Higher Education

This discussion paper brings together current research and practical insights on staff wellbeing and self-compassion in Higher Education. It considers the pressures experienced by academic and professional services staff, explains the evidence for self-compassion, and explores its relevance to wellbeing, stress, burnout, resilience and compassionate university cultures.

The paper also considers self-compassion alongside organisational responsibility and summarises evidence from Dr Amanda Super’s peer-reviewed randomised waitlist control trial of a brief online self-compassion intervention with 190 professionals. Participants demonstrated significant improvements in self-compassion and mental wellbeing, together with significant reductions in perceived stress and burnout.

This paper explores compassionate leadership and self-compassion in the context of organisational change across Higher Education. It considers the human impact of restructuring, newly configured teams and uncertainty, and examines how compassionate leadership can support wellbeing, psychological safety, trust, connection and collaboration.

It also provides practical approaches for leaders, including creating space for honest conversations, establishing shared expectations, recognising emotional responses to change, strengthening relational practices, modelling self-compassion and healthy boundaries, and creating psychologically safe spaces for learning and adaptation.