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Journal Description

Trends in higher education.

• Open Access — free for readers, with article processing charges (APC) paid by authors or their institutions.
• Rapid Publication: manuscripts are peer-reviewed and a first decision is provided to authors approximately 28.5 days after submission; acceptance to publication is undertaken in 6.5 days (median values for papers published in this journal in the first half of 2024).
• Recognition of Reviewers:  APC discount vouchers, optional signed peer review, and reviewer names published annually in the journal.

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Higher Education Journals: The Journal of Higher Education

• The Chronicle of Higher Education
• Community College Journal of Research and Practice
• Community College Review
• Higher Education Quarterly
• Innovative Higher Education
• Journal of College Student Development
• Studies in Higher Education
• The College Student Affairs Journal
• The Journal of Higher Education
• The Review of Higher Education

The Journal of HIgher Education- The Ohio State University Press---Article Limit: 10,000 words

Description:

Founded in 1930,  The Journal of Higher Education  publishes original research reporting on the academic study of higher education as a broad enterprise. We publish the highest quality empirical, theoretically grounded work addressing the main functions of higher education and the dynamic role of the university in society. We seek to publish scholarship from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives and disciplinary orientations. Articles appearing in the  Journal  employ an array of methodological approaches, and we welcome work from scholars across a range of career stages. Comparative and international scholarship should make clear connections to the U.S. context. Manuscripts not appropriate for submission to the  Journal  include purely theoretical papers, methodological treatises, unsolicited essays and reviews, and non-academic, institutional, and program evaluations or reports.

Submission Guidelines:

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

Manuscripts submitted to  The Journal of Higher Education  (JHE) must meet the  10,000-word   limit,  inclusive of all text, reference list, tables, figures, and notes (excluding the abstract). All submissions to (JHE) must also follow  APA   Style  ( Publication   Manual of the American Psychological Association,  6th edition, 2009). Authors must not submit any manuscript under consideration by another publisher or work that has been previously published in whole or part.

MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION

JHE uses the  Editorial Manager  system for manuscript submission and review. No manuscript will be accepted for consideration outside of Editorial Manager. The manuscript should be uploaded, within Editorial Manager, in these three parts:

• Manuscript file  (this includes an abstract page, body of the manuscript text, and the references page). Please upload this as one single Microsoft Word file. This file is  required  for submission.
• Table file(s)  This file is  optional  and is needed only if your article contains tables. Please upload tables in one single Microsoft Word file.
• Figures:  Optional . Attach each figure as a separate file. Please note that figures must be provided at size−no larger than 4 ½" x 7" (full page) and preferably no larger than 4 ½" x 3 ½" (half page), black/white or grayscale only, and as high-quality files (PDF, .tif, or .jpg)  at a minimum of 300 DPI .  Include captions in the manuscript file.

Please refer to  The Journal of Higher Education  Style Guide for Submissions  (JHE Style Guide) for detailed instructions on preparing your manuscript for submission. Carefully consult this guide to ensure that your manuscript follows the  Journal ’s technical requirements. Submissions not following the conventions detailed in the JHE Style Guide for Submissions will be sent back to the author for correction, which may delay formal consideration of a review.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION

We strongly recommend that authors review several back issues of  The Journal of Higher Education  to get a clear sense of the type of articles that appeal to its readership. We find that this is the most effective approach in determining if a manuscript is an appropriate fit with JHE. We expect that authors, the  Journal,  and the field will develop through this publication process.

For all articles that are subjected to a full review, the opinions of the reviewers will be transmitted to the author(s). Papers are evaluated on the following dimensions:

• Form: writing style and readability, logical development, appropriate length (typical length will fall between 9,000–10,000 words), and appropriateness of author's stated objectives.
• Content:  significance to JHE readers and relevance to the field, originality of approach, quality of theoretical/conceptual development, quality of data, appropriateness of methodology, quality of analysis, logic of conclusions, and policy relevance.

It should be emphasized that the editors respond most favorably to manuscripts that evidence both a freshness of vision and a vitality that may be informed by, but certainly go beyond, methodological qualities, and that are in congruence with our publishing goals and directions.

REVIEW PROCESS

The editorial team at JHE reviews all manuscripts to determine if they meet the technical criteria outlined above and the basic criteria for selection (see “Criteria for Selection” above). This process typically takes less than two weeks once your paper has been deemed to meet the technical requirements for review. You will receive notification once this initial determination has been made.

If your article is sent out for blind review you can expect to receive a response from the editorial office within eight to ten weeks. If your article is accepted, it will usually be publicly available online within 12 weeks of typesetting. Your accepted article will typically appear in the printed pages of JHE within 6–12 months of formal acceptance.

Please contact the JHE office at:  [email protected]  for any additional questions regarding the manuscript submission process.

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Journal of Diversity in Higher Education

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Journal scope statement

APA and the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) have joined together to publish the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education .

Multidisciplinary in perspective, this bimonthly journal offers insights into theory and research that can help guide the efforts of institutions of higher education in the pursuit of inclusive excellence.

Journal of Diversity in Higher Education largely publishes empirical research focused on issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in post-secondary environments. Our manuscripts address the experiences and outcomes of individuals from underrepresented and underserved communities, focusing on institutional barriers and challenges, patterns of access and achievement, and the impact of engaging with diverse students, faculty, and administrators.

We are also interested in work that explores issues related to teaching and learning, policy development and implementation, and leadership and organizational change in diverse learning environments. We are committed to publishing work that supports efforts to transform institutions, inspire colleagues, engage campus, governmental, and private sector leaders, and articulate culturally competent outcomes.

Equity, diversity, and inclusion

Journal of Diversity in Higher Education supports equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in its practices. More information on these initiatives is available under EDI Efforts .

Calls for papers

• General call for papers

Practice briefs

Editor’s choice.

One article from each issue of Journal of Diversity in Higher Education will be highlighted as an “ Editor’s Choice ” article. Selection is based on the recommendations of the associate editors, the paper’s potential impact to the field, the distinction of expanding the contributors to, or the focus of, the science, or its discussion of an important future direction for science. Editor’s Choice articles are featured alongside articles from other APA published journals in a bi-weekly newsletter and are temporarily made freely available to newsletter subscribers.

Author and editor spotlights

Explore journal highlights : free article summaries, editor interviews and editorials, journal awards, mentorship opportunities, and more.

Prior to submission, please carefully read and follow the submission guidelines detailed below. Manuscripts that do not conform to the submission guidelines may be returned without review.

To submit to the editorial office of Chris Linder, please submit manuscripts electronically (.rtf, .pdf, or .doc) through the Manuscript Submission Portal.

Prepare manuscripts according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association using the 7 th edition. Manuscripts may be copyedited for bias-free language (see Chapter 5 of the Publication Manual ). APA Style and Grammar Guidelines for the 7 th edition are available.

Submit Manuscript

Chris Linder, PhD Associate Professor, Higher Education Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Director, McCluskey Center for Violence Prevention University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT Email

In addition to addresses and phone numbers, please supply email addresses and fax numbers for use by the editorial office and later by the production office. The majority of correspondence between the editorial office and authors is handled by email, so a valid email address is important to the timely flow of communication during the editorial process.

Manuscripts for the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education can vary in length based on the type below. Manuscripts should be concise but of sufficient length to ensure theoretical and/or methodological competence.

The Journal publishes full length articles that share empirical research that supports efforts to transform institutions; inspire colleagues; engage campus, governmental, and private sector leaders; and articulate culturally competent outcomes. We also publish practice briefs that present empirically-based, conceptually framed recommendations addressing pressing and persistent problems faced by practitioners in their daily work. We do not publish book reviews or critical essays at this time.

Manuscript types

Journal of Diversity in Higher Education  will publish two types of articles. All page limits are inclusive of tables, figures, and references:

• full length articles (20 – 35 double-spaced pages maximum) based on empirical research that makes major theoretical contributions and has practical implications
• practice briefs (6 – 10 double-spaced pages maximum) that leverage existing theory and research to inform efforts to address real-world problems and provide actionable recommendations for practitioners.

The Journal of Diversity in Higher Education publishes practice briefs as a way to accomplish the journal’s mission to advance scholarship that promotes institutional transformation and inclusive excellence. Their length and specificity make them an ideal resource for policymakers, practitioners, and institutional leaders. As scholarly pieces that translate and advance research, practice briefs are meant to foster dialogue and connection among scholarship and practice. The journal is especially interested in pieces co-authored by practitioners and researchers.

Reference the call for practice briefs for full instructions and guidelines for the structure and submission of practice briefs.

Manuscript preparation

Prepare manuscripts according to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association using the 7th edition. Manuscripts may be copyedited for bias-free language (see Chapter 5 of the Publication Manual ).

Review APA's Journal Manuscript Preparation Guidelines before submitting your article.

Double-space all copy. Other formatting instructions, as well as instructions on preparing tables, figures, references, metrics, and abstracts, appear in the Manual . Additional guidance on APA Style is available on the APA Style website .

If your manuscript was mask reviewed, please ensure that the final version for production includes a byline and full author note for typesetting.

Authors should review the updated APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS) for quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research. These standards offer ways to improve transparency in reporting to ensure that readers have the information necessary to evaluate the quality of the research and to facilitate collaboration and replication.

The new JARS

• Recommend the division of hypotheses, analyses, and conclusions into primary, secondary, and exploratory groupings to allow for a full understanding of quantitative analyses presented in a manuscript and to enhance reproducibility;
• Offer modules for authors reporting on N-of-1 designs, replications, clinical trials, longitudinal studies, and observational studies, as well as the analytic methods of structural equation modeling and Bayesian analysis;
• Include guidelines on reporting on registration (including making protocols public); participant characteristics, including demographic characteristics; inclusion and exclusion criteria; psychometric characteristics of outcome measures and other variables; and planned data diagnostics and analytic strategy.

For further resources, including flowcharts, review the APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS) website.

Below are additional instructions regarding the preparation of display equations, computer code, and tables.

Display equations

We strongly encourage you to use MathType (third-party software) or Equation Editor 3.0 (built into pre-2007 versions of Word) to construct your equations, rather than the equation support that is built into Word 2007 and Word 2010. Equations composed with the built-in Word 2007/Word 2010 equation support are converted to low-resolution graphics when they enter the production process and must be rekeyed by the typesetter, which may introduce errors.

To construct your equations with MathType or Equation Editor 3.0:

• Go to the Text section of the Insert tab and select Object.
• Select MathType or Equation Editor 3.0 in the drop-down menu.

If you have an equation that has already been produced using Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010 and you have access to the full version of MathType 6.5 or later, you can convert this equation to MathType by clicking on MathType Insert Equation. Copy the equation from Microsoft Word and paste it into the MathType box. Verify that your equation is correct, click File, and then click Update. Your equation has now been inserted into your Word file as a MathType Equation.

Use Equation Editor 3.0 or MathType only for equations or for formulas that cannot be produced as Word text using the Times or Symbol font.

