruiting and retaining qualified teachers. This challenge is particularly acute in urban areas where housing costs and other living expenses have outpaced teacher salary increases.

    Corporate sectors, technology companies, and consulting firms have become attractive alternatives for educators seeking better compensation and work-life balance. These career transitions often offer significantly higher salaries, better benefits packages, and more sustainable working hours. The skills that make effective teachers, such as communication, organization, and problem-solving, are highly valued in these alternative career paths, making the transition both feasible and increasingly common.

    The cumulative effect of these factors presents a serious challenge to the education system’s sustainability. As experienced teachers leave the profession and prospective educators choose alternative career paths, schools face increasing difficulty in maintaining educational quality and consistency. This situation calls for systematic changes in how we value and compensate educators, recognizing that teacher self-efficacy is intrinsically linked to their financial security and professional well-being.

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  • Supporting the Supporters: Promoting Educators’ Mental Health – Faculty Focus

    Supporting the Supporters: Promoting Educators’ Mental Health – Faculty Focus

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  • Supporting the Supporters: Promoting Educators’ Mental Health – Faculty Focus

    Supporting the Supporters: Promoting Educators’ Mental Health – Faculty Focus

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  • There’s no magic wand for student wellbeing

    There’s no magic wand for student wellbeing

    At a conference in the mid-2010s an American colleague described UK student services and support as “an emerging profession.” He was wrong: universities have always supported students beyond the classroom. From Oxford dons to Bologna priests, pastoral care was never a bolt-on or mission drift. It was a crucial part of enabling students, especially those from challenging backgrounds, to succeed.

    Where he may have been right was in the contrast between his side of the Atlantic and mine. The United States has built structured, well-resourced systems of student support, while in the UK our approach remains patchy and ill defined. A decade later, demand has continued to grow exponentially. Expectations are higher, university services are stretched, and public health provision is thinner.

    The Hogwarts problem

    Have universities become places where students expect to be looked after as much as taught? At times, it feels that way. Today many students’, and their parents’, earliest frame of reference for support in a residential education setting comes from what they saw or read happen for Harry Potter.

    Students paying fees understandably expect a full package: excellent teaching, clear employment prospects, and a safety net that catches every wobble in closed, secure setting, with or without owls.

    On top of that, many of today’s students have grown up talking openly about mental health on Instagram, TikTok, and in group chats. That cultural shift is a win for stigma reduction, and means more students are willing to ask for help in a context where expectations were already increased.

    Add in a more diverse student body, and the equation is simple: higher expectations + greater volume and diversity of students + greater willingness to express need = demand growing exponentially.

    At the sharpest end, universities are managing cases of student suicide, with all of its devastating consequences for families, friends and staff. The stakes could not be higher.

    We are also picking up the pieces from past cuts elsewhere. In Wales and England cuts to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) since 2010 mean many students are arriving at university with needs that have not been addressed before.

    The opportunity to get it right

    Providers across all four UK nations and beyond are grappling with the same pressures. The answer lies not in expending capacity and energy on demonstrative quality marks and badges, but in creating real-world systemic change rooted in regulation, leadership, defined boundaries, curriculum design, and rapid adoption of AI.

    Make mental health a strategic priority: The first step is leadership. Mental health and wellbeing must be owned at the highest level of every university. The Universities UK Stepchange framework made this clear in 2016, and it still holds true today. Vice chancellors and governing bodies need to lead visible strategies, set measurable goals, and proactively monitor progress.

    This is not about box-ticking. It is about embedding wellbeing in strategy so decisions about teaching, estates, finance, and partnerships all factor it in, just like they do health and safety. This commitment sends a powerful signal: facilitating good mental health is not peripheral. It is part of the core mission and enables better outcomes.

    This needs to be set against formal regulation with common terminology, standards and risk measures; moving beyond the voluntary and variance we see now, setting common boundaries to what the sector provides and what can be expected for all.

    Set boundaries and build healthcare partnerships: Universities are not healthcare providers, and pretending otherwise is not sustainable. Equally, it is not realistic to say “this is not our role.” Students and their families, often in crisis, need a sympathetic explanation of what support universities can and cannot provide, and a clear route to accessible health services.

    That means developing formal partnerships with health providers. The South East Wales Mental Health Partnership shows what is possible. Since 2019 this partnership has been creating bespoke referral pathways, training university staff in triage, and coordinating with NHS colleagues. The partnership has managed demand while helping the NHS plan for the pressure created by a time-limited, transient student population.

    The structures of health services differ across the four UK nations, but the approach is transferable. Formal, regional partnerships are the only sustainable way to respond.

