Despite multiple government reviews – including the Australian Universities Accord and a Senate Inquiry – staff wellbeing in the workplace has received little direct attention. In response, the Australian University Census on Staff Wellbeing was launched in 2025 as a sector-wide “name and support” public health and sustainability initiative. The purpose of the Census is to understand the scale of psychosocial risk in the sector, as well as provide an evidence-base to reform risk management practices across universities.

We know that working conditions play a huge role in not only workplace outputs, but also the physical and mental wellbeing of individuals. The productivity-and-profit agenda has significantly impacted the Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC, the climate for worker psychological health and safety) within Australian academic institutions, leading to heightened stress, burnout, and reduced engagement.

Our Australian Research Council (ARC DP190100853) funded five-wave study (2020-2024) of university staff assessing digital stress in universities uncovered evidence of a widespread and deep crisis of mental health among university staff, associated with the pressures of restructures and job demands. Yet staff are the backbone of the sector, of teaching, research and student support and their vitality is crucial for the sector.

The 2025 Census surveyed responses from nearly 11,500 staff from 42 universities, with an estimated response rate of 7.65%. We are very proud to now have the data to publicly rank 36 Australian universities by their PSC. We believe this is a world-first ranking.

What Is Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC)?

PSC measures the organisational climate for worker psychological health and safety, including:

• Senior management commitment to stress prevention
• Priority placed on psychological health vs productivity
• Communication about work stress and safety
• Participation and consultation across all organisational levels

PSC is a leading predictor of working conditions, job strain, mental health, burnout, and productivity—the “cause of the causes” of work stress.

Findings

The overall findings for the sector are concerning. Compared to other large datasets of national worker populations, the results are stark. While national benchmarks for PSC show that around 11-12% of workers in Australia are at very high risk, the Census shows a massive 44% of respondents are in very high-risk environments. The contrast of results can be seen in the graph below.