Faculty and university staff members report being bullied in two ways: by their colleagues and supervisors, and by their students over grades, according to an international study I conducted with colleagues Zahra Moradi and Deborah Circo.
Researchers define workplace bullying as harmful acts of mistreatment between people that go beyond incivility and cross the line to intentionally cause harm. In other words, it’s behavior any reasonable person would know isn’t OK.
Junior faculty and staff faced more workplace bullying from peers. Faculty members and staff who are Black, Indigenous or people of color were targeted more frequently.
Senior faculty were more likely than younger educators to report being bullied by students over grades. Although bullying usually runs down the chain of power – for example, from a boss to an employee – grade bullying flips that. Researchers call it contrapower harassment – when someone with less formal power targets someone with more.
More than 30% of adult workers in the U.S. and Canada experience bullying, harassment and sexual abuse in the workplace at any given time, harming both individuals and organizations.
That rate is more than double in academia, where bullying rates are as high as 68% at some institutions, far exceeding those in general workplaces and aligning with high-stress fields like emergency services, according to our peer-reviewed findings published in the October 2026 Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Practice.
Why it matters
Academic bullying undermines both the well-being of staff and faculty and the integrity of higher education institutions.
Thirty percent of our survey respondents reported that students pressured them for a better grade. Students’ tactics included threatening grade appeals, malicious complaints, negative online reviews, emotional manipulation and intimidation. Women and minority faculty are particularly affected. Over time, the bullying creates a toxic environment that damages relationships between faculty and students and hurts the quality of education for everyone.
Such pressure could result in mental health issues like anxiety and depression, decreased job satisfaction and reduced productivity. These dynamics not only affect individual faculty members but can also lead to long-term damage to the reputation of institutions and negatively impact students’ educational experiences.
How we did our work
We surveyed 189 faculty and staff at colleges and universities in Canada, the U.S. and U.K.
Anonymous respondents reported how often they’d faced 22 common forms of mistreatment from colleagues and supervisors. A separate set of questions asked about pressure from students over grades.
The most common issues related to colleagues weren’t shouting or threats. They were easier to dismiss: unmanageable workloads, withheld information and impossible deadlines.
Pressure from students over grades was reported more frequently than bullying from colleagues.
What still isn’t known
Gaps remain in understanding the root causes of bullying of faculty.
Studies that follow the same faculty over several years could show how grade bullying builds over time, and whether it pushes people to leave or lose trust in their institutions. One likely pattern is that grade bullying escalates when it works, wearing faculty down until they either give in or leave their jobs.
Researchers need to test what actually works to stop bullying, and whether those fixes hold up at different kinds of colleges and universities.
Bigger studies would help. So would sitting down with faculty and hearing their experiences in their own words to add context that a survey can’t capture.
Future research could also explore interventions to mitigate bullying and measure their effectiveness across diverse educational contexts.
Bullying at work is a form of violence. The harm is psychological rather than physical, but it’s real. Change starts with higher standards of conduct for everyone, from first-year students to senior administrators and leaders committed to enforcing respectful rules.
The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.
Jason Walker, Associate Professor of Psychology, Health and Wellness, Adler University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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