Recent research reveals that around two thirds of University Research Staff in the UK are employed on fixed-term contracts, which are usually less than two years. This practice has no end in sight. One of my colleagues jumped between fixed-term contracts for 17 years. I am just starting my fifth year on a series of fixed-term contracts.

What does this do to academics’ mental health? In a 2019 study in the UK, “two-thirds of respondents (71%) said they believed their mental health had been damaged by working on insecure contracts and more than two-fifths (43%) said it had impacted on their physical health.” This is not a surprise. As many readers will know, insecure work in academia means incessant rounds of redundancy, endless job applications in a notoriously difficult job market, regularly changing employers, or even moving across the country. Or you could choose the route of writing laborious and hugely competitive grant applications mostly in your own time. The stakes are high: your economic survival. As such, accepting a fixed-term contract can be a risky strategy.

I am a mental health researcher, a mum, a person who lives with mental illness, and a lover of the outdoors. I am passionate about achieving research impact, and an advocate of lived-experience research. I want to make this clear: I wholeheartedly love my career, my academic research work, my job, and my excellent and supportive team. I love the intellectual challenge, I love the creativity and problem solving. I love doing impactful research that makes a difference, building networks, collaborating, writing and reading. I thrive in my job, and I am good at it. However, my fixed-term contract is harming my mental health.

Read More »