    Embed wellbeing in the curriculum: Wellbeing can be built into curriculum design in ways that both support students and improve academic outcomes. Group projects foster connection and reduce isolation. Linking assignments to real-world challenges boosts motivation. Even something as simple as coordinating deadlines across modules can contribute to a healthier, more balanced experience. Peer support can be impactful for everyone involved.

    This reflects what many modern workplaces already expect: collaboration, resilience, and balance. Embedding wellbeing into learning design is part of preparing students for life after graduation.

    Use AI wisely: Around 80 per cent of teenagers aged 13–17 have used generative AI tools like ChatGPT. In developed economies there is growing evidence that this demographic will look to AI for emotional support with good outcomes, so it seems clear future students will look to AI first for help. A response which ensures strained provision adapts to demand change is critical.

    Handled properly, AI could transform student services. Chatbots can answer routine questions, signpost students to resources, and triage requests before they reach staff. This is not an opportunity to cut spending; it is an opportunity to repurpose skilled staff enabling focus on the most complex cases and multi-agency referrals, or in other words, the work where human expertise is most impactful.

    The danger is that we repeat past sector mistakes: commissioning bespoke systems slowly and at high cost. Instead, universities should move quickly to adopt and embed proven tools ensuring people, not algorithms, make the biggest difference.

    What’s next?

    Universities aren’t Hogwarts – and they need to be explicit about what they can and cannot do. It is possible to do this in a positive way and work with partners to build systems that meet new demand appropriately.

    That means leadership taking a proactive strategic approach, clear and compassionate boundaries, embedding wellbeing in the curriculum, and smart use of AI to manage resource and demand. It also means governments in each part of the UK moving beyond voluntary, third-party charters – to frameworks with teeth.

    Without that shift, staff will continue to be asked for miracles without a wand, and universities will continue to be held responsible when those miracles don’t happen.

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  • Therapy Dogs Boost Graduate Student Well-Being

    Therapy Dogs Boost Graduate Student Well-Being

    Time spent with animals can boost feelings of well-being for students at all levels.

    Laura Fay/iStock/Getty Images Plus

    Therapy dogs are often touted as a way to give students a reprieve from busy academic schedules or remind them of their own pets at home, but a recent study from Chatham University found that engagement with therapy dogs can instill a sense of social connection for students at all levels.

    An occupational therapy student at Chatham who researched how weekly therapy dog interactions could impact graduate students in health science programs found that the encounters produced benefits for students’ social and emotional health.

    The background: Past research shows animal interventions can mitigate homesickness for first-year students who miss their pets and academic stress for nursing students. Students who participate in “dog office hours” also experience increased social connection and comfort. Shelter dogs can also motivate students’ physical well-being, as demonstrated by the University of South Carolina’s canine fitness course.

    Graduate students in health science programs, in particular, report high rates of anxiety, depression and stress, according to the study.

    Regardless of their program of study, graduate students also tend to be removed from general campus services and activities due to physical campus layouts, residing and working off campus, or a misalignment of schedules between resources and their responsibilities. Therefore, identifying services specifically for graduate students can improve their access and uptake.

    How it works: Twenty-five students were recruited to participate in the study, meeting weekly to engage in activities with a group of therapy dogs, including petting, playing with, brushing, holding and walking the animals. Students could interact with the dogs for up to two hours over the course of the seven weeks. Before and after each puppy playdate, participants completed pre- and post-test surveys to gauge their feelings and the effects of the animal intervention.

    Survey results showed students were less likely to report feeling stressed and more likely to say they felt happy after engaging with the dogs.

    “I’ve really enjoyed this experience,” one participant wrote. “I feel like this has positively impacted my mood and well-being overall. I always leave feeling more relaxed and happier.”

    In open-ended questions, students said the dogs made them feel happy, loved, calm, relaxed, motivated and connected. Many said they also appreciated the opportunity to engage with their peers, noting that the regular cadence allowed them to socialize and meet new people, including the therapy dogs’ owners. Students indicated they wanted the visits to continue in some way if possible.

    The average student spent around 30 minutes with the therapy dogs during the trial, and, if they had the opportunity, a majority said they would participate in therapy animal groups on campus three to four times per month.

    Other Comforting Canines

    Chatham University students aren’t the only graduate students learning to destress from dogs. Here are some other examples of animal-assisted interventions across the country:

    • At Virginia Tech, graduate students at the Innovation Campus receive love and cuddles from Allen, a therapy dog who is co-handled by Barbara Hoopes, the graduate school’s associate dean for the region.
    • The City University of New York’s School of Public Health has hosted a therapy dog visit from the Good Dog Foundation to encourage graduate learners to relax and take a break during their week.
    • The University of Cincinnati featured therapy dogs at their Graduate Student Appreciation Week in April, honoring the hard work students do and helping them break their usual routines.

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