Computer code

Because altering computer code in any way (e.g., indents, line spacing, line breaks, page breaks) during the typesetting process could alter its meaning, we treat computer code differently from the rest of your article in our production process. To that end, we request separate files for computer code.

In online supplemental material

We request that runnable source code be included as supplemental material to the article. For more information, visit Supplementing Your Article With Online Material .

In the text of the article

If you would like to include code in the text of your published manuscript, please submit a separate file with your code exactly as you want it to appear, using Courier New font with a type size of 8 points. We will make an image of each segment of code in your article that exceeds 40 characters in length. (Shorter snippets of code that appear in text will be typeset in Courier New and run in with the rest of the text.) If an appendix contains a mix of code and explanatory text, please submit a file that contains the entire appendix, with the code keyed in 8-point Courier New.

Use Word's insert table function when you create tables. Using spaces or tabs in your table will create problems when the table is typeset and may result in errors.

Academic writing and English language editing services

Authors who feel that their manuscript may benefit from additional academic writing or language editing support prior to submission are encouraged to seek out such services at their host institutions, engage with colleagues and subject matter experts, and/or consider several vendors that offer discounts to APA authors .

Please note that APA does not endorse or take responsibility for the service providers listed. It is strictly a referral service.

Use of such service is not mandatory for publication in an APA journal. Use of one or more of these services does not guarantee selection for peer review, manuscript acceptance, or preference for publication in any APA journal.

Submitting supplemental materials

APA can place supplemental materials online, available via the published article in the PsycArticles ® database. Please see Supplementing Your Article With Online Material for more details.

Abstract and keywords

All manuscripts must include an abstract containing a maximum of 250 words typed on a separate page. After the abstract, please supply up to five keywords or brief phrases.

List references in alphabetical order. Each listed reference should be cited in text, and each text citation should be listed in the references section.

Examples of basic reference formats:

Journal article

McCauley, S. M., & Christiansen, M. H. (2019). Language learning as language use: A cross-linguistic model of child language development. Psychological Review , 126 (1), 1–51. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000126

Authored book

Brown, L. S. (2018). Feminist therapy (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000092-000

Chapter in an edited book

Balsam, K. F., Martell, C. R., Jones. K. P., & Safren, S. A. (2019). Affirmative cognitive behavior therapy with sexual and gender minority people. In G. Y. Iwamasa & P. A. Hays (Eds.), Culturally responsive cognitive behavior therapy: Practice and supervision (2nd ed., pp. 287–314). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000119-012

Preferred formats for graphics files are TIFF and JPG, and preferred format for vector-based files is EPS. Graphics downloaded or saved from web pages are not acceptable for publication. Multipanel figures (i.e., figures with parts labeled a, b, c, d, etc.) should be assembled into one file. When possible, please place symbol legends below the figure instead of to the side.

• All color line art and halftones: 300 DPI
• Black and white line tone and gray halftone images: 600 DPI

Line weights

• Color (RGB, CMYK) images: 2 pixels
• Grayscale images: 4 pixels
• Stroke weight: 0.5 points

APA offers authors the option to publish their figures online in color without the costs associated with print publication of color figures.

The same caption will appear on both the online (color) and print (black and white) versions. To ensure that the figure can be understood in both formats, authors should add alternative wording (e.g., “the red (dark gray) bars represent”) as needed.

For authors who prefer their figures to be published in color both in print and online, original color figures can be printed in color at the editor's and publisher's discretion provided the author agrees to pay:

• $900 for one figure
• An additional $600 for the second figure
• An additional $450 for each subsequent figure

Permissions

Authors of accepted papers must obtain and provide to the editor on final acceptance all necessary permissions to reproduce in print and electronic form any copyrighted work, including test materials (or portions thereof), photographs, and other graphic images (including those used as stimuli in experiments).

On advice of counsel, APA may decline to publish any image whose copyright status is unknown.

• Download Permissions Alert Form (PDF, 13KB)

Publication policies

For full details on publication policies, including use of Artificial Intelligence tools, please see APA Publishing Policies .

APA policy prohibits an author from submitting the same manuscript for concurrent consideration by two or more publications.

See also APA Journals ® Internet Posting Guidelines .

APA requires authors to reveal any possible conflict of interest in the conduct and reporting of research (e.g., financial interests in a test or procedure, funding by pharmaceutical companies for drug research).

• Download Full Disclosure of Interests Form (PDF, 41KB)

Ethical Principles

It is a violation of APA Ethical Principles to publish "as original data, data that have been previously published" (Standard 8.13).

In addition, APA Ethical Principles specify that "after research results are published, psychologists do not withhold the data on which their conclusions are based from other competent professionals who seek to verify the substantive claims through reanalysis and who intend to use such data only for that purpose, provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and unless legal rights concerning proprietary data preclude their release" (Standard 8.14).

APA expects authors to adhere to these standards. Specifically, APA expects authors to have their data available throughout the editorial review process and for at least 5 years after the date of publication.

Authors are required to state in writing that they have complied with APA ethical standards in the treatment of their sample, human or animal, or to describe the details of treatment.

• Download Certification of Compliance With APA Ethical Principles Form (PDF, 26KB)

The APA Ethics Office provides the full Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct electronically on its website in HTML, PDF, and Word format. You may also request a copy by emailing or calling the APA Ethics Office (202-336-5930). You may also read "Ethical Principles," December 1992, American Psychologist , Vol. 47, pp. 1597–1611.

Other information

See APA’s Publishing Policies page for more information on publication policies, including information on author contributorship and responsibilities of authors, author name changes after publication, the use of generative artificial intelligence, funder information and conflict-of-interest disclosures, duplicate publication, data publication and reuse, and preprints.

Visit the Journals Publishing Resource Center for more resources for writing, reviewing, and editing articles for publishing in APA journals.

Chris Linder, PhD University of Utah, United States

Associate editors

Erin Doran, EdD Iowa State University, United States

Patton O. Garriott, PhD University of Denver, United States

Chrystal George Mwangi, PhD George Washington   University, United States

Deryl Hatch-Tocaimaza, PhD University of Nebraska–Lincoln, United States

Editorial board

Frim Ampaw, EdD Morgan State University, United States

Matthew Bahnson, PhD Purdue University, United States

Veronica Jones Baldwin, PhD University of North Texas, United States

Jessica C. Bennett, PhD University of Maryland, United States

Ginny Boss, PhD University of Georgia, United States

Kaleb L. Briscoe, PhD University of Oklahoma, United States

Christopher Broadhurst, PhD University of New Orleans, United States

Derrick Brooms, PhD University of Tennessee Knoxville,   United States

Kirsten Brown, PhD Edgewood College, United States

Jessica Belue Buckley, PhD University of Louisville , United States

Beth E. Bukoski, PhD Virginia Commonwealth   University, United States

Jorge Burmicky, PhD Howard University, United States

W. Carson Byrd, PhD University of Michigan , United States

Germán A. Cadenas, PhD Lehigh University, United States

D. Chase J. Catalano, EdD Virginia Tech, United States

Tabbye Maria Chavous, PhD University of Michigan, United States

Mun Yuk Chin, PhD University of Nebraska–Lincoln, United States

Mary M. Chittooran, PhD Saint Louis University, United States

D. Anthony Clark, PhD Arizona State University, United States

Joan Collier, PhD Rutgers University, United States

Felecia Commodore, PhD Old Dominion University, United States

Marcela G. Cuellar, PhD University of California, Davis, United States

Bradley R. Curs, PhD University of Missouri, United States

Kun Dai, PhD The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Charles H.F. Davis III, PhD University of Michigan, United States

Chayla Haynes Davison, PhD Texas A&M University, United States

J. Michael Denton, PhD University of South Florida, United States

Kari J. Dockendorff, PhD Colorado State University , United States

Antonio Duran, PhD Arizona State University, United States

Carlton J. Fong Texas State University, United States

Zak Foste, PhD University of Kansas , United States

Nichole M. Garcia, PhD Rutgers University, United States

Stacey D. Garrett, PhD Appalachian State University, United States

Leslie D. Gonzales, EdD Michigan State University, United States

Niah S. Grimes, PhD Morgan State University, United States

Kayon A. Hall, PhD Kent State University, United States

Ebelia Hernandez, PhD Rutgers University, United States

Tara D. Hudson, PhD Kent State University, United States

Sarah Socorro Hurtado, PhD University of Denver, United States

Dimpal Jain, PhD California State University, Northridge, United States

Rashné Jehangir, PhD University of Minnesota, United States

Jarrel T. Johnson, PhD University of Utah, United States

Jennifer M. Johnson, PhD Temple University, United Sates

Nadeeka Karunaratne, PhD University of Utah, United States

Cindy Ann Kilgo, PhD Indiana University, United States

Young K. Kim, PhD Azusa Pacific University, United States

Katie Koo, PhD University of Georgia, United States

Melanie N. Lee, PhD University of Utah, United States

Lucy A. LePeau, PhD Indiana University, United States

Luis Antonio Leyva, PhD Vanderbilt University, United States

Jameson D. Lopez, PhD University of Arizona, United States

Carol Lundberg, PhD California State University, Fullerton , United States

Ty C. McNamee, PhD The University of Mississippi, United States

Darris R. Means, PhD University of Pittsburgh, United States

Steve D. Mobley Jr., PhD Morgan State University, United States

Susana M. Muñoz, PhD Colorado State University–Fort Collins, United States

Brett Ranon Nachman, PhD University of Arkansas , United States

Bach Mai Dolly Nguyen, PhD Oregon State University, United States

Mike Hoa Nguyen, PhD New York University, United States

Sarah Nightingale, PhD Eastern Connecticut State University , United States

Gudrun Nyunt, PhD Northern Illinois University, United States

Wilson Kwamogi Okello, PhD Pennsylvania State University, United States

Oscar E. Patrón, PhD Indiana University, United States

Rosemary J. Perez, PhD University of Michigan, United States

Trang Pham, PhD Singapore University of Social Sciences, United States  

Meghan J. Pifer, PhD University of Louisville, United States

Raechele L. Pope, EdD University of Buffalo, United States

Paul G. Rubin, PhD University of Utah, United States

Nicole Alia Salis Reyes, EdD University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, United States

Elizabeth E. Sparks, PhD Lynch School, Boston College (retired), United States  Dian D. Squire, PhD Northern Arizona University, United States

Terah J. Stewart, PhD Iowa State University, United States

V. Thandi Sulé, PhD Oakland University, United States

Tenisha Tevis, PhD Oregon State University, United States

Jason K. Wallace, PhD Mississippi State University, United States

LaWanda W. M. Ward, JD, PhD Pennsylvania State University, United States

Stephanie J. Waterman, PhD University of Toronto, Canada

Melvin A. Whitehead, PhD Binghamton University, State University of New York, United States

Melanie M. Wilcox, PhD Augusta University, United States

Kerrie G. Wilkins-Yel, PhD University of Massachusetts Boston, United States

Brit Williams, PhD University of Vermont, United States

Michael Steven Williams, PhD University of Missouri, United States

Roger L. Worthington, PhD University of Maryland, College Park, United States

Raquel Wright-Mair, PhD Rowan University, United States

Christina W. Yao, PhD University of South Carolina, United States

Fanny Yeung, PhD California State University, East Bay , United States

Varaxy Yi, PhD California State University, Fresno , United States

Jing Yu, PhD University of Wisconsin-Madison , United States

Ximena U. Zúñiga, PhD University of Massachusetts Amherst, United States

Abstracting and indexing services providing coverage of Journal of Diversity in Higher Education

• Cabell's Directory of Publishing Opportunities in Psychology
• Current Contents: Social & Behavioral Sciences
• Education Source
• Journal Citations Report: Social Sciences Edition
• Social Sciences Citation Index
• Supplemental Index
• TOC Premier

Special issue of APA's Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Vol. 9, No. 3, September 2016. The articles offer important insights into diversity-related concerns and how students may serve as agents of campus change as well as broader social change.

