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What Is Academic Burnout?

Updated: December 14, 2023

Published: November 13, 2019

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Feeling less motivated than usual? More exhausted and irritable? Less inspired and creative in your school work? You may have academic burnout, which is a very real condition that is both diagnosable and treatable with the right steps.

The first part of treating academic burnout is recognition and acknowledgement of the condition, followed by some serious commitment to change your current habits. You can overcome academic burnout, and prevent it from happening again! We’ll explain exactly how you can do so plus the best tips for avoiding burnout altogether.

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Academic burnout can be defined as a negative emotional, physical and mental reaction to prolonged study that results in exhaustion, frustration, lack of motivation and reduced ability in school.

It is the culmination of many weeks or months studying the same material or working on the same project, or from continuous years of schooling. This is not to be confused with the occasional feeling of frustration when you have been studying for hours on end, or tiredness from pulling an all-nighter. It is rather more of a chronic condition from long-term study or school work.

Student Burnout Symptoms

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Academic burnout symptoms are manifested in much more than just tiredness and feeling like you can’t attend another class. Burnout can cause real, psychosomatic problems such as headaches, insomnia and depression, which is why it is important to start taking steps to reverse burnout as soon as you recognize the symptoms.

Some common ways you can know if you have academic burnout are:

  • Feeling exhausted no matter how much sleep you get, resulting in fatigue and insomnia
  • Lacking motivation to attend classes or start assignments
  • Lashing out at others and increased irritability due to frustration
  • Lacking inspiration and creativity to bring to projects and class discussions
  • Loss of confidence in academic abilities
  • Incapability to meet important deadlines
  • Increased pain and tension in your body, which can be manifested as headaches, sore muscle aches, or jaw tension
  • Higher frequency of illness due to stress and exhaustion
  • Increase in bad habits such as overeating, staying up too late, nail biting, or any other habit you tend to acquire when you are stressed or not taking care of yourself
  • Inability to concentrate on school work or lectures
  • Feeling bored or uninterested in aspects of school or areas of leisure that you used to enjoy
  • Feelings of anxiety or depression

How to Prevent Burnout in School

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If you start recognizing some of the symptoms above in yourself, it’s time to make changes before you experience full-blown academic burnout. Also, if you have a heavy semester or degree coming up, you may be worried about getting burnt out and looking to prevent it from the start. Good for you! There are many easy ways you can change your habits and lifestyle to prevent burnout in school.

Enjoy Your Vacations: Take a real break from work and school on the weekends if possible. Try to rearrange your schedule to give yourself at least a day off every week. During school breaks, try to take vacations or staycations, where you truly give your mind time to rest.

1. Make Time for Enjoyable Activities:

And not just on the weekend! Sprinkle your calendar with things you love to do throughout the week, and you’ll feel start to feel more motivated to start your school days.

2. Get Plenty of Physical Exercise:

Try to exercise at least three times a week, stay hydrated and eat healthy to keep your mind and body active and healthy.

3. Get Outside:

Studies have shown that time spent in nature can reduce stress levels so spend some of your free time in some greenery!

4. Make Time for Social Activities:

Not only do friends and family provide you with a positive support system, but time spent in fun social environments will make you happier and give your mind a break.

5. Develop Good Relationships with Professors:

(and classmates!) This will make it so that you don’t feel like going to class or study hall is a chore.

6. Set Reasonable Goals:

And stick to them — use a calendar and daily reminders to stay motivated to achieve deadlines.

7. Avoid Procrastination:

When you are feeling stressed, putting off assignments and projects is tempting, but ultimately this will lead to sleep deprivation, frustration and end in more stress.

8. Get Better at Time Management:

This is a key factor in making sure you stay on track with deadlines, avoid procrastination and end up with a more positive relationship with your studies. Check out our tips on improving your time management skills here .

9. Take a Step Back:

Look at your school situation as a whole. Ask yourself, have you chosen the correct field, school or program? Is there another direction you need to take to make this better align with your career path or interests? At University of the People , degrees are entirely online and flexible meaning schoolwork is easier to fit in with your current lifestyle. Plus, you’ll reduce your stress knowing your accredited degree is tuition-free!

10. Work-Life Balance:

Work-life balance is just as important for students as it is for workers. Set up your schedule for equal parts school and fun or social activities. And don’t forget to make time for just YOU.

How to Recover From School Burnout

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After reading this guide, you may believe that you have academic burnout and are ready to make the move to recovery. Here are the ways you can overcome your academic burnout.

1. Seek Help:

You may need the help of a professional. Speak to a guidance counselor, mental health counselor, school counselor or other professional to help you overcome school burnout. You may also enlist the help of friends, family and teachers.

2. Recognize Symptoms:

Get to know the symptoms of student burnout and don’t ignore your mind and body. If you know you have the symptoms, it’s time to make changes.

3. Don’t Ignore:

Academic burnout will only get worse if you just keep pushing yourself forward and don’t get help.

4. Manage Stress:

Manage your stress levels and make big changes to reverse the burn out. Set aside time for yourself to decompress and reduce stress.

5. Make Important Changes:

Practice mindful breathing, eating, socializing. Try mediation breaks throughout the day as well. Rearrange your schedule for a better work-life balance. Remember, it took you months or years to develop academic burnout and recovery will take time and commitment. Follow the above steps consistently and don’t give up and you’ll be on your way to a full recovery from student burnout.

10 Ways to Avoid Burnout

academic burnout essay

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Once you feel like you’ve recovered from academic burnout, it is imperative that you take steps to avoid falling into the same habits again. Here are 10 ways to avoid burnout for students so that you never have to worry about it again.

  • Create reasonable goals
  • Stick to deadlines, avoid procrastination
  • Sleep 7-9 hours per night
  • Eat healthy and drink water
  • Make friends with school colleagues so that school is also fun
  • Take plenty of breaks throughout the day
  • Set aside time for enjoyable activities throughout the week
  • Take a vacation or staycation every once in a while
  • Take walks and get outside when you can
  • Choose a flexible degree program such as UoPeople, where you can study whenever, wherever!

