UCU names universities with biggest bullying problems
6 November 2008
UCU today names and shames the universities with the worst reported levels of bullying, ahead of Friday's national Ban Bullying at Work Day.
The union said the deep-seated problem of bullying at work had to be tackled by universities and attacked organisations in the sector for failing to get to grips with the issue.
The UCU survey of 9,700 members working in higher education revealed that 6.7% of members said they were 'always' or 'often' bullied at work and 16.7% said 'sometimes'. Only half (51%) said they were fortunate enough to 'never' be bullied at work.
Less than half of all respondents in higher education (only 45.1%) said they were 'never' subjected to personal harassment at work. 7% said they were subjected to it 'always' or 'often' and nearly one in five (18.8%) said they 'sometimes' suffered from personal harassment.
The university with highest percentage of staff who said they are 'always' or 'often' bullied was the University of East London with 16.7%. In an alarming 19 institutions (table below) at least one in 10 respondents to the UCU survey reported being 'always' or 'often' bullied.
Higher education institution | 'Always' or 'often' bullied | Number of respondents* | Academic staff among respondents | Survey sample academics as % of institution's total academic staff** |
University of East London | 16.7% | 36 | 33 | 4.9% |
Kingston University | 15.9% | 69 | 51 | 3.0% |
De Montfort University | 14.3% | 77 | 70 | 5.7% |
University of Lincoln | 13.6% | 44 | 37 | 5.6% |
University of Salford | 12.8% | 86 | 53 | 4.3% |
University of Glamorgan | 12.5% | 48 | 41 | 3.6% |
University of Ulster | 11.9% | 143 | 103 | 5.7% |
Bangor University | 11.8% | 51 | 36 | 5.3% |
Manchester Metropolitan University | 11.7% | 77 | 68 | 3.4% |
Birmingham City University | 11.5% | 52 | 33 | 2.0% |
University of Greenwich | 11.4% | 35 | 32 | 3.0% |
University of Westminster | 11.3% | 62 | 56 | 3.0% |
Oxford Brookes University | 11.1% | 45 | 40 | 3.4% |
University of Gloucestershire | 10.9% | 46 | 40 | 6.8% |
University of Hertfordshire | 10.9% | 46 | 45 | 2.7% |
University of Dundee | 10.6% | 94 | 61 | 4.4% |
University of Portsmouth | 10.5% | 38 | 29 | 2.8% |
University of Bradford | 10.5% | 124 | 80 | 12.1% |
Queen's University Belfast | 10.1% | 148 | 124 | 7.7% |
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'Bullying at work can take many forms and all of them create stress for the victim. Everybody has the right to expect to work in a safe environment free from bullying. Good institutions are ones that are aware of the problem and proactively trying to tackle it. Poor ones are those who refuse to accept there may be a problem or try to place the blame elsewhere.
'We believe bullying to be a deep-seated problem in higher education and we want to know what organisations such as the Universities and Colleges Employers' Association (UCEA) are doing to tackle the problem.'
The results are part of a wider stress survey conducted by UCU that will be released later this month. The union is hosting a Tackling Bullying conference on Thursday 27 November.
* In its survey UCU used the questions from the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) Management Standards Indicator Tool questionnaire. In its Management Standards Analysis Tool User Manual the HSE sets a minimum of 10 people for a group that is being analysed. UCU chose to triple the minimum number of respondents required from an institution to 30 to give a more reliable response rate.
** Source: HESA staff record 2006-7
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