Special issue of APA's Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Vol. 8, No. 3, September 2015. Includes articles about cultures of work-life balance, work-life satisfaction, career-life balance for women of color; and international faculty.

Special issue of APA's Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Vol. 1, No. 4, December 2008. Articles examine the methods, findings, and implications of a multitude of campus climate research studies; report psychometric investigations on the measurement of unique dimensions of campus climate; and provide a conceptual framework for the assessment of campus climate that has been used at a large number of institutions.

Journal equity, diversity, and inclusion statement

Inclusive study designs.

• Collaborative research models
• Diverse samples

Definitions and further details on inclusive study designs are available on the Journals EDI homepage .

Inclusive reporting standards

• Bias-free language and community-driven language guidelines (required)
• Reflexivity (recommended)
• Positionality statements (recommended)
• Impact statements (recommended)
• Participant sample descriptions (recommended)
• Sample justifications (recommended)
• Inclusive reference lists (recommended)

More information on this journal’s reporting standards is listed under the submission guidelines tab .

Other EDI offerings

Masked peer review.

This journal offers masked peer review (where both the authors’ and reviewers’ identities are not known to the other). Research has shown that masked peer review can help reduce implicit bias against traditionally female names or early-career scientists with smaller publication records (Budden et al., 2008; Darling, 2015).

Recruitment

The journal practices intentional recruitment of individuals from diverse identity groups and cultural backgrounds as reviewers and editorial board members.

• Guidelines for reviewing manuscripts

Editor Spotlight

• Read an interview with Chris Linder, PhD

From APA Journals Article Spotlight ®

• Finding your people and your space on the internet: The web as a source of support for trans students of color
• How do recent college graduates navigate ideological bubbles? Findings from a longitudinal qualitative study
• The chief diversity officer
• A closer look at diversity: Understanding the place of race post-affirmative action

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Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education

Description.

The Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education(JELHE) is an international peer reviewed and applied research journal that include case studies, best practices, and experiences on the use of the Internet in learning and studies related to higher education.