Academic burnout is a very real condition that is possible to self-treat by taking the right measures. Try to take a step back and look at everything in your life and your academic work that might be contributing to your academic burnout and make the necessary changes. Don’t feel shy to ask the help of friends, teachers, family and peers to get you out of your rut, and always seek professional help if you feel you can’t kick the burnout on your own.

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Does Burnout Affect Academic Achievement? A Meta-Analysis of over 100,000 Students

  • Meta-Analysis
  • Published: 15 May 2020
  • Volume 33 , pages 387–405, ( 2021 )

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  • Daniel J. Madigan 1 &
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Burnout is understood to have many adverse consequences for students. However, several equivocal findings in the literature mean that it is currently unclear to what extent burnout affects academic achievement. To address this lack of clarity, the aim of the present study was to provide a first meta-analysis of the relationship between burnout and academic achievement. A literature search returned 29 studies ( N  = 109,396) and 89 effect sizes. Robust variance meta-analyses indicated that total burnout had a significant negative relationship with academic achievement ( r c +  = − .24). A similar pattern of relationships was found for each of the three symptoms of burnout (exhaustion [ r c +  = − .15], cynicism [ r c +  = − .24], and reduced efficacy [ r c +  = − .39]). There was some evidence that the instrument used to measure burnout moderated the relationship between reduced efficacy and achievement. Taken together, the findings suggest that burnout leads to worse academic achievement in school, college, and university.

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Note, however, these findings do not necessarily reflect clinical depression, but instead depressive symptoms (see Richardson et al. 2012 ).

Because the study of Salmela-Aro et al. ( 2008 ) had a very large sample and also measured burnout sometime after they measured achievement, we ran another analysis that excluded the effects from this study, no substantial differences were found.

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Madigan, D.J., Curran, T. Does Burnout Affect Academic Achievement? A Meta-Analysis of over 100,000 Students. Educ Psychol Rev 33 , 387–405 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-020-09533-1

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Academic Burnout: the solutions to a seemingly unsolvable problem

T here was once a period in my life when I described myself as being “allergic to schoolwork”. The thought of it made me nauseous and I found myself unable to concentrate for any longer than the bare minimum. There was another time in my life when I almost ended up in hospital because of my poor mental health.

I missed the last month of year 10 and rather than spending my summer relaxing and going out with my friends, I spent two long months learning how to talk and walk again. I refused to admit it but on both occasions, I was suffering from intense academic burnout (although the second one was also caused by other factors) – I was in denial. 

The effects of academic burnout can be life-changing, if not devastating. In a culture and environment that encourages us to ‘reach our fullest potential’ and ‘always try our hardest’, burnout is almost inevitable. Watching myself or others get burned out is like watching a car crash in slow motion. You know it’s going to happen, but you don’t know how – or if – you can stop it.

You’ve studied or worked so hard your brain decides to give up

The premise of academic burnout is simple – you’ve studied or worked so hard your brain decides to give up. At that point, it is not just begging you to take a break – it is forcing you to. There is no clear-cut way to avoid it. To say “don’t work as hard” or “take breaks” is overly simplistic. It quite often produces the opposite to the intended effect and the person in question often ends up working even harder to prove them wrong. 

Academic burnout often goes hand-in-hand with perfectionism and people’s attempts to stop the person from working are merely seen as a challenge to work harder. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to avoid burnout – and perhaps that’s what makes it such a complicated issue. What works for one person is not guaranteed to work for another.

Listening to generic, overused advice feels like listening to the same song over and over – there comes a point when you stop hearing it. From being so (unfortunately) experienced with burnout – I have acquired some strategies over the years. I hope I never have to deal with academic, or any other type of burnout, again.

I always factor in time for some kind of disruption to take place

My first top to avoid burnout would be to start assessments early. And yes, even earlier than you’d expect. Even before essay questions are released, I have already started thinking about potential topics. Every stage of my preparation work, whether that be reading for seminars, or general research, revolves around this hypothetical essay question. Perhaps it’s the pessimist in me but when completing an assignment I always factor in time for some kind of disruption to take place – whether that be lack of inspiration, an unexpected deadline, or even academic burnout.

If one of these things were to happen, the time it would take to recover from it is factored into my plan. I can take a very much needed break and continue in a few days, or even weeks, time. The second strategy would be to understand how you rest. When people are stressed, they are often encouraged to “rest”, but what this looks like can vary greatly. For years I pictured myself as someone who “rested” by staying in and watching Netflix or reading a book. But I have suddenly made the realisation that “rest” does not need to look like that.

Perhaps counterintuitively, my productivity increased when I started clubbing and going out at night. There is an almost 100% chance I will be exhausted and unable to work the next day. The day after that is when the magic happens. Filled with a sudden burst of inspiration, I suddenly find myself at the library working harder than I had all week. Finding out what works for you – whether those fit conventions or not – is incredibly important, and something I realised too late.

Watching essays pile up is almost as stressful as the burnout itself

Burnout is terrifying. You go from working harder than you ever had to not being able to do any work at all overnight. The recovery is also long. For someone so academically inclined, feeling those deadlines slip away and watching essays pile up is almost as stressful as the burnout itself. And perhaps widespread academic burnout is the collateral damage of the productivity-inclined society we live in. Perhaps it’s caused by seeing our peers work for what seems like hours on end – and being painfully disappointed when you find yourself unable to work as long as them. 

It’s clear something in wider society needs to change, but nothing is stopping us from beginning to improve ourselves by adamantly taking a much-needed break and for once – not prioritising academics. 

