How do mandatory work-integrated learning placements impact university students’ wellbeing? Lovely to have a new paper out this week - we reviewed 40 studies to map out how student wellbeing changes in the context of required, often unpaid workplace learning. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The impact of mandatory work-integrated learning placements on university student wellbeing in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand: a scoping review

This scoping review synthesises the impacts of mandatory work-integrated learning (WIL) placements on university student wellbeing. WIL is expanding at scale in higher education, often comprising m...

tandfonline.com

Lovely to have a new systematic review out with colleagues across South Africa + the UK, looking at mental health interventions with academic staff: www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22... Interventions can work well but depend on systemic enablers: management support, funding, and reduced workload pressures.

I submitted my PhD thesis last night! Given the topic (mental health and psychosocial safety among university workers) and the current state of Australia’s higher education sector, a May Day submission was very ironic. Time to…umm…rest? And rewatch A Black Lady Sketch Show over and over again. 🦘🎓

Well done to @peterwoelert.bsky.social and colleagues on a terrific - yet unsurprising - new paper out today. They report findings from a national survey of 138 professional staff across 25 Australian universities about admin burden in the workplace. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Fewer restructures, more consultation, better recognition: key recommendations on tackling administrative burdens from Australian universities’ professional staff

In recent years, the issue of administrative burden in universities has received growing attention around the world. Although professional staff are central to the operation of universities, little...

tandfonline.com

In the excitement over our new review of PAs, I forgot to tell you about the OTHER paper published in BMJ today, my commentary on the challenges of doing systematic reviews of evidence when there's no RCTs and most of the primary studies were unique and non-standardised.🧪 www.bmj.com/content/388/...

Systematic reviews of non-RCT evidence: building dry stone walls

To bake good cookies, start with good cookie dough. To use a different metaphor, to build a brick wall, take a large collection of bricks—all the same size and in perfect shape—and line them up neatly...

bmj.com

I really like this conceptualization of reflexivity by Braun & Clarke (2022): "good reflexivity isn't a surface reflection, it isn't a comforting feeling or something designed to make you feel like a better person; it can and should be discomforting, unsettling, and change-bringing."

Out on 28 March! There are chapters about communities, Indigenous people, veterans and PTSD, depathologisation of trans health and much more. We are having a little online launch on the evening of 31 March so if you’re interested please DM me for details.

Monash University has today admitted to a fresh round of wage theft from casual teachers. Australia’s largest uni has underpaid teachers a further $7.6m, taking Monash’s total underpayments to $17.6m since 2021

UniMelb has at least 14 staff with pay packets over $500k. That’s more than the Premier of Victoria. And yet all of our staff research and engagement budgets have been reduced to $0 in the Faculty of Arts this year www.smh.com.au/national/hig...

Highest university executive pay packets revealed

Universities are spending more on top management staff, with almost 200 people on salaries of $500,000 or more a year.

smh.com.au

Lovely to have a new open access paper out with @melhutchesson.bsky.social and colleagues! We analysed survey data from 411 #sexuality and #gender diverse students at an Australian university to explore factors associated with psychological distress. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🦘🎓

Factors associated with psychological distress among sexuality and/or gender diverse students at an Australian university: A cross-sectional study

While mental ill-health — such as psychological distress — is prevalent among university students, less is known about sexuality and/or gender diverse…

sciencedirect.com

I have updated the Academic Workload Tracker for 2025. I strongly encourage all academics to track how long you actually work, and at what tasks. It's a crucial way to counter the deliberate wage-theft of obfuscatory university workload models. docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Academic Work Tracker Template v2.2 (2025)

docs.google.com

Resignation of the Journal of Human Evolution Editorial Board: We are saddened to announce the resignations of The Joint Editors-in-Chief, all Emeritus Editors retired or active in the field, and all but one Associate Editor. Press release below.

