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

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, socially, and organisationally safe and supportive. Yet, qualitative evidence in this area remains limited, and there are calls for further qualitative research to understand how institutional and systemic conditions affect university staff mental health. We accordingly designed a programme of embedded mixed-methods survey research to explore how university climate shapes psychosocial safety, psychosocial risk, and mental health at one Australian institution. In this article, we present findings from the qualitative dimension of our work: an inductive qualitative content analysis of 857 staff responses to one open-ended survey question: 'How do aspects of the university impact your mental wellbeing?' Participants spoke to six distinct aspects of university climate: (i) workload; (ii) institutional systems and policies; (iii) institutional culture; (iv) local management; (v) senior management; and (vi) harmful behaviours. Together, these findings reveal great complexity in how systemic, institutional, and relational phenomena all impact university staff. We situate our findings within the context of existing scholarship on staff mental health in higher education; discuss their implications for future research, practice, and policymaking; and conclude with an urgent call to action.