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  • Published: 23 March 2023

Academic burnout among master and doctoral students during the COVID-19 pandemic

  • Diego Andrade   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5323-1211 1 ,
  • Icaro J. S. Ribeiro   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4389-7810 2 &
  • Orsolya Máté   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4778-3519 1  

Scientific Reports volume  13 , Article number:  4745 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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The COVID-19 outbreak has had an immense impact on academic life and public health. Graduate students had experienced obligatory curfews and quarantines due to the COVID-19 outbreak directly impacting their mental health and triggering academic burnout. In this cross-sectional study, we address the issue of mental health in graduate students by relating it to the factors associated with burnout syndrome during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 519 graduate students from master's and Ph.D./DLA degrees across universities in Hungary and other European countries participated in this study. The Copenhagen burnout inventory student version was used to evaluate burnout syndrome as an outcome. Our findings displayed burnout significantly lower among graduate students who had good sleep quality, receive high levels of support from their university, and were satisfied with how their university dealt with the pandemic. The excessive consumption of alcohol, the use of antidepressants, being single, and thinking about dropping out showed as predictive factors of burnout. The results add to emergent evidence on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health and the predicted factors of academic burnout among master and doctoral students.

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Introduction.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced universities worldwide to adopt strong measures through compulsory confinement and social isolation. As a result, a negative impact on many students’ mental health was observed, such as the development of academic burnout 1 , 2 , 3 .

Studies has shown that graduate students are more affected by mental health issues and more likely to present higher levels of stress than undergraduate students and the general population during COVID-19 4 , 5 . With the COVID-19 pandemic, new demands have arisen that directly interfere on students' mental health, such as interruption of learning, uncertainty about prolongation of research duration, laboratory closures, losing part-time teaching job, expiring visas for foreign students, uncertain of funding/grant discontinuation, inadequate mentoring, lack of concentration at home and performing more household chores 1 , 6 , 7 . These academic disruptions combined with significant apprehension about the completion and quality of the work, career concerns, usual high workload even at home, colleagues’ competition, inadequate university support, insufficient supervision, financial issues, low autonomy, emotional suffering, academic dissatisfaction, are examples of factors that predispose to a chronic stress and result in academic burnout 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 .

Burnout is described as a psychological disorder emerged as a response to chronic emotional and interpersonal stressors in the working environment, composed of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment 17 . Emotional exhaustion refers to depletion of emotional resources by feeling emotionally overextended, exhausted and drained. Depersonalization is often referring to cynicism, and includes negative attitudes toward other people, like colleagues, patients, or clients. A reduction in personal accomplishment refers to decreased satisfaction and declined feeling of competence and successful achievement 18 . The development of burnout in students is directly related to excessive and prolonged stress caused by piling school work and academic demands combined with drained energy, reduced enthusiasm toward academic tasks, lack of positive attitudes and low academic achievements 19 , 20 .

In addition to all of the academic pressure, graduate students also have had to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak, experiencing curfews, social isolation, and quarantines. In these stressful circumstances, studying and conducting research can have a wide range of effects on mental health, which can lead to academic burnout 16 , 21 , 22 , 23 .

The study of this issue may be of special international interest, considering the recent COVID-19 pandemic, that by itself addresses a critical and unique gap in research concerning the mental status in regard to academic burnout among graduate students in Hungary and some European countries. We aim to address the issue of mental health in graduate students by relating it to the factors associated with burnout syndrome during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A total of 519 students (365 women [70.30%]) with a mean age of 31 years (± 7.76) were included in the evaluation. Single individuals (55.3%), from non-European countries (43.4%), from the University of Pécs (49.1%) and with PhD/DLA educational level (56.3%) prevailed (Table 1 ).

Higher averages of burnout were observed in all the dimensions of the CBI for females, with a significant difference for the dimensions CRB (CRB, p  ≤ 0.01). With regard to marital status, all dimensions of the CBI were higher among singles and the difference was significant for all dimensions (PB, p  = 0.04; SRB, p  ≤ 0.01; CRB, p  = 0.02; TRB, p  ≤ 0.01) (Table 2 ). Evaluating aspects related to academic life, those who thought often about dropping out of the course had higher levels of burnout for all dimensions. With regard to how the university dealt with the pandemic, burnout was more frequent among those dissatisfied with the strategies used. Finally, among those who did not feel supported by the university, burnout was also higher (Table 3 ).

Excessive alcohol consumption (CRB, p  ≤ 0.01) and use of antidepressants (CRB, p  ≤ 0.01; TRB, p  = 0.04) were also associated with higher levels of burnout, but only for the CRB and TRB dimensions. With regard to sleep quality, among those who rated it as poor, they had higher levels of burnout for the PB and SRB dimensions (PB, SRB, p  ≤ 0.01) (Table 4 ).

The current study discloses the influence that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the mental health of graduate students by analysing the factors associated with burnout syndrome. We analysed sociodemographic, academic, health and life habits factors. We found that being single had an effect in all burnout domains and the sex female as well with the colleagues related burnout domain along the sociodemographic characteristics. Among the academic characteristics, we found high levels of academic burnout for all dimensions among those who had university drop-out intentions, were dissatisfied with how the university dealt with the pandemic and also those who did not feel supported by the university during the outbreak. We found high levels of academic burnout among colleagues-related burnout and teacher-related burnout dimensions in the health and life habits characteristics with those who had excessive alcohol consumption and took antidepressants. The personal burnout and studies-related burnout presented a high level among those who had a bad sleep quality.

Sex differences associated with burnout is still without a literature consensus. Some authors suggest that females are more likely suffer from exhaustion and have higher levels of stress than males, while others report no difference between the two sexes regarding exhaustion and stress 9 , 24 . Nonetheless, our study found association between sex and the colleagues-related burnout dimension, corroborating that females are more likely to develop burnout. Studies has been reporting 25 , 26 , 27 that the higher chronic stress level among females is influenced not only by the university environment that includes role conflict, excessive workload, competitive colleagues and considerable mental pressure to publish, but also by inappropriate behaviours, such as harassment, bullying and gender discrimination.

