UNIVERSITY lecturers face heavy workload pressures, high levels of stress and separate problems blamed on management practices, union leaders have claimed.
The findings of a survey carried out by the EIS-ULA (Educational Institute of Scotland - University Lecturers' Association) indicate that teaching staff in the university sector have lower levels of wellbeing and satisfaction compared to overall scores of those working across all sectors of education.
EIS-ULA is a self-governing association within the EIS, which is Scotland's largest teaching union, and the research is partly based on a survey it carried out and casework reviews.
Some of the factors which contribute to lecturers' wellbeing scores include concerns over management and leadership in their institution, as well as significant workload pressures and a lack of access to appropriate professional development, it was claimed.
It called on employers to address concerns with union representatives.
Universities Scotland said it takes concerns over stress seriously, that safeguards are in place to help staff and that it believed the research did not have a wide-ranging enough representation of university lecturers.
The union said the findings highlighted the two aspects of work that gave the most stress for EIS-ULA members in universities as workload (42 per cent) and "dealing with management" (23 per cent).
When EIS-ULA members were asked their current stress levels, it was shown that 70 per cent gave a score equating to the feeling "extremely stressed" end of the scale.
The report also said it is aware of the "increasing attention being paid to workplace psychosocial risks and how workplace stress may be exacerbated by poor workplace design or poor management".
Larry Flanagan, EIS General Secretary, said: "We would urge all employers in the higher education sector to work constructively with staff representatives to tackle the problem of excessive workload and to reduce instances of work-related stress.
"It is in everyone's interest - staff, students and the institutions themselves - to create a work environment that is conducive to learning and teaching for the benefit of all students and staff."
A spokeswoman for Universities Scotland, which represents the country's 19 higher education institutions, said: "Scotland's universities have a duty of care to all of their staff, whether they are academics or professional and support staff, which is taken very seriously across the sector.
"Today's universities are very demanding places given the high expectations placed on them by their student, Government, business and other stakeholders.
"Any member of staff who feel stressed on a regular basis should seek support from their institution as universities have stress policies in place to help manage this.
"It's important the results of this survey are framed in the proper context; this survey found only 68 people say they were 'occasionally stressed' out of more than 17,000 academic staff in Scotland's universities. That is less than 0.4 per cent."
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