ISSN: 2169-0359

• University Professors' Perceptions of the Creation of University Incubators to develop Students' Entrepreneurial Skills: The Case of Moldova State University Mariana DOGA-MIRZAC and Viorica ATAMAN Volume 2023, Article ID 532523, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 13 pages
• COVID19 and Management Impact of Covid-19 on Education Management in Lebanon Chirine Khalil NASSAR Volume 2023, Article ID 284665, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 11 pages
• Innovative Approaches in Public Administration To Manage The Quality of Educational Services In The Conditions of Transformation in Ukraine Olena AKHMEDOVA,Lyudmyla AVEDYAN, Nana GVAZAVA, Hanna SHUMSKA and Alina ZILINSKA Volume 2022, Article ID 864205, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 6 pages
• Students’ Opinion on the Quality of Distance Learning during the Ukrainian Pandemic Reality Svitlana DIDKIVSKA and Tetiana A. VAKALIUK Volume 2022, Article ID 943076, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 12 pages
• Investigation of the Performance of Education for Sustainable Development in Romania Manuel Mihail MOMETE and Daniela Cristina MOMETE Volume 2022, Article ID 156428, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 12 pages
• The Effectiveness of Incorporating Augmented Reality in Print Design Course  Hwee Ling SIEK,  Kin Meng CHENG and  Dennis Chee De WONG Volume 2022, Article ID 661787, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 8 pages
• Romanian Undergraduate Education System in the Post-Communist Period: The Journey Towards Digitalization Andreea-Cristina STROE Volume 2022, Article ID 188695, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 12 pages
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• Uncovering Insights Gained from Applying Block Mode of Teaching: Case of Higher Education   Nguyen Thi Thao TRINH, Amir Hossein GHAPANCHI and  Afrooz PURARJOMANDLANGRUDI Volume 2022, Article ID 505189, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 16 pages
• The Effect of Performance Expectancy on Actual Use of E-learning throughout the Mediation Role of Behaviour Intention Saeed ALBLOOSHI  and Nor Aziati Binti ABDUL HAMID Volume 2022, Article ID 628490, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 11 pages
• Specifics of the Early Termination of Studies in Military Educational Programs Ivana Nekvapilová and Jolana Fedorková Volume 2022, Article ID 929746, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 13 pages
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• What Does It Take to Adopt Big Data Management Approach at Malaysian Higher Education Institutions? Rosmaini Tasmin, Tan Lay Huey, Ramatu Muhammad Nda and Ishaq Jaafar Volume 2022, Article ID 924024, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 15 pages
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• The Mediating Role of Student Satisfaction in the Relationship between Determinants of Online Student Satisfaction and Student Commitment Nouran NASHAAT, Rasha ABD EL AZIZ and Marwa ABDEL AZEEM Volume 2021, Article ID 404947, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 13 pages
• Intelligence Style and Digital Literacy  Regina E. SITOY, Pascal NDINGA, Michel PLAISENT, Bernard PROSPER and Emerson D. PETEROS Volume 2021, Article ID 234285, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 19 pages
• Entrepreneurial Competencies and Higher Education Institutions: A bibliometric study Carmen Florina FAGADAR, Diana Teodora TRIPand Daniel BADULESCU Volume 2021, Article ID 804268, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 14 pages
• Deployment of Open and Distance Learning to Persevere Teaching and Learning during COVID-19 Pandemic in Malaysia Faddliza MOHD ZAKI, Noor Masliana RAZLAN, Nurulannisa ABDULLAH, Nurhidayah NASHARUDIN, Norhidayu MD YATIM, Noor Faraliza SAMSUDIN Jashira JAMIN and Intan Nurbaizura ZAINUDDIN Volume 2021, Article ID 145199, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 10 pages
• Analysis on the Relationship Between Internet Use and Students’ Academic Engagement Laura BENCHEA Volume 2021, Article ID 237803, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 10 pages
• Students' Decision in Choosing Universities by International Rankings Roxana - Adriana PUIU (MECHNO), Gabriel PETREA, Diana SCURTU, Maria – Nicoleta CRISTEA and Remus – Andrei DOBRINOIU Volume 2021, Article ID 361886, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 9 pages
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• SROI Methodology as a Vector of Sports’ Development Andrey V. LITVIN and Dmitry P. ARKALOV Volume 2021, Article ID 122637, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 6 pages
• Transition to Online Learning during COVID-19: What do Students Think? Hiyam Al-Kilidar And Alan Sixsmith Volume 2021, Article ID 919218, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 13 pages
• Maturity Model for Virtual Education José Ignacio PALACIOS OSMA, Diego Alexander GÓMEZ LÓPEZ And Alexandra ABUCHAR PORRA   Volume 2020, Article ID 228061, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 11 pages
• The Diffusion of Instructional Video Technique among Open and Distance Learners in Nigeria Chuks ODIEGWU-ENWEREM, Lai OSO, Lanre AMODU, Uche CHUKS-ENWEREM and Nelson OKORIE Volume 2020, Article ID 290107, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 11 pages
• Connecting School Actors using Mobile Applications Carlos R. CUNHA, João Pedro GOMES and Vítor MENDONÇA Volume 2020, Article ID 211095, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 9 pages
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• The Main Issues and Perspectives of The Administrative and Legal Regulation of The Higher Education Reform in Ukraine Kateryna LEVCHENKO, Mykola LEHENKYI, Serhiy BONDARCHUK, Yevheniy BORODIN And Olha SHVED Volume 2020, Article ID 694235, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 11 pages
• An Integrating Model for Excellence: Mentorship to Enrich the Three Pillars of Education S.Hallman, L. Massoud and D. Tomiuk Volume 2020, Article ID 645632, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 8 pages
• Blended Learning Model for Engineering Quality Topics Tamara ALCANTARA-CONCEPCION, Victor LOMAS-BARRIE, Octavio ESTRADA-CASTILLO And Aline A. LOZANO-MOCTEZUMA Volume 2020, Article ID 960050, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 11 pages
• The Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism Degree Courses: The Portugal and Spain Evolution Elisabete PAULO MORAIS, Carlos R. CUNHA and João Pedro GOMES Volume 2020, Article ID 401748, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 17 pages
• Effectiveness and Application of Assisted Technology in Italian Special Psycho-Education: A Pilot Study Giusi Antonia TOTO and Pierpaolo LIMONE   Volume 2020, Article ID 177729, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 9 pages
• An Examination of the Divergent Attention to the Seventeen SDGs of the United Nations Charles Wankel Volume 2020, Article ID 389971, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 6 pages
• How to Design and Teach a Blended Course For Hard-to-Reach Adult Learners José Alberto LENCASTRE, Gülden İLIN, José BRONZE, Maryrose FRANCICA And Panos MILIOS Volume 2020, Article ID 220154, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 10 pages
• Moderators Affecting Relationship between Student Satisfaction and Student Retention in Self-financed Tertiary Education Sector: A Conceptual Research Model Ka Li Kelly WONG, Chi Bo WONG, Wing Yan WONG and Man Shing WONG Volume , Article ID 292250, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 11 pages
• Emerging Trends, Challenges and Innovative Approaches for the Next Millennium Michel PLAISENT, Filomena DAYAGBIL, Angeline POGOY  And PROSPER Bernard   Volume 2020, Article ID 740548, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 9 pages
• Classroom Evolution: The Swing Towards Blended and Flipped Learning Rene Leveaux, Sandra Gallagher, Alan SixsmithAnd Helen Simpson   Volume 2019, Article ID 560996, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 13 pages
• Book Piracy Behavior among College Students in Indonesia Rahma FITRIASIH, Sri Rahayu Hijrah HATI and Adrian ACHYAR Volume 2019, Article ID 253359, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 11 pages
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• Impact of Digital Marketing on Student Decision-Making Process of Higher Education Institution: A Case of Indonesia Andriani KUSUMAWATI Volume 2019, Article ID 267057, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 11 pages
• Malaysian Animated TV Series: Upin & Ipin through Piaget’s Cognitive Development Nor’Anira HARIS Volume 2019, Article ID 202997, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 9 pages
• Malaysian Research Students Encounter with Information Seeking Process for Academic Purposes Shamila Mohamed Shuhidan, Wan Aida Wan Yahaya, Husain Hashim,Shuhaida Mohamed Shuhidan and Azma Asnawishah Abd Hakim   Volume 2019, Article ID 822970, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 10 pages
• The Magnitude of Corruption in Romanian Public Universities: Preliminary Results of a Research Based on National Particularities Cezara Cristina Petrescu Volume 2019, Article ID 638013, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 10 pages
• Learning with the Games: a Competitive Environment based on Knowledge Allal MOKEDDEM, Michel PLAISENT and Bernard PROSPER Volume 2019, Article ID 133016, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 6 pages
• Does Blended Learning Enhance Student Engagement? Evidence from Higher Education Jolly Sahni Volume 2019, Article ID 121518, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 14 pages
• Students' Attitudes toward Problem Based Learning – Analog Electronic Course in the Electrical Engineering Programs in PPU Case Study Abdallah M. Arman Volume 2018, Article ID 142370, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 9 pages
• Understanding Motivational Factors in Choosing a Mobility Destination: The Case of Kauno Kolegija Nuno Lage, Wilfred L. Tchasse Sand Carlos R. Cunha Volume 2018, Article ID 191532, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 15 pages
• University Participatory Experience building Open Education Resources Alcantara-Concepcion Tamara Volume 2018, Article ID 713500, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 14 pages
• Web-based Archive Management and Student Guidance for Final Year Projects   Saadia Malik, Shaima Abdulla Al-youbi, Shaima Bandar Al-youbi, Ramlah Hussein, Ghadeer Dweik and Shereena Arif Volume 2018, Article ID 871144, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 11 pages
• Improving Students’ Self-directed Learning Outcomes on Mechanics Subject by Using E-Learning Vina Serevina Volume 2018, Article ID 187467, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 8 pages
• Capstone Project Based Experiential Learning - Case of Institute of Business Management (IoBM) Marium Mateen Khan & Mohammad Ekhlaque Ahmed Volume 2018, Article ID 412705, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 23 pages
• Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Learning in the Czech Population Jitka Vaculíková Volume 2018, Article ID 226807, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 14 pages
• The Effect of Multiple Choice Scoring Methods and Risk Taking Attitude toward Chemistry Learning Outcomes Awaluddin Tjallaand Sari Fitriani Volume 2017, Article ID 496122, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 11 pages
• Demonstrating the Electronic Resources Information Retrieval: Analysis on the Most Preferable Method Ap Azli Bunawan, Sharifalillah Nordin, Safawi Abd Rahman, Mohd Zailan Endin and Mohd Razilan Abd Kadir Volume 2017, Article ID 609304, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 9 pages
• Discursive Differences between Users Who Adopt or Not a New IT System: Analyzing the Case of a Group of Lecturers Alejandro Cataldo, Sandra Alvear, Héctor Vargas and Natalia Muñoz Volume (2016), Article ID 908223, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 15 pages
• User Satisfaction with Electronic Resources Mohd Razilan Abdul Kadir, Rosnita Ab Ghani, Amzari Abu Bakar, Ap Azli Bunawan and Mohd Ridwan Seman Volume (2016), Article ID 408838, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 13 pages
• Sandwich-Placement Training in Higher Education as a Shaper of Regional Human Capital Development Policy: Lessons Learned from the Pioneering Example of the University of Corsica in a Small Island Economy Christophe Storaï and Laetita Rinieri Volume (2016), Article ID 146517, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 17 pages
• Do The Best Parts Equal The Best Whole? A Critique of Online Teaching and Learning Steven Kessler and Andrew F. Wall Volume (2016), Article ID 827620, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 9 pages
• Web-Enhanced Teaching and Learning Vehicle Preference in Landscape Architecture Construction Studio Courses Young-Jae Kim, Jun-Hyun Kim and Ming-Han Li Volume 2015 (2015), Article ID 511323, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 8 pages
• Analysis of the Higher Education Funding Systems Abd Rahman Ahmad, Sharjierairah Saripuden and Ng Kim Soon Volume 2015 (2015), Article ID 873723, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 12 pages
• Sandwich Courses In Higher Education: From Transmitting Knowledge To Building Regional Brand–Lessons Learned From the Corsica-Region University-Sponsored Placements & Careers Service [CFA UNIV] Experience Christophe Storaï and Laurent Marinetti Volume 2015 (2015), Article ID 333099, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 12 pages
• Multi-Agent based Model for e-Learning in Entrepreneurship Radu Ioan Mogos and Constanta-Nicoleta Bodea Volume 2015 (2015), Article ID 426195, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 14 pages
• The Effect of Language Proficiency on Course Results Emlyn Witt and Irene Lill Volume 2014 (2014), Article ID 411199, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 12 pages
• Sandwich Training in Higher Education as one Major Strategic Axis at the Heart of the Attractiveness of a Territory: Some Lessons Learned from the Pioneering Example of the University Institute of Technology Corsica Christophe Storaï and Laetitia Rinieri Volume 2014 (2014), Article ID 292497, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 16 pages
• No Need to Fear Peer Evaluation: an Alternate Model for Expert and Novice Evaluations in Business Studies Ross Humby Volume 2013 (2013), Article ID 120029, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 10 pages
• Service Quality of a Public University in Saudi Arabia Norizan Mohd Kassim, Naima Bogari and Mohamed Zain Volume 2013 (2013), Article ID 954273, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 18 pages
• The information and Communication technologies in Tourism degree courses: the reality of Portugal and Spain Elisabete Paulo Morais, Carlos Rompante Cunha and João Pedro Gomes Volume 2013 (2013), Article ID 611948, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 10 pages
• Social Network System in Classroom: Antecedents of Edmodo © Adoption Mathupayas Thongmak  Volume 2013 (2013), Article ID 657749, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 15 pages
• Intercultural Dialogues and Higher Education, Prerequisites for Strengthening the Europe-Asia Relationships Suciu Marta-Christina, Marcella Pompili Pagliari, Ana Maria Neagu Trocmaer and Marta Donolo Volume 2013 (2013), Article ID 906281, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 18 pages
• A Multi-agent System for Resource Allocation to Education Programmes in Higher Education Institutions Constanta-Nicoleta Bodea and Radu-Ioan Mogos Volume 2013 (2013), Article ID 261432, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 9 pages
• The University Quality Level Benchmarking: Can the Academic Library Users’ Satisfaction Serve as the Anchor of Service Performance Level? Che Azlan Taib, Yohanis Rante and Ari Warokka Volume 2013 (2013), Article ID 317385, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 14 pages
• Factors Motivating the Adoption of e-Learning Technologies Yining Chen, Harold T. Little Jr., Mark T. Ross and Qin Zhao Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 777468, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 17 pages
• Systems Thinking and Shared Vision and Mission as Determinants of Organizational Learning Capabilities (OLC) in Academic Library Mohd Shamsul Mohd Shoid and Norliya Ahmad Kassim Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 819591, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 11 pages
• A Model for Adoption of ICT in Jordanian Higher Education Institutions: An Empirical Study Mohammad Khasawneh and Huda Ibrahim Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 877178, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 10 pages
• The Ethical and Social Decision to Use Information Technology: Case of Tablet Technology by University Students in the State of Kuwait Hasan A Abbas Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 356252, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 9 pages
• Student Profiling on Academic Performance Using Cluster Analysis Osman N. Darcan and Bertan Y. Badur Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 622480, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 8 pages
• Stereotyping in Graduate Education: An Insight of Women’s Participation in Malaysia Aminah Md Yusof, Rose Alinda Alias and Hadina Habil Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 624177, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 9 pages
• Strategic Instruments for University Performance Evaluation in the Context of the Economy Based on Knowledge Marilena Mironiuc, Ioan-Bogdan Robu, Mihai Carp and Mihaela-Alina Robu  Volume 2011 (2011), Article ID 514815, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 14 pages
• University Students’ Emotion State and Academic Performance: New Insights of Managing Complex Cognitive Ika Febrilia, Ari Warokka and Haim Hilman Abdullah Volume 2011 (2011), Article ID 879553, Journal of e-Learning and Higher Education, 15 pages

Editor-in-chief

Liliana Mihaela Moga, Dunarea de Jos Univeristy of Galati, Romania

Editorial Board

Mohammad Mohammad, University of Western Sydney, Australia Nermine Khalifa, Arab Academy for Science & Technology, Egypt Jelel Ezzine, Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Tunisia Salina Daud, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia Mehmet N. Aydin, Işık University, Turkey Nigel Jones, Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK Mohammad Nur Azhar Mazlan, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia Lourdes Canos-Daros, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Spain

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Fox, MS., Barbyceanu, M. and Teigen, R. (2000), ‘Agent-oriented Supply Chain Management,’  International Journal of Flexible Manufacturing Systems , 12 (1), 165-88 Online Journals and websites Last name, initial(s). (Date published). Title of article. [Online]. Publisher. [Date you accessed the site]. Available: URL. Example: Lorek, L. A., (2003), ”Buyers catch on to online shopping,’ San Antonio Express-News . [Online], [Retrieved December 22, 2003], http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document

Bonini, C P. (1963) Simulation of Information and Decision Systems in the Firm, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.  Edited Books

Trowbridge, P. (2003), A case study of green supply chain management at advanced micro devices, Greening the Supply Chain, Sarki, J. (ed), Greenleaf, Sheffield.

Periodicals

James, D. (1999), ‘From clicks to coin,’  Marketing News , 33 (21), 3.

Conference Paper 

Jandos, J. and Vorisek, J. (2009), ‘Enterprise Web 2.0. What is it really?’ Proceedings of the 13th Inernational Business Information Management Association (IBIMA), ISBN: 978-0-9821489-2-1, 9-10 November 2009, Marrakech, Morocco, 10-15. Copyright Notice

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Conferences

Latest articles, latest coip articles, +general information, publication ethics, indexing and abstracting, international editorial board, open access, lifetime article preservation.

Gratitude: Humanising pedagogy in higher education

Psychology has largely viewed human functioning from a deficit model in the past but has since turned to a more optimistic, positive psychological lens. Gratitude is a well-researched concept associated with a broad range of psychology theories, such as Fredrickson’s broaden and build theory and Algoe’s find, remind, and bind theory. Research studies revealed that gratitude is one of the strongest predictors of wellbeing and is strongly linked with better psychological and subjective wellbeing. However, gratitude is rarely studied in higher education contexts, making it critical to understand if and how gratitude can impact learners’ wellbeing positively, which, in turn, may lead to better performance in their studies and improvements in their overall wellbeing. This research study employs a qualitative approach, using semi-structured interviews to capture the experiences and perspectives of students and lecturers in higher education in relation to gratitude. Findings revealed that gratitude leads to positive emotions, better relationships, and prosocial behaviours. Additionally, gratitude was found to improve students’ wellbeing and increase their engagement and motivation levels towards learning. To integrate gratitude into the academic curriculum, discourses surrounding gratitude must be reconsidered, and intentional learning spaces for gratitude should also be developed.