Woolston 28 published a study by the Nature’s survey with 6.296 PhD respondents, one-quarter of who identified as female reported personally experiencing harassment or discrimination compared with 16% of those identifying as men. Moreover, 57% of students who experienced bullying reported fear of personal repercussions if they discuss their situation. This discloses that sex differences associated with burnout exist and being a woman researcher is still a challenge.

We also found that being single was associated with higher burnout scores in all dimensions compared to those with married or other marital status. This result was well reported by Maslach et al. 17 that found higher burnout among those who identified as single rather than married. Among postgraduates, other study also found higher burnout scores in single individuals compared to the married ones 14 . Marriage as a social support may act as a protecting factor from chronic stress and can play a role in reducing academic burnout.

Evaluating aspects related to academic life, we found that many graduate students at some point had considered abandoning their studies. Several studies have reported high rates of university withdrawal intentions, for example, 30–70% of doctorate students will may not complete their PhD degree 8 , 29 , 30 , 31 . Experiences of high stress, anxiety and exhaustion, demonstrated a lack of interest in their studies which appears to influence drop-out intentions 8 , 32 , 33 . In contrast, satisfaction and engagement in research, supervision from several supervisors, integration and networks in the research community has a reverse effect in reducing burnout rates and enhancing success to degree completion 34 , 35 . This reveals that the decision to drop out of studies has a direct influence on burnout experiences, as shown by an association in all four burnout’s dimensions.

Furthermore, relating to the academic life, we found that the feeling of not being supported by the university during the COVID-19 outbreak had an association with all burnout dimensions. The academic support that graduate students receive from their department, faculty or university is essential to develop the sense of belonging and fitting in the educational environment. The lack of this perceived organizational support can increase the risk of experiencing exhaustion and the dissatisfaction with the doctoral studies, leading to academic burnout and consequences such as the intention to leave the degree 8 , 36 , 37 . The dissatisfaction with how the university dealt with the pandemic was another result found associated with the dimensions studies-related burnout, colleague-related burnout and teacher-related burnout, showing the direct influence of the institution, work environment and supervision on student satisfaction and well-being 37 , 38 , 39 . Particularly, the perceived organizational support and satisfaction with the institution can be decreased when the graduate students need to deal with the lack of transparency, undefined career prospects, unclear expectations during an outbreak such the COVID-19, thus the aforementioned factors can raise the risk for developing burnout.

Analysing the health and life habits characteristics we found that a bad sleep quality is associated with two burnout dimensions, personal burnout and studies-related burnout. Allen et al. also found in their study with graduate students that sleep quality has more consistent relationship with burnout and might be more important than sleep duration in order to reduce burnout levels 40 . It is already known that a poor sleep quality is associated with higher levels of fatigue and exhaustion, and when it comes to graduate students, this can impact directly and negatively the student’s personal life and academic productivity 41 , 42 . Given that together with prolonged and chronic stress, the lack of energy and motivation can make students less interested in their studies and more prone to develop academic burnout.

Moreover, with regards to the health and life habits factors related to academic burnout, we found that self-reported excessive alcohol consumption and use of antidepressants are both associated with colleague-related burnout and teacher-related burnout. The association between burnout syndrome and the consumption of alcohol has been widely reported, although a limited number of studies have examined this relationship among graduate students. The vulnerable situations of the students, emotional conflicts in the academia environment, excess of activities and competitiveness are pointed as the most contributing factors in the development of high levels of stress and alcohol misuse. This excessive alcohol consumption may be viewed as a dysfunctional coping mechanism, since the students may abuse alcohol as a strategy for regulating tension and stressful situations in the academia 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 .

The use of antidepressants can be also observed as a way of coping with adversity in the academia. It is already known that the academic stressors are related to stress, anxiety, depression, and when combined with extra load on studying as well as the need to enhance performance and concentration, students may resort to the use of antidepressants to avoid episodes of social anxiety and depressive behaviour. This finding is consistent with other studies, that reported students who use antidepressants, present high levels of burnout 47 , 48 , 49 . The misuse of alcohol and/or other substances are linked with burnout, and by neglecting that, it can lead to serious consequences.

1 Limitations

Our study has some important limitations. The cross-sectional study design limited our ability to establish causality between the associations. The online assessment to collect data during the COVID-19 outbreak may carry response bias and are less reliable. Therefore, we have used screening tools in this study and our findings should be interpreted carefully, since it is not a clinical psychiatric diagnostic instrument.

Conclusion and implications

This study analysed a number of factors thought to influence graduate students to develop academic burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic. Burnout showed significantly lower among graduate students who receive high levels of support from their university, were satisfied with how their university dealt with the pandemic and had a good sleep quality. The excessive consumption of alcohol, the use of antidepressants, being single and thinking about abandoning the university had a negative impact academic success and were predictory to burnout. We believe that these findings can offer patterns and predictors for future graduate students and university administrators to identify, promote and implement changes to help those who are facing the academic burnout and prevent other graduate students from develop it.

Study design and data collection

This current study is a cross-sectional analytical research. Data were collected through an online survey between September 2021 and March 2022. We tested a pilot of our preliminary instrument to ensure question clarity, and confirm completion of the survey in approximately 15 min. Data collection was done by virtual distribution over the Google Forms platform, along a close co-operation with international associations of graduate students and university departments. The form was disseminated through emails and included an invitation to participate, social media channels from communities for graduate students, and by asking participants to pass along the survey link to other eligible participants. The survey was designed and carried out in accordance with the Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys (CHERRIES) 50 (Supplementary Table S1).

Participation was anonymous and voluntary throughout the entire study period, and they were informed about the research and goal before giving their consent. We were unable to assess how many people viewed the online invitation, and therefore we could not determine the response rate of the study. Altogether, 542 students participated in the study. After eliminating incomplete answers, the final sample consisted of 519 graduate students which yielded a 95.75% completion rate.

