Academia

This project aims to investigate how employment contracts and job insecurity are associated with psychosocial work environment factors, as well as various work-related and health-related factors among women and men working in academia.

Particular emphasis will be placed on furthering the understanding of potential underlying mechanisms for relations between such factors.

Why is it important to investigate academia?

Individuals working within higher education constitute approximately one third of all government employees. Academia is characterized by different types of employment conditions with permanent positions as well as temporary employment contracts, the latter of which may imply a certain degree of job insecurity.

Additionally, work tasks vary between positions, some having more teaching obligations while others include more time for research. Such variations can be associated with different psychosocial work conditions, possibilities for personal and professional development, job satisfaction, work–life balance, health and well-being. When compared to other labor market sectors, the highly educated are well-concentrated in academia. This implies that individuals in academia may be better equipped with resources to deal successfully with a variety of challenges and demands in everyday life.

What is the long-term goal for this project?

We hope to contribute to the understanding of how employment conditions in academia affect individuals, something that is relatively understudied today. The findings from this project can be utilized to improve working conditions for academic staff as well as to foster a sustainable work life for women and men working in this sector.

Preliminary results

Preliminary analyses of pre-pandemic data show differences by gender, contract type, and position in academia regarding the psychosocial work environment and health.

SULF 2016 Descriptive Analysis AST (361 Kb)