• DOI: 10.21638/spbu12.2020.106
• Corpus ID: 226623667

Digitalization of higher education and its social outcomes

• Vera N. Minina
• Published in Vestnik of Saint Petersburg… 30 April 2020
• Education, Computer Science

Academic burnout syndrome among medical students in Serbia: prevalence of high risk and determinants

• Irena Ilic 1 &
• Milena Ilic 2  

BMC Medical Education volume  24 , Article number:  948 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

Metrics details

Although burnout syndrome has been described in numerous research studies, the data on burnout syndrome among medical students in developing countries is scanty. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of high-risk for burnout syndrome and its associated factors among university undergraduate medical students in Serbia.

An observational, analytical, cross-sectional study was conducted using the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey and a survey on associated factors. The research was carried out from February to March 2014. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the adjusted odds ratio (Odds Ratio, OR) with 95% Confidence Interval (95%CI) in order to identify independent correlates of high risk of burnout syndrome.

A high risk for burnout syndrome was noted in 15.0% of respondents; that is, 114/760 medical students suffered from high emotional exhaustion, high cynicism, and low academic efficiency. According to the results of multivariate logistic regression, the main significant independent correlates of high risk for burnout syndrome in medical students were: age of students (for aged 22–24: adjusted OR = 5.64, 95%CI = 2.58–12.34, p  < 0.001 for aged ≥ 25: adjusted OR = 5.65, 95%CI = 2.08–15.39, p  = 0.001) with p for trend < 0.001, higher frequency of alcohol consumption (for habit 1–2 times a week: adjusted OR = 2.01, 95%CI = 1.01–4.03, p  = 0.048) with p for trend = 0.025, and use of sedatives (adjusted OR = 3.44, 95%CI = 1.31–9.04; p  = 0.012).

The present study identified several factors associated with burnout syndrome in Serbian medical students. Some factors associated with the high risk of burnout syndrome in medical students are modifiable. It is important to carry out similar research on burnout syndrome in the future, especially using longitudinal studies, in order to evaluate the associations found in this cross-sectional study.

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Introduction

Burnout syndrome in students is a psychological term for long-term emotional exhaustion, a gradual decline in interest in studies, and a decrease in academic efficiency, which occurs due to prolonged stress during studies [ 1 ]. Burnout syndrome is specific in particular for occupations characterized by working with people in emotionally demanding situations and represents a triad of symptoms that include emotional exhaustion, cynicism and reduced professional efficiency [ 2 ]. Emotional exhaustion refers to an individual’s assessment that his emotional strength has been exhausted beyond limits. Depersonalization (cynicism) refers to developing a callous and cynical attitude towards the people who receive the service/patients and a negative attitude towards studying. The feeling of reduced personal achievement refers to a negative self-assessment of competencies and achievements in studies [ 3 , 4 , 5 ].

Previous research shows that medical students are in study groups with very stressful studies. As such, they may be at an increased risk for burnout syndrome [ 6 ]. The highly competitive medical faculty entrance exam, along with difficult transitions from preclinical to clinical training, the reality of dealing with critically ill patients with a poor prognosis are traditional stressor patterns in the life of most medical students [ 7 ]. For medical students, developing excellent skills and fulfilling the requirements to be good experts is a challenge. One of the sequelae of efforts accompanying medical education is academic burnout or burnout syndrome [ 8 ]. Studies have shown that the occurrence of at least one symptom of burnout syndrome in medical students can cause negative effects that not only interfere with teaching/learning, but also cause sleepiness, emotional instability, serious professional and personal consequences, including lack of professionalism (e.g., altruism or self-control, and serious thoughts of dropping out of studies) [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. Quantitative studies of the burnout syndrome have been possible due to the development of reliable and valid instruments [15…]. Although other instruments for the assessment of burnout syndrome in medical students have appeared in the meantime, the Maslach Burnout Inventory - Student Survey (MBI-SS) remains the “gold standard” for burnout assessment [ 3 ].

Some recent systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses showed that about one out of two medical students worldwide have burnout syndrome [ 15 , 16 , 17 ]. The authors noted a slightly higher prevalence of burnout syndrome among medical students in countries in Oceania and the Middle East than in other areas. On the other hand, some authors indicated that the pooled prevalence of burnout syndrome among medical students in low- and middle-income countries was 12.1% [ 18 ]. Overall, the prevalence of burnout syndrome in medical students has shown a wide range from 2 to 76% [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. The authors reported marked heterogeneity in the results between countries of different economic statuses, with different applied research instruments, cutoff criteria for burnout syndrome, etc. [ 18 , 19 , 22 , 23 ]. Several studies of the prevalence of burnout syndrome in medical students have been conducted in Serbia [ 24 , 25 , 26 ], but only one applied the validated MBI-SS questionnaire in the research [ 27 ].

A variety of demographic factors correlate with burnout syndrome in medical students, including age, sex, whether the student came from an urban or rural setting, marital status, and the number of children, although the findings were not consistent [ 8 , 16 , 19 , 28 ]. In addition, burnout levels were associated with medical students’ maternal education [ 29 ]. Numerous studies identified that senior students experience high levels of burnout, with third and fourth-year students reporting significantly higher scores than younger students [ 30 ]. Some authors reported a statistically significant positive correlation between burnout syndrome and a lower grade point average [ 31 ]. The use of recreational drugs (like marijuana and tramadol) was noted in medical students who had higher burnout scores and reported the presence of a chronic illness and alcohol consumption [ 22 , 32 ]. This study aimed to examine the prevalence of high risk for burnout and identify factors associated with high risk for burnout in medical students.

The study was carried out at the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of Kragujevac, Serbia. The Faculty of Medical Sciences in Kragujevac is the youngest state medical faculty in Serbia, founded in 1977. The study program at integrated academic medical studies is organized through blocks (semesters), and medical studies consist of 12 blocks. Teaching by courses is realized through lectures, exercises, other forms of teaching and professional practice lasting six years. The teaching process is carried out using interactive programs oriented towards students, conditions are provided for greater engagement of students during lectures, with constant checking of their knowledge. A relatively small number of students are enrolled in medical studies (only 96 students in recent years), in order to reach the set quality standards of the program. In order to obtain the professional title of the doctor of medicine, a student must pass 35 compulsory and 6 optional courses (out of 15 offered), complete professional practice and defend a diploma (final) thesis. The research was carried out from February to March 2014, and the survey was conducted in the amphitheater and lecture halls at the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Kragujevac. Before the start of the survey, medical students were given a presentation on “burnout syndrome”, with detailed information about this research. All medical students enrolled in the academic year were invited to participate in the study through a direct personal verbal approach by the researcher. Then the students were given a questionnaire, which contained written information about all details of the research, a form for voluntary informed consent, and a questionnaire. Data collection was carried out during the regular curriculum, while students attended routine activities (theoretical activities), i.e. outside the evaluation period of the curriculum. The researcher (the first author of this paper) was present all the time during the survey, to whom the students could ask questions or turn to for help in order to resolve any doubts related to the survey. Only limited demographic data was collected in this survey, to ensure the anonymity of respondents and to encourage participation and honest responses to the survey.

Study design

An epidemiological study was conducted using a cross-sectional design to assess the prevalence of high-risk for burnout and its associated factors in medical students (STROBE checklist – Additional file 1).

Study population

The research included all medical students at the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of Kragujevac (including both regular and repeat-year students) from all six years of study.

Study sample

All students enrolled in all six academic years of undergraduate medical studies at the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Kragujevac were invited to participate in the survey through a direct personal verbal address by the researcher. Data collection was carried out during the regular curriculum while students attended routine activities (theoretical activities), i.e., outside of the evaluation period of the curriculum. The criteria for the inclusion of subjects in the study were that they are of age 18 or over, that they attend regular classes, that they have been given voluntary written consent to participate in the study. The criteria for excluding subjects from the study were age 18 age under 18, absence from regular classes, or the existence of any other objective reason that prevents or hinders participation in the study.

In the study, a convenient sample of 760 participants (out of a total of 836 students) voluntarily filled out the questionnaire (response rate = 90.9%).

Ethical considerations

This study is a part of research approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac (Ref. No.: 01-1176). All participants provided informed written voluntary consent prior to taking part. All participants provided consent for publication.

Questionnaires were distributed during the class to all medical students attending the class, along with a cover letter providing information about the study and a written consent form to participate in the research. All respondents were informed that the researchers will be exclusively responsible for the data obtained in this study, who are therefore also responsible for the privacy of the respondents. For participation in this observational epidemiological study, the subjects were not financially or in any other way compensated. Medical students faced no consequences for refusing to participate in the study. Also, study participants did not have any conveniences due to participating in the study compared to students who did not participate in the study. Also, all participants were informed that they could withdraw from the study at any stage without any consequences. The study was not sponsored, and the researchers received no compensation for participating in the study’s realization.

Data collection

Data collection was carried out in the classrooms of the Faculty of Medical Sciences. Before the start of the study, i.e., the survey, a notice was sent out to the heads of departments requesting their cooperation in the research, in terms of using a few minutes of the lecture class in the auditorium to explain the research to the students and administer the questionnaires. Also, the protocol and objectives of the study were described in the letter, and the anonymity of the participants was emphasized.

Medical students who met the criteria for inclusion in the study were asked to fill out the epidemiological questionnaire and the MBI-SS questionnaire. Respondents had 15 min (± 5 min, depending on the respondents’ cooperation) to complete the questionnaire. The respondents filled in the questionnaires independently during the class.

In this research, we collected only limited demographic data to ensure the anonymity of the respondents and to encourage participation and honest answers to the questions in the questionnaire. All medical students (from the first to the sixth year of studies) were invited to participate in this study on the first day of lectures when students were present at the beginning of the semester according to their schedules and classrooms.

Characteristics of medical students are categorized and included age (years: ≤ 21 / 22–24 / ≥ 25), gender (male / female), place of residence (Urban / Rural), completed secondary school (Grammar school / Medical school), marital status (With partner / Without partner), having children (No / Yes), housing (In own home / With parents / As subtenants / In student dormitory), study financing (State-sponsored / Self-funded), study year (1st / 2nd / 3rd / 4th / 5th / 6th), repeat-year students (No / Yes), length of study (years: ≤ 6 / > 6), cigarette smoking (Never / Ever), smoking status (Non-smokers / Former smokers / Current smokers), Yes / No for sports / recreational activity / positive personal medical history / use of sedatives / use of psychoactive substances, training (Preclinical / Clinical). Medical students were considered as smokers if they regularly smoked at least one cigarette per day for one year, and were classified as current smokers (if they had smoked at least one cigarette every day for the last 12 months), and as former smokers (if at least one year passed since smoking cessation).