Inclusion criteria were graduate students at master or Ph.D./DLA level by voluntary participation. Exclusion criteria were incomplete questionnaires and those who did not wish to participate in the research. The pilot test data and incomplete questionnaires with missing responses were excluded from the study.

The dependent variable was academic burnout syndrome, which was evaluated through the Copenhagen burnout inventory—student version 51 . The CBI was developed by Kristensen et al. 51 , and adapted for students by Campos et al. 52 . This scale consists of 25 items that represent 4 subscales: Personal Burnout (PB), Studies-related Burnout (SRB), Colleague-related Burnout (CRB), and Teacher-related Burnout (TRB). The answers are quantifying as 100, 75, 50, 25, and 0% respectively, with a reverse scoring for item 10. We used the Kristensen’s criteria of burnout score, 50–74 is consider moderate, 75–99 is high, and a score of 100 consider as severe burnout 53 . In the current study, the Cronbach’s alpha for the CBI-S scale was 0.93, indicating good internal reliability.

All the other selected variables were classified according to sociodemographic, academic and health status by self-reported answers.

Sociodemographic variables: age, sex (male, female, prefer not to mention), marital status (single, married, other), education level (PhD/DLA, master’s), and origin country (Hungary, European, non-European).

Academic variables: university of origin, study year, university’s drop-out intention (3-point scale ranging from: frequently; sometimes; never), university’s satisfaction during COVID-19 pandemic (5-point scale ranging from: strongly disagreed; disagree; neutral; agreed; strongly agreed), university’s support during COVID-19 pandemic (5-point scale ranging from: strongly disagreed; disagree; neutral; agreed; strongly agreed).

Health status and life habits variables: alcohol consumption (excessively; moderately; no consumption), antidepressant medications in use (yes; no), and quality of sleep (4-point scale ranging from: poor; regular; good; very good).

Statistical analysis

Statistical analysis was performed using initially the Microsoft Excel for Microsoft 365 (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA). A p value of 0.05 (two-tailed) was considered to be statistically significant. Descriptive statistics were performed with the calculation of the mean (M) and standard deviation (SD) for quantitative variables, and percentages were calculated for qualitative variables.

In order to verify the difference between the means of the CBI dimensions and the independent variables, the t test (two groups) and the ANOVA (more than two groups) were applied, given the normality of the data attested by the Kolmogorov Smirnov test. All analyses were performed using the Stata statistical package version 12 (Stata Corp., College Station, TX, USA), with a significance level of 5%.

Ethical considerations

The study was approved Ethical Committee from the University of Pécs approved the study, under protocol number 8471, and also respected the Helsinki guidelines at all times. All participants statement an informed consent before becoming part of this study.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the study participants who took their valuable time to participate in this research. The Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship program held by Tempus Foundation. And Dr Viktor Farkas for all great contributions.

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D.A. had the idea for the article. All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by D.A., I.R. and O.M. The first draft of the manuscript was written by D.A. I.R. and O.M. critically revised the work. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Andrade, D., Ribeiro, I.J.S. & Máté, O. Academic burnout among master and doctoral students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sci Rep 13 , 4745 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31852-w

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Evaluating the factor structure, reliability and validity of the copenhagen burnout inventory-student survey (cbi-ss) among faculty of arts students of ekiti state university, ado-ekiti, nigeria.

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academic burnout essay

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Burnout is the result of too much energy output and not enough energy self-invested. In other words, it’s burning too much fuel than you’ve put in your tank. Melissa Steginus

Let’s be honest, being a student is difficult. You’ve got classes to attend, projects to work on, assignments due and exams waiting around. Add work and social commitments to the pile and you’ve got a recipe for good ol’ academic burnout.

According to a survey released by The Ohio State University’s Office of the Chief Wellness Officer , student burnout was at 71 per cent in April 2021. The pandemic and stress of virtual learning were cited as contributions to the increase in numbers.

What is academic burnout?

University of the People describes academic burnout as a negative emotional, physical, and mental reaction to prolonged study that results in exhaustion, frustration, lack of motivation and reduced ability in school.

Studying the same subject matter for a prolonged period or working on similar assignments or projects in the long term can cause this chronic condition.

How does academic burnout affect you?

While it is easy to confuse burnout with temporary stress of being a student, ignoring the symptoms can lead to developing severe mental health issues like depression and anxiety .

So, in order to overcome burnout, you first need to recognize it. Some common symptoms of academic burnout are:

It is normal to feel tired after pulling all-nighters in a school week. But, if you feel like a dementor’s sucked the soul out of you even after getting a good night’s sleep, it might be a sign you’re going through burnout.

Lack of motivation

Picture this: You’re halfway through the school year. You’ve got a class to attend, two assignments to submit and friends to meet. But you can’t find it in you to even lift a finger because it feels like all motivation has been drowned out. Yup, this is a cause for concern.

Constant irritability

Yes, your roommate “breathing” isn’t a good enough reason to be annoyed by them. Feeling constantly irritated by the slightest inconvenience is an effect of burnout.

Physical illness

If you’re frequently falling ill, this could be your body reflecting the effects of burnout . Insomnia , headaches, digestive issues, and body pain are common symptoms of burnout.

Also, burnout can lead to the development of harmful habits like stress-eating and revenge bedtime procrastination .

How to overcome academic burnout?

Now that you know what burnout looks like, lets focus on how to tackle it.

Identify the cause

What is the source of your burnout? Is the workload too heavy or have you lost your passion for the course? Once you recognize the cause, you can work on solving it.

You could create a planner to schedule tasks that’ll help with time-management. Or you could opt to change your subjects and enroll in classes that you are truly passionate about.

Take a break

Rest is a biological need. Taking a break not only gives your body some much needed rest, but it also helps in resetting your mind.

Set out specific timings during the day and on weekends to unwind from academic stress and focus on nurturing your wellbeing.