Taking a brief break from the calamities of #academia to make chả giò (Vietnamese spring rolls) for Christmas/December 25th lunch. 😌

I have a new paper out with terrific colleagues including @lachkent.bsky.social — we analysed 857 university workers’ responses to an open-ended survey question about how the institution impacts their wellbeing. link.springer.com/article/10.1... (Unfortunately not open access…) #AcademicSky 🦘🎓

How university climate impacts psychosocial safety, psychosocial risk, and mental health among staff in Australian higher education: a qualitative study - Higher Education

Research has reported an epidemic of mental health concerns among staff in higher education. Universities can improve staff mental health by creating work environments that are more psychologically, s...

link.springer.com

Universities can't afford: research, manageable classes sizes, conference funding, mental health support Universities can afford: expensive VCs/deputy VCs, change managers, external consultants, shiny new buildings, Research Excellence Framework, clunky virtual learning environments, annual fun run

Every dollar spent on exec salaries is a dollar drained from the labour of university workers and the quality of teaching and researching. Corporate parasites, the business world’s anti-intellectual proxy agents, that contribute nothing of value to the academy.

Not pictured: Me getting to the room with a minute to spare, after an eleventh hour re-write of slides, and running headlong through the revised talk without practising. 💀 Academic work is a genuine rollercoaster … Also fab to finally (and unexpectedly) catch up with @drjot.bsky.social in person! ☺️

Joanna Tai @drjot.bsky.social · 2y ago

Finally get to see @xuanluu.bsky.social in person! Presentation on student and staff mental wellbeing at university

i am super biased here because i am an academic and would like to continue to be one *but* i do feel there comes a point where you have to ask yourself what the point of ‘the economy’ is if it doesn’t support education or healthcare or the arts or housing or food or water and utilities

Nina Markl 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈@ninamarkl.bsky.social · 2y ago

not an original observation but i was just explaining that the UK higher ed sector is in a bad financial position to my mum (who’s lived in austria all her life) and it is actually a very strange thing to explain that the ‘education sector’ is struggling

Lovely to have a super brief editorial out with Veena Abraham, a fabulous colleague at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University in South Africa. We talk about the need to tackle #racism as a determinant of mental health in institutions of higher education. ✊🏽 Check it out: doi.org/10.3389/ijph...

SSPH+ | Racism as a Social Determinant of Mental Health in Higher Education: Sector-Level Perspectives From South Africa and Australia

High levels of mental ill-health occur in universities and other institutions of higher education. Considerable numbers of students report anxiety (29%) and ...

doi.org

Union report out today finds: - 306 senior uni execs earn more than their state premiers - average Vice Chancellor salary over $1 million - Unis spent $734 million in 2023 on "consulting” etc Meantime, we're constantly told by execs we have to cut spending newshub.medianet.com.au/2024/11/new-...

Love to be in the sector that lurches from policy uncertainty to uncertainty with little funding while international students are used as both a resource and a political scapegoat rather than treated as real people who deserve mobility and education www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

Dutton to block Labor bid to restrict international students

The Coalition is promising bigger overall migration cuts than Labor but it is preparing to vote against the caps when the bill is in the Senate this week.

smh.com.au

So what will this mean for all those staff whose jobs have been threatened because of these looming caps? www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11...

Labor's plan to cap international student enrolments from next year appears doomed after Coalition vows to block

The Coalition has announced it will oppose the government's bill to limit the number of international students able to enrol from next year, just weeks out from when the caps were meant to come into f...

abc.net.au

Feed for anyone interested in Critical Unversity Studies, HE Policy and alternatives to the corporatised university. go.bsky.app/SUxgJo8

I've created a new feed to organise posts about the Australian higher ed sector. Use this feed for news, discussion and workplace organising! For your post to appear on the feed just use the kangaroo and graduation cap emojis together 🦘🎓 #AcademicSky bsky.app/profile/barr...

💡 I’ve a new commentary piece out in the Health Promotion Journal of Australia on mental health in Australia’s universities. We need better institutional assessment, accountability, and leadership. The fish rots from the head; change must start from the top. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Lovely to have a new paper out! A systematic mixed studies review on how setting-level changes in universities affect mental health and wellbeing: doi.org/10.1016/j.mh... Most changes involve the curriculum and impact students’ mental health in mixed ways … What about staff? #AcademicSky #PhDSky

Happy Mardi Gras!

Chúc mừng năm mới! Happy Lunar New Year to all folks who celebrate, and may the Year of the Wood Dragon be kind to you all. 🧧 Each year, I consider the first few weeks of the Gregorian new year are a trial run; if I don’t like it, there’s always a second go at a fresh start on the lunar calendar … 🙂

I added another update to my project website on LGBTIQA+ enabling (alternative university pathways) students. Some really interesting insights on disability, mental health and the additional 'cost burden' of being queer that can mean going to uni and working less is not practical. 🌈🎓