The survey included questions about the habit of alcohol consumption (alcohol consumption related to the regular intake of any amounts of the beverages during medical studies, while those who consumed were then asked about the frequency (1–2 times a year / 1–2 times a month / 1–2 times a week / Every day), types of alcoholic beverages (Beer / Wine / Spirits / Mixed), Binge drinking). Binge drinking was defined as the consumption of 5 + standard drinks for men and 4 + standard drinks for women on one occasion at least once a month during the last year preceding of this survey. In Serbia, a “standard” drink is any drink that contains about 13 g of “pure” alcohol, whereby it was noted in the survey that a standard bottle of beer, as well as a glass of wine and a shot of spirits represented measures of consumption.

The study included 760 out of 836 medical students who met the participation criteria. Absence from regular classes was the main reason for exclusion from the study (45 students) (Fig. 1 ). After being informed about the research, out of the total number of medical students who met the criteria for inclusion (791 students), 12 refused to participate. The reason for not accepting or refusing to participate in the survey was most often a lack of interest in the study. After signing the voluntary informed consent to participate in the study (779 students), some subjects did not return the questionnaire or did not complete the questionnaire during recruitment for the study, or the questionnaires were not completely filled out (19 students in total). For this reason, the data of these respondents were excluded from the analysis. In our survey, the response rate was 90.9%. The research flow diagram is shown in Fig. 1 .

Research flow diagram

Statistical analysis

Descriptive and analytical statistics were used for the data analysis. The categorical variables were presented as proportions (percentages). The dependent variable was the level of risk for burnout in medical students. Confounding variables are socio-demographic characteristics (age, gender, place of residence, marital status, completed high school, etc.), academic performance (year of study, length of study), way of financing studies, housing, habits (cigarette smoking, alcohol use), positive personal medical history (presence of any chronic diseases), sport, recreational activity.

Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate variables that could correlate with burnout syndrome. Univariate logistic regression was used to determine the crude odds ratio (Odds Ratio, OR) with 95% Confidence Interval (95%CI) in order to assess the association between burnout syndrome and selected characteristics of the study participants. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine the adjusted OR with 95%CI to identify independent correlates of the high risk of burnout syndrome.

Adjusting was done for all variables associated with the burnout syndrome in the univariate analysis models with values of p  < 0.50. In addition, the definitive model of the multivariate analysis included other variables that, according to the literature data, were associated with the occurrence of burnout syndrome. The Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test and the Cox and Snell, and Nagelkerke values assessed the goodness of fit of the regression models. Among the observed variables, multicollinearity was investigated. The test for linear trend was based on a logistic regression model. For all independent factors, the level of significance was p  < 0.05. All statistical analyses were performed using the IBM SPSS Statistics version 20.0 (SPSS, Chicago, USA).

The analysis was divided into two parts, with the following tasks: (1) to determine the prevalence of burnout syndrome and (2) to determine the associated factors of burnout syndrome among medical students.

Of the 760 medical students who filled out the questionnaire, there were 269 (35.4%) men and 491 (64.6%) women (Table 1 ). The majority of students were between the ages of 22 and 24 (327; 43.0%), 256 (33.7%) students were 25 or older, while 177 (23.3%) were 21 or younger. The average age of the respondents was 23.7 ± 2.7 years (with a range of 19–36). The largest number of respondents (over 90%) indicated the city as their place of permanent residence. More than half of the students (65.5%) graduated from medical school.

A high risk for burnout syndrome was noted in 15.0% of respondents, that is, 114 medical students suffered from high emotional exhaustion, high cynicism, and low academic efficiency (Table 1 ).

In medical students, the risk of high levels of burnout syndrome was significantly lower in females than in males ( p  = 0.024) (Table 2 ). A higher risk for burnout syndrome was recorded in older age groups of medical students, with statistical significance for the trend ( p  = 0.002). Compared with first-year students, a higher risk of burnout syndrome is more often reported among students in higher studies, with statistical significance for the trend ( p  < 0.001. Repeat-year students ( p  = 0.016) and students with a longer duration of studies ( p  = 0.038) often showed a high risk for burnout syndrome. The habits of drinking 1–2 times a week and every day were significantly more common in medical students who had a high risk of burnout syndrome (with significance for trend p  = 0.001). The use of certain types of alcoholic beverages and binge drinking were not associated with high risk of burnout syndrome. The use of sedatives was linked to a high risk of burnout in medical students ( p  = 0.007). The use of psychoactive substances was associated with a high risk of burnout in medical students ( p  = 0.014).

The following variables entered the final model of the multivariate logistic regression analysis (i.e., variables that were significantly associated with a high risk for burnout syndrome in medical students at the p  < 0.50 level in the univariate logistic regression analysis model): gender, age, length of study, re-enrollment year, frequency of alcohol consumption, use of sedatives and use of psychoactive substances (Table 3 ). Due to collinearity with age, the variable - study year was excluded from the definitive model. According to the results of multivariate logistic regression, the main significant independent correlates of high risk for burnout syndrome in medical students were: age of students (for 22–24 aged: adjusted OR = 5.64, 95%CI = 2.58–12.34, p  < 0.001 for aged ≥ 25: adjusted OR = 5.65, 95%CI = 2.08–15.39, p  = 0.001) with p for trend < 0.001 higher frequency of alcohol consumption (for habit 1–2 times a week: adjusted OR = 2.01, 95%CI = 1.01–4.03, p  = 0.048) with p for trend = 0.025) and use of sedatives (adjusted OR = 3.44, 95%CI = 1.31–9.04; p  = 0.012).

This study is one of the first attempts to assess the prevalence of high-risk of burnout syndrome among medical students in Serbia, as well as to analyze the role of demographic characteristics and academic performance of students in burnout. A high risk for burnout syndrome in medical students was noted in 15.0% of respondents. The main significant independent correlates of high risk for burnout syndrome in medical students were age, higher frequency of alcohol consumption, and use of sedatives.

A comprehensive review and meta-analysis of literature published in countries around the world reported different prevalence rates of burnout syndrome in medical students, with an overall range of 7.0–75.2% [ 19 ]. A recent meta-analysis suggests that one in two medical students worldwide suffers from burnout: the prevalence of burnout (covering 17,431 medical students) was 44.2% (8060 students suffered from burnout) [ 15 ]. The prevalence of burnout was higher in countries in Oceania (55.9%) and the Middle East (53.7%) than in North America − 45.8%, Asia − 40.6%, Europe − 27.5%, South and Central America – 26.0%. The high risk for burnout syndrome in this study was recorded in 15.0% of medical students. Compared to medical students in Kragujevac, a lower prevalence of burnout was recorded in medical students of two universities in Brazil (10.3% and 14.9%) [ 20 , 36 ] and preclinical medical students in Spain (14.8%) [ 37 ], while higher prevalence was found in medical students in Great Britain (26.7%) [ 38 ], Ethiopia (34.0%) [ 39 ], Pakistan (30.6%) [ 9 ], as well as in the USA, India, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia (45–70%) [ 21 , 30 , 40 , 41 , 42 ]. Some possible reasons for differences in the incidence of burnout among medical students include differences in culture, socioeconomic status, and study population. Also, some studies included only third- and fourth-year medical students, while our study included students from all six years of studies. In addition, different burnout assessment questionnaires and sample sizes may contribute to differences in the prevalence of burnout syndrome. Comparison of the results of this study with data in the literature may be difficult for a number of reasons, including the use of different measuring instruments and different threshold values for the assessment of burnout syndrome, the use of different criteria for defining burnout syndrome, significant variability in medical school curricula between universities, etc. [ 43 ]. A definition of burnout syndrome that includes a high score on both the emotional exhaustion and depersonalization subscales and a low personal achievement score (according to the MBI questionnaire) may result in an underestimation of burnout [ 44 , 45 , 46 ]. Using a definition of burnout syndrome that includes high scores on the emotional exhaustion subscale or the depersonalization subscale but not a low score on the personal accomplishment subscale [ 21 , 47 ] may result in overestimating the frequency of burnout syndrome [ 48 ].

In the present study, the age of medical students was significantly associated with burnout syndrome. Some studies found that older medical students were more likely to have burnout [ 29 ], in contrast to other studies that found no association between age and burnout [ 49 ]. Similarly to our study, studies in the US [ 21 ] and Pakistan [ 9 ] showed that the high risk for burnout syndrome was significantly more often noted in senior medical students than in the youngest students. But, these findings must be interpreted with caution. The possible explanation for that is that the increase in age is associated with higher academic years. Besides, an increase in age is intertwined with experience (either in studies or social), so the question of a secondary association with burnout syndrome is always raised.

In this study, a factor that was independently associated with a high risk of developing burnout in medical students was frequent alcohol consumption. To date, only a few studies have reported the association between burnout and alcohol consumption in medical students [ 21 , 50 ]. Similar results were reported in a study in the USA, where the frequency of risky alcohol use decreased in older medical students, and the frequency of burnout syndrome increased [ 21 ]. Among UK medical students, higher alcohol intake was significantly associated with higher personal achievement scores [ 38 ]. Findings that burnout can result from alcohol consumption suggest that the association between alcohol consumption and stress is not unidirectional [ 50 ]. Namely, some studies have shown that certain people can use alcohol as a method of coping with stress [ 51 , 52 ]. On the other hand, a UK study found that young drinkers have a “hedonic” approach to excessive alcohol consumption, suggesting that medical students may be drinking for pleasure rather than coping with stress and burnout [ 53 ]. According to the National Health Research Study in Serbia in 2013 [ 54 ], about 1.3% of the population aged 15 to 34 consumed alcohol daily in the previous 12 months. Drinking alcoholic beverages in Serbia is a socially acceptable behavior (as part of traditions and customs), which results in a high prevalence of alcohol use, especially among young people.

In this study, a factor that was independently associated with a high risk of developing burnout syndrome in medical students was the use of sedatives. In a study in Brazil [ 55 ], about 12% of medical students in all years of study used anxiolytics. In a multicenter study in France [ 56 ], in a population of medical students, it was found that first-year students consumed 1.5 times more anxiolytics compared to second-year students: the authors of the study relate this result to the pressure that first-year students have to pass their first exams, resulting in higher rates of mood and anxiety disorders. Among medical students in Cameroon, a significant interaction between various predictors (chronic disease, alcohol consumption, and burnout syndrome) and the outcome - recreational drug use [ 22 ] was noted. The question is whether the use of drugs (antidepressants, anxiolytics, sedatives) can be an indicator of the existence of these primary pathologies, thereby making the occurrence of burnout symptoms more likely. It is uncertain whether the use of sedatives directly causes students to burnout more or whether students who are already underachieving and experiencing high levels of stress turn to recreational drug use as a source of comfort [ 22 ]. As education about drug abuse, as well as alcohol and illicit substances, is part of the core curriculum of medical schools [ 57 , 58 ], this association should be investigated in future studies.