Change your lifestyle

If you’re experiencing burnout, it means something in your current routine isn’t working for you. Take a step back and evaluate your lifestyle. Focus on developing healthy sleeping and eating habits to steer yourself towards a positive lifestyle change.

Also, exercising daily is a great way to relieve stress and keep yourself physically and mentally fit.

Sorry to break it to you but scrolling through social media and socializing are two different things. So, put that phone down and go meet or get on a call with real human beings. This will not only elevate your mood, but also help you de-stress.

Reach out for help

Sometimes all you need is another person’s perspective to be steered towards the right direction. So don’t be shy to reach out to your loved ones for some extra support.

Also, trying to overcome academic burnout by yourself can be tough. So, make use of Humber’s Student Wellness and Accessibility Centre’s counselling services to help address your issues.

SWAC’s free, confidential, and virtual services are available to all Humber and University of Guelph-Humber students can help:

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Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Burnout — The Relationship Between Academic Burnout and Personality Traits

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The Relationship Between Academic Burnout and Personality Traits

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Published: Jan 31, 2024

Words: 1026 | Pages: 2 | 6 min read

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Neuroticism, agreeableness.

  • Bakker, A, Van der Zee, K, Lewig, K, & Dollard, M. (2006). The Relationship Between the Big Five Personality Factors and Burnout: A Study Among Volunteer Counselors. The Journal of social psychology. 31(50). DOI 10.3200/SOCP.146.1.31-50.
  • Cham, Gan, Zhang, (2007). Perfectionism, academic burnout and engagement among Chinese college students: A structural equation modeling analysis. The International Society for the Study of Individual Differences, 43(6), 1529-1540
  • DurKhan, (2018). Study of Impact of Personality Traits on Academic Performance of Management Students, Journal of Organisation and Human Behavior. 7(4), 31-56.
  • Maslach, Leiter (2016). Understanding the burnout experience: Recent research and its implications for Psychiatry. The Journal of the World Psychiatric Association, 15(2), 103-111. doi: 10.1002/wps.20311
  • Merhi, R, Sánchez-Elvira-Paniagua, A, Palací, F. J., (2018) , The Role of Psychological Strengths, Coping Strategies , and Well-being in the Prediction of Academic Engagement And Burnout in the First Year University Students, Action Psychology 15(2), 51-68
  • Mkoji, D., Sikalieh, D., (2012). The Influence of Personality Dimensions on Organizational Performance. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 2(17), 184-194.

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academic burnout essay

Anna Katharina Schaffner Ph.D.

Why Are Academics So Burnt Out?

The exhaustion crisis at universities should concern us all..

Posted November 17, 2023 | Reviewed by Tyler Woods

  • Burnout rates in academia have reached a shocking new high.
  • 50% of academics are depressed, and 30% are experiencing daily burnout symptoms.
  • Bad management and dramatically changing job expectations have contributed to the crisis.

Fernando C Ferdo @Unsplash

Half of British academics suffer from depression , and 30 percent suffer daily burnout symptoms (Wray & Kinman, 2021). Two-thirds are planning to leave the field. Only doctors and nurses have a higher risk of burning out than educators. What is going on?

Shocking Statistics

Schoolteachers and higher education staff are in the top ten professional groups most likely to suffer burnout. To put this into perspective, academics and teachers are in the same risk group as healthcare professionals, lawyers, corporate executives, chefs, social workers, and journalists. The statistics are disturbing. A shockingly high number of academics are not thriving. They are not motivated. They are not healthy. They quit the profession or suffer in silence, thinking that all of this is somehow their personal fault. But the surveys tell quite another story, one of structural causes.

In 2021, a survey of nearly 1,200 employees from 92 U.K. universities revealed that more than half of the participants reported experiencing chronic emotional exhaustion, worry, stress , and poor mental health. Half of the staff surveyed (47 percent) described their mental health as poor. More than a third of staff members reported low life satisfaction (36 percent). More than a quarter of staff reported feeling as if the things they did in their lives were not worthwhile (27 percent). One in two staff members experienced high levels of anxiety (50 percent)—1.5 times higher than the national average (32 percent). One in three university staff reported low levels of happiness (33 percent) compared with a national average of one in seven (14 percent) (Dougall et al., 2021).

We may think that these results are not representative because both surveys measured mental well-being during the pandemic, but in 2022 another survey conducted by the University and College Union (UCU) indicated that things did not get better again after the pandemic. Anecdotally and experientially, I see this confirmed everywhere. UCU established that two-thirds of university staff were considering leaving the sector within five years due to rapidly deteriorating working conditions. Nearly 88 percent of respondents in the 2022 UCU survey were not optimistic about the future of higher education in the U.K. In addition, many academics feel they cannot seek help, fearing that their requests may be perceived as weakness. Many experience shame and guilt about their condition and feel alone and isolated with their suffering.

Why does it matter? And what are the causes?

Why should the prevalence of staff burnout in higher education concern us? The well-being of university staff is intricately linked to the quality of the education and the support we can provide to our students. And our students are the future. They will make major contributions to and shape the workforce in a few years. Caring well for and inspiring our students is the reason most of us wanted to be academics in the first place. But how can we continue to pour from empty cups?

You may wonder why so many academics suffer from burnout. From the outside, academic jobs still look quite attractive. But during my almost 20 years in British academia, the higher education landscape has changed dramatically. This summer, I decided to leave.

Most of us originally entered academia to do two things: to teach and to conduct research. Ironically, we now spend ever-less time on either of these tasks. We are now expected not just to publish world-class research and be 5-star rated teachers but regularly to attract external funding, take on leadership roles, support students with ever more complex needs, act as marketeers for our programmes, and ensure that our research generates measurable impact in the real world. In addition, we have to stay on top of hundreds of emails each week, attend endless efficiency enhancement meetings, and negotiate often terribly toxic politics . We are also encouraged to see each other as competition : for prestige, power, funding, promotions, students, influence, and jobs.

