How to Look After Yourself in Higher Education

The delivery of quality research is central to the mission of most universities. But there is more to research excellence than headline-grabbing “groundbreaking” discoveries.

This podcast episode explores what good research looks like, how it can be supported at an institutional level, and what feeds into a healthy research ecosystem that enables robust studies of all types, and at all stages, to be carried out and knowledge advanced.

We also delve into research security, to find out how scholarly work can be protected from misuse or being weaponised amid ever-changing geopolitical power struggles.

You will hear from:

Marcus Munafò is currently associate pro vice-chancellor for research culture and professor of biological psychology at the University of Bristol. In May, he will take up the post of deputy vice-chancellor and provost at the University of Bath. He is co-founder of the UK Reproducibility Network and leads a major project funded by Research England to accelerate the uptake of open research practices across the UK higher education sector. 

Jacqueline Littlewood is director of research security at the University of Alberta in Canada. She took up this role leading the university’s safeguarding research office in 2023, after a 20-year career in government as a policy analyst and adviser, including working with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

This episode is sponsored by Elsevier.

For this episode, we asked academics and university staff from around the world to share their own strategies for staying positive, healthy and maintaining balance in a sector in which stress and overwork are commonplace. At a time when higher education feels under attack in many countries, in more ways than one, hear about coping strategies that work for your fellow faculty and educators and how they protect their wellbeing.

Thank you to all who contributed their personal wisdom:

• Lucas Lixinski is a law professor and associate dean at UNSW Sydney, which he joined after completing a postgraduate fellowship at the University of Texas School of Law.
• Maha Bali is a professor of practice at the Center for Learning and Teaching at The American University in Cairo. 
• Doune Macdonald is an emerita professor at the University of Queensland and a visiting professor at the University of Sydney.
• Debbie Riby is a professor of developmental psychology and associate pro vice-chancellor for postgraduate research students at Durham University.
• Bhawana Shrestha is a research fellow at the Learning Institute for Future Excellence at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University.
• Chris Wright is a senior lecturer and co-ordinator of the Drawing Centre at De Montfort University.
• Chin Moi Chow is an associate professor of sleep and well-being in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney.
• Pippa Caterall is a professor of history and policy at the University of Westminster.
• Patrice Seuwou is an associate professor of learning and teaching and the director of the Centre for the Advancement of Racial Equality at the University of Northampton.
• Aster Cosmos is a learning designer at Monash University.

For more insight and advice on protecting the well-being of those working and studying in universities, take a look at our latest spotlight guide on making mental health a priority in higher education.

Listen to this podcast on Spotify, Apple podcasts or Google podcasts.