It is difficult to compare the results of this study with similar studies in the world for a number of reasons: different research designs used, application of other questionnaires, use of non-validated questionnaires, variations in the concept and construct of burnout syndrome (with consequent assessment of burnout syndrome as a one-dimensional, two-dimensional or three-dimensional concept), different response rates, differences in the studied populations (in terms of age structure, gender, etc.), studies of all or only selected years of studies, study curriculum, length of studies. A better understanding of the correlates of burnout syndrome in medical students is key to determining solutions to prevent burnout. It is important to carry out similar studies of burnout syndrome in the future, especially using longitudinal studies, in order to confirm the association found in prevalence studies.

The results of this study provide practical implications for students, educators and organization of medical school programs. Namely, identification of factors associated with burnout syndrome, i.e. higher frequency of alcohol consumption and use of sedatives, gives guidance for interventions aimed at preventing alcohol and sedatives use and abuse among medical students, through providing sufficient information about these issues during the studies and conducting training for helping medical students identify and provide peer support to persons at risk of concerning use of these substances. Further on, learning about student burnout should be embedded in curriculums of medical schools in order to raise awareness about this issue and reduce fear about unsuccess in medical studies [ 59 ]. The classes, practical exercises and exams should be organized in a way that enables a balance between the studies and private life. Finally, services aimed at providing student support should exist and deliver both individual and group interventions intended to educate medical students about coping strategies, increasing resilience, stress management and encouragement of a healthy lifestyle [ 60 , 61 ].

Respondents were included in this research through recruitment at one medical faculty, whereby all respondents had the same chance to participate in the study. Consequently, the sample was not selected, which suggests the study sample is representative of the entire population of medical students at the University of Kragujevac. Also, the response rate was high (90.9%). Our research used the validated Serbian version of the MBI-SS questionnaire [ 27 ].

However, this study has several limitations. In addition to the known shortcomings of the cross-sectional study design (such as “ecological fallacy”), a limitation of this study is the use of a self-report questionnaire. Although the principle of anonymity was applied during the survey, the existence of information bias cannot be ruled out with certainty because, although the privacy of all information was guaranteed, there is always the possibility that some respondents did not want to reveal the symptoms of burnout. The limitation of this study can be - the limitation of non-response (non-response bias). Although the response rate is high, there may still be response bias, as individuals suffering from burnout may not have been in class at the time of data collection or, may have chosen not to participate in the study, or may have been more or less likely to respond to the survey. Also, a potential source of response bias can be the phenomenon of social desirability, that is, giving socially desirable answers, rather than true answers, in circumstances where sometimes the presence of classmates, teachers and the overall classroom environment can have a significant impact on responses. In this study, the impact of social desirability bias is reduced by using a survey that relies on self-reports, the survey being anonymous and not containing socially unacceptable questions, as well as by the high response rate. Also, since the study was conducted at one faculty, the results may only be representative for some medical students in Serbia. But, although this study was carried out at one medical faculty, the results of the study can be generalized to a considerable extent, since a sample without selection bias was provided in the study, the sample was unselected, all respondents had the same chance to participate in the study, and a high response rate was achieved (response rate was 90.9%). Further, this study did not provide data on other potential predictors of burnout syndrome (such as socioeconomic status, family history, etc.) that could influence the occurrence of burnout syndrome in medical students. Even with these limitations, this study offers an assessment of burnout syndrome among medical students. Since this is a cross-sectional study, the correlations found may not be actual causative factors, and these findings should be verified in future research.

Conclusions

The prevalence of burnout syndrome in Serbian medical students was estimated to be 15.0%. Burnout syndrome among medical students in Serbia showed a high correlation with the age of students, a higher frequency of alcohol consumption, and the use of sedatives. Those at-risk medical students should be identified to provide adequate support.

Availability of data and materials

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This study is conducted as the part of project No 175042 supported by Ministry of Education, Science and Technological development, Republic of Serbia, 2011-2022. We would like to thank the leadership of the Faculty of Medical Sciences Kragujevac for their support and the medical students for their participation in the study. The authors thank Milena Jovanovic and Zeljko Todorovic, who partially helped in data collection and data entry.

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Academic bullying is hidden in plain sight

Tormented by playground thugs as a child, jonathan taylor reflects on why the insidious bullying found in universities is similar but much worse.

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It’s November 1983. I’m in the final year of primary school. It’s playtime and I’m alone, hiding in the wasteland behind one of the school’s mobile huts. The hut’s painted a similar green to my school sweatshirt, so I’m hoping I’m camouflaged, like the chameleons we’ve been studying in class. I’m hoping I’m safe.

I’m not: two minutes later, my arch-nemesis Lee Hardwick (not his real name) sidles round one side of the building, his three sidekicks round the other. I’m cornered.

“Don’t be scared,” says Lee. “We only want a little chat with you.” He seems reasonable, placatory: “I’m not that bad, you know. But you and me, we never seem to get on. I dunno why.”

“You’re bullying me,” I say. Lee snorts: “Don’t be silly. I’m not a bully.”

Bullying always erases itself, effaces its own existence. No one openly admits to being a bully – at least, not while it’s happening. Bullying exists only in denial (“ I didn’t do nuffin, miss ”). This self-erasure is one of its hallmarks and I can’t help feeling it should be part of any definition.

Definitions of bullying generally mention “power imbalance” between perpetrator and “victim”. Yet most forms of power like to proclaim themselves – either through display, public self-assertion or institutional recognition. Bullying, by contrast, is usually a private matter between bullies, sidekicks, victims and (where relevant) bystanders – something that happens behind mobile huts. Even when the results of it involve the victim’s public humiliation, or general awe at the bully’s dominance, the means by which these ends are achieved must be kept under wraps.

Indeed, bullying can sometimes go to great lengths in self-concealment, radiating the blame outwards, such that it becomes the victim’s own fault that they are being victimised.

In 1983, Lee Hardwick already understands this: “You know,” he says, “things could be different between us, Taylor. You don’t have to treat me as your enemy. I dunno what your problem is. You take everything too seriously. If you wanted, we could be friends. I tell y’what, let’s shake on it – no more aggro.” He holds out his hand. I take it.

He pulls me towards him, as though to embrace me – then trips me up, pushes me to the ground. While he watches, his sidekicks pile on top of me, one pinning my arms down, one holding my feet, one sitting on my legs. The last pulls down my trousers while I try to writhe free.

“Don’t worry,” says one. “We’re only, like, doing to you what the headmaster does to kids every day, with his cane or whatever.”

“And you love that sort of thing, don’t you, Taylor? – like a girl or ballerina or poofter would.”

“Yeah, and you know what boys do to girls,” says Lee.

“They rape them.”

“Yeah! Let’s do a rape!”

I’m scared: “ Please …”

Given what happens in the next couple of minutes, it’s clear in retrospect that my tormentors have, as of yet, an imperfect grasp of what the R-word signifies. We’re still at an early stage of learning the language of sex, gender and violence, picking up half-comprehended words from brothers, parents, TV.

Bullying is always a linguistic phenomenon as well as a physical one, and usually the linguistic element is primary, physical violence only the enactment of insults, promises and threats. So an inadequate grasp of language can sometimes alleviate its worst excesses.

In this instance, my bullies’ imperfect comprehension of the terms they use saves me from something a lot worse than what actually happens. When the boys get bored, throw me my trousers and run off, I’m left with bruises, grazes and furious tears – but that’s all. Thank God.

Bullies, though, eventually grow up. While, statistically speaking, many leave bullying behind as they get older, some learn to use language much more precisely, weaponising it in ways that Lee Hardwick and his sidekicks could never have dreamed of. In my own experience, at least, it’s been highly educated and articulate adults – not children, not nightclub bouncers – who are the most adept bullies, due to their sophisticated command of language. That’s why university academics can be such superlative bullies. In effect, they have PhDs in it, while kids like Lee Hardwick haven’t even passed their GCSEs yet.

The bullying I experienced as a kid was relatively straightforward (“ You’re a poof, Taylor.” *P unch* ). The bullies in my school were big, lumbering beasts, who weren’t interested in developing complex linguistic frameworks for what they were doing, beyond common epithets (“poofter”, “queer”, “ballerina”), let alone long-term strategies.

So I was by no means prepared for the kind of brutal psychological bullying I came across some decades later, as an “early-career academic”. Coming from a middle-of-the-road Stoke comprehensive, the sophisticated bullying I experienced from my then-line manager in my then-university was wholly alien to me. Here was a new mode of bullying which involved no overt physical violence – just strategies, bureaucratic terrorism, linguistic traps, carefully laid.

Still, there were strange, hidden connections between school and university forms of bullying, which only became clear in retrospect. For a start, the apparent separation of physical from psychological violence is never absolute. Bullying is always a compound of both, even when one element appears absent. Physical violence is never entirely absent from workplace bullying, even when it remains concealed, offstage. The physical aspects of bullying still haunt the violent language used (“firing”, “sacking”, etc), as well as the threats implied by that language (the potential deprivation resulting from being “fired”, etc). And then there are the devastating physical and psychological effects of being bullied: stress-related illnesses, depression, PTSD and, in the worst cases, suicide.

For the most part, though, physical violence operates underground in workplace bullying, as its unconscious. Hence, the problem with describing my experience of bullying at university is that it lacks much overt drama: if one of the defining characteristics of bullying is self-erasure, intelligent adults become ever more brilliant at hiding what they are doing, usually in their victims’ minds.

It’s relatively easy to describe my behind-the-mobile-hut-confrontation with Lee. But adult bullying is often internalised, near-invisible and also immensely dull – a covert, day-in, day-out process of psychological erosion, of bureaucratic tides coming in and out.

The dullness can actually form part of the bullying. In any bureaucracy, the person who has most patience, who’s able to sustain petty schemes over long periods, is going to come out on top. It’s a matter of survival of the most officious.

But that sort of dogged persistence doesn’t necessarily make for a good story. It’s part of what makes psychological bullying, as opposed to someone punching someone else in the face, so hard to identify and tackle. Primarily inward-looking, there’s not much to point to that’s tangible, no obvious spectacle to gawp at. It certainly doesn’t make for a Hollywood blockbuster: Taylor v the Professor, now in 3D . Where Paper Cuts Get Personal.

No: for the most part, the bullying I experienced in an early university job was insidious, subtle and too complexly boring – a matter of details within details, a sort of bureaucratic fractal – to recount in full. Sometimes, halfway through explaining a particular incident to a friend in the pub, I’d find myself trailing off, bored by the intricacy of my own lecture-theatre horror story.

By and large, stories about work life shy away from the maddening minutiae of admin, the purgatory of paperwork, the low-level terrorism of day-to-day management. This is one reason why I’m suspicious of campus novels: they usually substitute sensational (and interchangeable) stories of murders, affairs, drugs, for the everyday banality of university evil, the red-tape nightmares populated by committees, senior management committees and unofficial, behind-closed-doors gossip committees.