Poor governance and leadership are another big issue. In recent decades, higher education has been forced to adapt to the laws of the market and universities compete for ever scarcer resources and students with customer mindsets. Most people in higher education are not trained to think entrepreneurially (nor do they want to). Most people who take on line-management roles in academia have had zero leadership training and also often have zero inclination (or talent) to perform these roles well. That causes a lot of suffering and grief , on both sides.

The Perils of Bad Management

Bad management is not a trivial issue. In fact, it is often one of the root causes of burnout and of our psychological suffering at work. Bad management kills motivation and engagement and can create toxic working environments. It also has repercussions for the wider economy. A recent CMI [Chartered Management Institute] study on the topic established that "Almost one-third of U.K. workers say they’ve quit a job because of a negative workplace culture...underlining...the risks of managers failing to rein in toxic behaviour.”

The CMI survey also found that as many as “82 percent of new managers in the U.K. are what it calls 'accidental managers'—embarking on the role with no formal training in management or leadership.”

Anthony Painter, the CMI’s director of policy, responded to the results.

“This stuff is dragging down businesses, dragging down the economy, and also stymying the ability of public services to do what we need them to do. Economists have looked at this and they think that something in the order of a third of the difference between us and the most productive countries is down to the quality of management and leadership.” He added: “In any skilled area of modern work, you would expect people in positions of competence to receive at least minimal training. You want your plumbers to be trained, you want your cybersecurity people to be trained—well, the same is true of managers.”

The Gap Between Ideal and Reality

Bad management has a lot to do with the burnout crisis in academia. But here is what I think is truly at the heart of academic burnout. In his wonderful book The End of Burnout: Why work drains us and how to build better lives (2022), the writer (and ex-academic) Jonathan Malesic argues that burnout emerges in the gap between our ideals and the reality of our work. The greater this gap is, the bigger the pain we experience in our jobs.

academic burnout essay

Stress is usually caused by having to do certain things but wanting to do other things instead. What pushed me over the edge was definitely this growing chasm between what I wanted to do and the other things that gradually took up most of my working hours. It was a creeping process, making every year a little worse than the previous one, until one day, the bad stuff outweighed the good stuff. It felt a bit like having joined a hunter-gatherer tribe and finding, after a couple of years, that you now actually spend most of your time doing backbreaking farm work.

When was the last time you were out in the wilderness pursuing an idea, finding unexpected treasures in the undergrowth, or felt truly alive hunting a compelling vision? When did you last manage to connect deeply with your students? If you feel burnt out and demotivated, remember that most of the reasons you feel that way are structural and not your fault. Remember also that you are not alone, and that it is possible to ask for help. Or to get out.

References:

University and College Union, UK Higher Education: A Workforce in Crisis . March 2022. Available online at: https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/12532/UK-higher-education---a-workforce-in-crisis/pdf/UK_HE_Report_24_Mar22.pdf

Siobhan Wray and Gail Kinman, Supporting Staff Wellbeing in Higher Education , 2021. Available online at: https://www.educationsupport.org.uk/media/x4jdvxpl/es-supporting-staff-wellbeing-in-he-report.pdf

Dougall, Isla & Weick, Mario & Vasiljevic, Milica. (2021). Inside UK Universities: Staff mental health and wellbeing during the coronavirus pandemic.

Anna Katharina Schaffner Ph.D.

Anna Katharina Schaffner, Ph.D. is a burnout and executive coach and the author of Exhausted: An A-Z for the Weary .

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Students & Burnout: A Critical Review Essay

Burnout, and in particular, teen burnout, has become an issue of fundamental concern as it is positively correlated with negative behavior and emotional outcomes, such as substance abuse, alcoholism, emotional breakdown, depression, fatigue and the proliferation of antisocial behavior.

Perhaps these reasons may have informed the needs of the author of the article “Teen Burnout can be Hard to Spot” to shed more light on the issue of teen burnout by summarily discussing a research study of 770 Finnish students aimed at analyzing how students entering high school exhibit burnout (Barton para. 2).

The topic of teen burnout is of immense importance to educators, parents and other relevant stakeholders, but the author, in my view, has failed to illuminate the topic in a way that could assist all those concerned, particularly educators, parents and students, to deal with it.

Going by the research findings of the Finnish study, the author of this particular article does well to postulate that girls and boys react to school stress in different ways, but he is economical on providing a systematic analysis on these ‘different ways’ he talks about, preferring to use the lame excuse of school pressures as the predominant determinant of teen burnout in school settings.

Indeed, the author associates pressures of school life with cynicism and the development of a negative attitude toward society (Barton para 2). While this may be so, the author fails to outline other dynamics that could equally lead male students to develop cynic behavior and a negative attitude toward society.

A comprehensive discussion of the recently released Finnish study, in my view, would have included what other research articles have said on the topic of teen burnout.

More important, experience demonstrates that teens in high school may experience serious emotional burnout occasioned by minor issues, such as lack of proper time management, lack of interest in the academic discourse, and attitude toward education or instructors.

The inclusion of such information in the article, in my view, could have added important insights into the effective management of teen burnout.

The author, it seems, provides some useful information on teen burnout by illuminating a major research finding, which suggests that “…boys experience a strong crisis concerning a sense of disconnectedness” (Barton para. 3).

This, in my view, is a good point, but only for professional psychologists, psychiatrists and counselors who understand the concepts of ‘crisis’ and ‘disconnectedness.’ To the average parent or educator in school settings, these concepts may be difficult to understand, not mentioning that the author does not make any attempt to expound on the concepts.

Personal experience as well available literature demonstrates that a crisis in life does not necessarily lead to a feeling of loss, confusion or disconnectedness; rather, a crisis may lead to the development of a strong and resilient character and behavior depending on the methodologies that are employed to handle the crisis.

