Join us on Bluesky for #LTHEchat on Wednesday 25th March at 8pm GMT with guest Deeba Parmar (@deebaparmar.bsky.social) to discuss Academic Wellbeing, Emotional Energy and Caring Leadership!

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Higher education continues to navigate significant challenge. Change is constant, expectations are high and the pace can feel unrelenting. In these moments it is often the visible outputs that take priority: delivery, performance, metrics. Yet beneath all of this sits something less visible but equally powerful. Care.

Care is sometimes misunderstood in university settings. It can be seen as soft or secondary, something that sits alongside the “real” work. But in practice care is what enables that work to happen. It shapes how people show up, how they engage and whether they feel able to contribute. In times of challenge care is not a luxury. It is a form of strength.

Academic wellbeing is often framed through the lens of individual resilience. While this has its place, it risks placing responsibility on individuals without fully recognising the environments they are working within. A well academic community is one where wellbeing is relational. Where people feel belonging. Where their contributions are recognised. Where there is space to be stretched and supported. This matters deeply in a sector where many colleagues carry substantial emotional as well as cognitive load.

Thinking about emotional energy can help. Every interaction, every meeting and every teaching moment draws on and contributes to the emotional climate of a space. Over time this accumulates. Research in the UK shows that relational and pastoral support in universities is often hidden, unevenly distributed and not formally recognised in workload models. This affects many colleagues but especially women and racially minoritised staff who frequently hold this work without acknowledgement (Advance HE, 2024). 

If care is a form of energy, then leadership plays a vital role in shaping how that energy is created and sustained. Caring leadership does not mean lowering expectations or avoiding difficult conversations. It is about how expectations are held. With clarity. With fairness. With empathy. With a strong sense of context. Caring leadership notices who is contributing, who is quiet, who is carrying more than they are saying and who may need support to take part fully.

Often this care appears in very small moments. Taking time to notice and appreciate effort rather than just outcomes. Creating room for real dialogue rather than relying only on transmission. Being intentional about inclusion rather than assuming it will happen on its own. Speaking up for colleagues when they are not present. These moments may feel small but they shape culture in powerful ways.

There is also something important about how we recognise relational work in learning and teaching. Much of what makes education meaningful is grounded in relationships. The trust between educators and students. The support between colleagues. The feeling of being part of a community. Yet this work is rarely reflected in the metrics that dominate our sector. Naming it, valuing it and giving it visibility helps reinforce its importance.

Care must also be sustainable. There is a real risk that in recognising the importance of care we inadvertently create more burden for the people who already give so much. Wellbeing cannot rest on individuals alone nor can it be carried by a small group of generous colleagues. It needs to be embedded across our cultures, our systems and our leadership practices. Supportive structures, thoughtful development opportunities and fair recognition all contribute to this.

Across UK higher education many of us work in roles that cross boundaries. We work in teams that blend academic, professional and specialist expertise. We contribute to teaching, research, student experience, operations, community and strategy. Sometimes our work fits established categories. Sometimes it does not. Recent research shows that across UK universities colleagues who work in these blended or less defined spaces often contribute significantly while navigating questions of belonging and recognition (Whitchurch, 2026). This is not about a single group but about the reality of modern higher education where roles, responsibilities and identities overlap and shift. 

In challenging times it can be tempting to focus only on what feels urgent and measurable. But it is often care that sustains people through these periods. Care builds trust. Trust enables change. Care creates the conditions in which people feel able to contribute, take thoughtful risks and grow. Care is not the opposite of rigour. It is what makes rigour possible.

Perhaps the challenge for us in UK higher education is to see care not as something extra but as something essential. To recognise it. To value it. To share responsibility for it. Because when care is present people do more than cope. They thrive.

Advance HE (2024) How do “care” or “pastoral support” activities contribute to core strategic outcomes in higher education? Available at: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/news-and-views/how-do-care-or-pastoral-support-activities-contribute-core-strategic-outcomes-higher (Accessed: 9 March 2026)

Whitchurch, C. (2026) ‘Achieving Inclusion: University staff working in third space between academic and professional spheres of activity’, Social Inclusion, 14, Article 9596. Available at: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/download/9596/4251 (Accessed: 14 March 2026). 

Whitchurch, C. and Healy, G. (2024) ‘The concept of third space as an enabler in complex higher education environments’. London Review of Education, 22 (1), 42. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/LRE.22.1.42.

Speaker Bio

Dr Deeba Parmar is Head of Learning and Teaching Enhancement at BPP University, Fellow of the Institute for Equity and Principal Fellow (PFHEA). She is passionate about relational practice, academic wellbeing and creating learning environments where colleagues and students feel seen, supported and able to thrive. Her work focuses on caring leadership, emotional energy in higher education and the everyday practices that shape healthy academic cultures. Deeba is especially interested in aspects of equity, equality, diversity and inclusion, reward and recognition and student voice.