“That's outside of my pay grade” – Is the tertiary sector ready to support student (and staff) mental health needs?
Anna Dabrowski, Senior Research Fellow, Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)
We continue to hear that mental health conditions are on the rise, particularly amongst young people. As a result, there has been a drastic increase in mental health and wellbeing interventions designed to prevent, promote, and respond to the mental health needs of students, particularly in schools but also now in higher education settings, both internationally and in Australia.
Mental health interventions are increasingly expected to be delivered or integrated by educators, many of whom are carrying heavy workloads while navigating complex student behaviour. The toll this takes was recently described in a large survey of Australian school teachers, many of whom reported their intention to leave the education profession.
However, unlike the sustained schooling focus, there is much less research around educator experiences of supporting students within the tertiary sector. This is important, as increasing work pressure and productivity demands brought on by the marketisation, massification, casualisation, and digitisation of higher education – exacerbated more recently by ongoing sector-wide threats to job security – have been associated with increasing work-life stress, burnout, risks to psychological safety, and mental health difficulties amongst staff.
Adding to this, academic staff are increasingly required to support students with diverse needs, including mental health difficulties, underscoring the intrinsic interrelationship between staff and student wellbeing and success. Put simply: “staff wellbeing [is] integral to student wellbeing”.
A recent study provides further insights into the experiences of tertiary educators as they navigate growing student mental health challenges.
Based on interviews in Australia, educators in tertiary settings reported experiencing high levels of stress, largely due to the weight of responsibility they feel in supporting adult learners.
“I don't think I anticipated the volume of students who were going through the process of being diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, for example, or dealing with transgender issues and other kinds of gender and sexuality issues. Or the number of students who are trying to cope with anxiety, and particularly in an online environment” (Subject Coordinator)
This stress appears to be further exacerbated by inconsistent wellbeing and mental health support mechanisms across different contexts or discipline areas. Educators reported that mental health support systems for staff are minimal, despite acknowledging the high levels of stress linked to workloads, job insecurity, and the lack of senior or peer support, particularly for sessional or casual staff.
Across a variety of institutions, educators expressed frustration with the existing blanket policy approach, which they feel fails to address the specific needs of their students and their own responsibilities as instructors.
“They'll come and listen to me, but they'll get to me when we're at breaking point with, you know, I'm the one that's sitting with them in emergency. By that time, it's too late” (Head of Student Services)
A common concern among the educators interviewed was also a lack of transparency and accessibility of mental health resources for both students and staff. Educators reported that when mental health policies are in place, they are often too difficult to navigate. Staff highlighted the need for individual mental health support to manage the demands of their profession.
There's such little training, you know for staff, and what I've certainly noticed, I guess, is the compassion… of staff just reduces cause they're all burnt out and fried themselves” (University Tutor)
Larger scale research into the experiences of tertiary staff as they grapple to support student needs is still needed. However, this study suggests that, although there is increasing support for students and staff with mental health needs in schools, there is still much work to be done in the tertiary, including higher education, sector.
There is clearly a need for more accessible, evidence-based resources, as well as the development of sector-wide guidelines to support both student and staff mental health in contemporary tertiary education.
Dr Anna Dabrowski is a Senior Research Fellow, ACER