They ignore the disciplinary hearings, secret disciplinary hearings, spreadsheets, regulations, spreadsheets of regulations, league tables, student feedback, fabricated student feedback, complaints, drummed-up complaints, spreadsheets of complaints and committees of drummed-up complaints.

And, above all, there is no mention of emails, emails, emails: hundreds, thousands of them, full of unnecessary or impossible jobs – emails telling you off for not doing said unnecessary or impossible jobs – emails undermining you in front of others – emails magnifying minor failures – or emails damning with faint or ambivalent praise. Those emails sent on Monday mornings, to upset you at the start of the week – emails sent on Friday afternoons, so you dwell on them all weekend. Emails, emails, emails incessantly scything to and fro above you, like a razor-sharp pendulum, looming closer and closer…

In the tale by Edgar Allan Poe that famously depicts such a torture device (a scything pendulum, that is, not email), the reader hardly glimpses the torturers themselves. For all but the opening of the story, the Holy Inquisitors remain offstage, operating the torture machinery from afar. This is what technology of many kinds – from inquisitorial pendulums to institutional email to X/Twitter to academic acronyms – facilitates: for torture to be inflicted remotely, for the torturers to remain invisible.

Of course, the beauty of “cyber-bullying” and “trolling” is that the torturers can disown their own torture devices: It wasn’t me, guv’nor . I didn’t do nothing . Perhaps it wasn’t anyone. Perhaps it was the victim themselves crying “Wolf!” Remote bullying can efface itself, X accounts can be anonymised, passive-aggressive emails reinterpreted ( Of course I didn’t mean that ) – to the extent that the victims themselves come to be suspected of paranoia: There’s no one there, there’s nothing wrong, it’s all in your head, stop imagining things, stop attacking yourself .

At worst, the people expressing such concerns onstage turn out to be the very same torturers who are invisibly operating the technology behind the scenes: What a shame, you need help, don’t worry, we’ll take care of you. Very, very good care .

That’s because one of the paradoxical signs of bullying, in my limited experience, is kindness. Beware academic mentors, people who wear their pastoral skills on their sleeves: to care for someone, to take them under your wing, is to exercise a dangerous power. If nothing else, it imposes a debt of gratitude upon them. It also has the added benefit of muddying the waters when it comes to complaints, tribunals, solicitors. The bully can point to moments of kindness (carefully recorded, of course) that seem to undermine the complainant’s claims: But look how nice I was on this and that occasion .

This sort of weaponised kindness can be deployed remotely, too. One of the times I came closest to losing my mind, under the shadow of my professorial bully, was when a mature student told me, as if spontaneously, that my boss cared for me, that they were concerned about my mental well-being, that they really liked me and wished I liked them back. I went away thinking: Oh, perhaps I’ve been unfair to them. Perhaps I was wrong all along. Perhaps it’s all been in my head .

Rationally speaking, I knew it wasn’t. There’d been too many rows for me to have imagined everything. But the cognitive dissonance introduced by the student’s words, and other strange moments of kindness from my bully (“I can help you with that”, “I so enjoy working with you, Jonathan”, “We’re such a friendly team here, aren’t we?”), induced a terrible vertigo.

Looking back on it now, I believe – rightly or wrongly – that the student in question was primed, and the strange nuggets of kindness among the bullying were mines, deliberately laid.

This was non-linear warfare, kindness-as-sadism, where part of the strategy is to playfully gaslight your enemy. Author Rachel Vail calls this “ subtle bullying”,  an incongruous type of bullying “that comes with compliments and praise…appreciation [and]…kind words”, along with “manipulation [and]…abuse”. Adult bullying is rarely if ever monolithic, and incongruity can be one of its most powerful weapons, driving the victim round the bend: It’s them – No, it’s me – No, it’s them – But they're being kind  – No they're not, they're being ghastly – But they say they're being reasonable…

It reminds me of Lee Hardwick reasonably suggesting, “We can be friends” and “Let’s shake on it”, seconds before attacking me, pinning me down.

Lee was an amateur, though, compared with my long-ago-boss at my long-ago-university. They seemed to plan years ahead, laying bureaucratic mines that could blow up in your face on the Last Day of Judgement. It took me almost that long to overcome my callow bewilderment, to comprehend what was happening. Vail says something similar about her own experience of subtle bullying: “It certainly never occurred to me that I was being bullied. I thought I was happy, or should be…But I wasn’t happy. I was a wreck. I was being manipulated with kind words, bullied in such a subtle way the only bruises were invisible to me.”

This is the false consciousness of psychological bullying: that victims are unaware (or deliberately kept unaware) they are being bullied, sometimes until long afterwards. Bullying can conceal itself from the victim, as well as from the environment in which it operates. As anti-bullying activist Tim Field says, “‘Not recognising what is happening’ is one of the main reasons that people put up with bullying for so long.”

One reason why the victim may not be able to recognise or name what’s happening to them is that they’re denied access to the very word “bullying”. When I finally lodged a formal complaint against my bully, I was told I wasn’t allowed to use the word “bullying” in my statement to the university. I had to use other, supposedly less loaded terms, instead.

As I’ve suggested, bullying is often predicated on a linguistic hierarchy – on who wields greater command of particular kinds of language. And this linguistic hierarchy might involve who commands the very word “bullying”, its meaning and definition: No, of course we’re not bullying you, don’t be silly, we’re just horsing around. Don’t you have a sense of humour?  Or: No, of course we’re not bullying you, we’re concerned about you and your mental health . Or: No, of course we’re not bullying you. If you look at Regulation 3.5.12 you’ll see that you’re in the wrong, not us . Or: No, of course this isn’t bullying, it’s just a matter of exercising our legitimate authority. We’re higher up the university hierarchy than you, and we say this is discipline, not bullying.  

And there’s the rub: sophisticated non-linear bullying frequently conceals itself by using the language of institutional discipline. In any educational institution, “illegitimate” bullying is always in danger of collapsing into “legitimate” (so-called) hierarchical discipline. This is bullying’s ultimate strategy of self-erasure: the weaponisation of the institution’s own language of power.

In other words, the languages of discipline and bullying can all too easily get mixed up, and the very cleverest bullies know this. So the best hiding place for a bully is not behind a mobile hut, but within the very disciplinary system that is supposed to deal with them.

I was repeatedly threatened with disciplinary action by my professorial bully, to which my only recourse was to appeal to the same disciplinary system that was being used against me. To no one’s surprise but my own, it didn’t work: my bully’s command of institutional language far outstripped mine.

“We’re only doing to you what the headmaster does to kids every day,” Lee Hardwick said to me, back in 1983. In nascent form, herein lies the secret of the most successful bullying: it can assume the colours – the physical and linguistic patterns – of the system in which it operates.

Camouflage can be the most subtle form of concealment, and bullies are usually far better chameleons than their victims. 

Jonathan Taylor  is associate professor of creative writing at the University of Leicester . This article is based on extracts from his book A Physical Education: On Bullying, Discipline and Other Lessons , published by Goldsmiths Press next month.

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Negotiating access and belonging in a higher education institution: a postqualitative narrative

• Ben Whitburn
• Priscila Riffo-Salgado

International higher education scholarships:  a  pathway for Palestinians’ academic recovery

• Anas N. Almassri

Academic anomie: implications of the ‘great resignation’ for leadership in post-COVID higher education

• Richard Watermeyer
• Richard Bolden

Deciphering China’s higher education outreach paradigm in Southeast Asia: can a neo-tributary perspective work?

Learning how to develop a research question throughout the PhD process: training challenges, objectives, and scaffolds drawn from doctoral programs for students and their supervisors

• Nathalie Girard
• Aurélie Cardona
• Cécile Fiorelli

Generative AI and higher education: a review of claims from the first months of ChatGPT

• Lasse X Jensen
• Alexandra Buhl
• Margaret Bearman

Higher education retention in Ireland and Scotland: the role of admissions policies

• Cristina Iannelli
• Patricia McMullin

The role of geopolitics of knowledge in the mediatization of global university rankings

• Riyad A. Shahjahan
• Ariful H. Kabir
• Nisharggo Niloy

Be a hero, be your own best friend: a self-compassion-based PsyCap intervention improves PhD students’ well-being

• Luisa Solms
• Machteld van den Heuvel
• Astrid C. Homan

A conceptual and methodological framework for clustering and correlation analyses of the approaches and study skills inventory for students

• Sotiris Kotsiantis
• Martha Georgiou
• Skarlatos G. Dedos

Pathways to master’s education: insights from students in transnational higher education in China

Waiting for the revolution: how higher education institutions initially responded to chatgpt.

• Lene Korseberg

Promoting student empowerment in student partnership-student representation integrations

• Justin Patrick

(Re)-production of caste in the classroom: a Dalit perspective

An autoethnography of internationalisation: ethical dilemmas in japanese academe.

• Bregham Dalgliesh

Correction to: University students’ concepts of nation in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau: Patriotism or nationalism?

• Meng U. Ieong
• Chi‑Chen Chen

Gatekeeping at work: a multi-dimensional analysis of student, institutional, and employer characteristics associated with unpaid internships

• Kyoungjin Jang-Tucci
• Matthew T. Hora
• Jiahong Zhang

Institutionalising a transdisciplinary curriculum: assemblages, territories, and refrains

• Gray Kochhar-Lindgren
• Adrian Man Ho Lam

Faculty denied tenure: internalization, resistance, and the organizational protection of legitimacy

• Nathan F. Alleman
• Cara Cliburn Allen
• Justin J. Nelson

On the entanglement of epistemic violence and affective injustice in higher education: a conceptual analysis

• Michalinos Zembylas

Navigating gender identity development: composite narratives of Chinese women international students studying in the U.S.

• Sanfeng Miao

Socio-economic status, school performance, and university participation: evidence from linked administrative and survey data from Australia

• Wojtek Tomaszewski
• Matthias Kubler

Flashbacks of the bad old days? The bureaucratization of Czech universities in the post-communist era

• Josef Klement

Open to talent? How scientists assess merit and diversity in hiring

• David R. Johnson
• Brandon Vaidyanathan

Can service scholarships boost academic performance? Causal evidence from China’s Free Teacher Education scholarship

The level and development of university students’ social integration: personality traits and person-environment fit predict integration with fellow students and teaching staff

• Regina Jusri
• Clemens Lechner

Analyzing the influence of regional security on international student flows in the MENA region: a social network approach

• Sevgi Kaya-Kasikci
• Chris R. Glass

Implications of losing a need- and merit-based scholarship on the educational trajectory: a curricular analytics approach

• Juan Pablo Salazar-Fernandez
• Jorge Munoz-Gama
• Marcos Sepúlveda

University lecturers’ lived experiences of teaching critical thinking in Australian university: a hermeneutic phenomenological research

• Musa Nicholas John Manning

Supervisors’ emotion regulation in research supervision: navigating dilemmas in an accountability-based context

• Hongbiao Yin
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