Consequently, it can be argued that the author of the article has engaged in providing half-baked truths of the issue of interest without taking the initiative not only to evaluate the dynamics of the problem but also the cause-effect paradigms.

It is true that a crisis can lead to teen burnout, but equally it can lead to a strong character and reinforced dedication if it is harnessed using the right channels.

As such, the author should have spent more time illuminating the channels that may lead a crisis to turn into a serious emotional burnout, such as lack of adequate information and lack of support services.

The author of the article is at it again by citing a good research finding, which suggests that girls internalize stress hence become susceptible to feelings of inadequacy in school settings, leading to depression (Barton para. 4).

Despite citing this important finding, the author fails to make an impact due to her version of providing inadequate information that may be of little or no consequence to the average stakeholder.

For instance, the author should have taken time to illuminate the fact that stress is not the same as burnout although both oscillate along the same continuum, and that feelings of inadequacy are more likely to lead to stress than to emotional burnout.

Sustained stress is what leads to burnout, and there is a big difference between burnout and depression. As it stands, the author of the article insinuates that depression is synonymous with burnout, which is a wrong representation of the facts.

We are increasingly depressed by every day life experiences, but that does not automatically translate into the fact that we suffer from emotional burnout. Equally, high school students may experience some form of depression arising from the many academic demands set upon them by their instructors, but this does not necessarily translate into burnout.

The original research study found that pressure at school is not always negative, a fact that the author elaborates correctly by citing the researchers’ observation that it is imperative to provide teenagers not only with adequate stimulation to prepare them for the demands of life, but also with the right kind of challenges (Barton para. 6).

This assertion, in my view, can greatly assist parents and stakeholders to mould responsible teenagers with the right kind of stamina and attitude to withstand and conquer the challenges that may eventually lead to emotional burnout.

However, there is inadequacy in argument on the part of the author since she could have mentioned some of the methodologies that could be used to assist teenagers achieve adequate simulation, such as receiving encouragement to think positively, spiritual nourishment, and role-modeling.

Additionally, instructors in school settings should be encouraged to provide the students with reasonable assignments and justifiable time-frames.

Finally, the author reports findings that “…boys and girls on the more competitive academic track were much more likely to suffer from burnout” (Burton para 7). Equally, it was acknowledged “…that the less demanding vocational track offered a more supportive environment than enhance feeling of competence and relatedness” (Burton para. 7).

Although the findings may be correct in their own right, it is generally felt that the author is only engaging in rhetoric since she does not care to provide supporting evidence as well as explain the dynamics behind these associations. The involved stakeholders, in my view, need to be told that competition comes with its consequences, and so does a non-competitive environment.

The onus really should be for the stakeholders, particularly students, parents and instructors, to come up with checks and balances that will provide direction to the learning discourses in school settings and ensure that no single approach leads to negative ramifications.

For instance, students engaged in competitive class environments may be encouraged to join support groups and the many sports activities available in school so that they have effective channels to vent out their stress and frustrations. This type of information, other than merely describing facts, is what is needed to ensure that students adequately deal with burnout.

Works Cited

Barton, Adriana. “Teen Burnout can be Hard to Spot.” Globe and Mail. 2012. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2023, December 26). Students & Burnout: A Critical Review. https://ivypanda.com/essays/students-burnout-a-critical-review/

"Students & Burnout: A Critical Review." IvyPanda , 26 Dec. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/students-burnout-a-critical-review/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Students & Burnout: A Critical Review'. 26 December.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Students & Burnout: A Critical Review." December 26, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/students-burnout-a-critical-review/.

1. IvyPanda . "Students & Burnout: A Critical Review." December 26, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/students-burnout-a-critical-review/.

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IvyPanda . "Students & Burnout: A Critical Review." December 26, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/students-burnout-a-critical-review/.

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Gillings School’s 84th commencement celebrates Class of 2024

May 14, 2024

“Love is the world’s oldest medicine. It is what I wish for you all more than anything else in the world. Your ability to give and receive love – that is your greatest gift and your greatest power.”

Dean Nancy Messonnier and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy pose with students and faculty at the Gillings School's 2024 Spring Commencement.

Dean Nancy Messonnier and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy pose with students and faculty at the Gillings School’s 2024 Spring Commencement.

United States Surgeon General and Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy, MD, MBA , joined the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health in celebrating 676 graduating students of the Class of 2024, nearly 650 of whom attended the Dean E. Smith Center for the Gillings School’s 84 th commencement on Saturday, May 11.

The Surgeon General’s commencement speech commended the newest group of Carolina public health alumni, many of whom walked the graduation stage for the first time after experiencing a remote high school graduation during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.

“I’m grateful that you saw it through because the truth is that you are needed in the world now more than ever,” Dr. Murthy said in his speech. “There are major forces that you read out in the papers every day that are pulling public health in different directions.”

Chief among the forces that Murthy addressed was the widespread mental health crisis. In his tenure as Surgeon General, he has issued advisories on the youth mental health crisis and social media’s impact on youth mental health, the epidemic of loneliness and isolation, and burnout in the health worker community.

Instagram post from @u.s.surgeongeneral: Congratulations to @uncpublichealth for all you’ve accomplished on your way to today’s commencement and thank you for inviting me to celebrate with you! I feel hopeful knowing this intelligent and compassionate group will be using their talents to protect our nation’s health.

Instagram post from @u.s.surgeongeneral: Congratulations to @uncpublichealth for all you’ve accomplished on your way to today’s commencement and thank you for inviting me to celebrate with you! I feel hopeful knowing this intelligent and compassionate group will be using their talents to protect our nation’s health.

Dr. Murthy has also issued a Surgeon General’s Framework on mental health in the workplace, and he is the first Surgeon General to host a podcast —  House Calls with Dr. Vivek Murthy  — in which he invites guests and listeners to explore how we can all build more connected and meaningful lives.

In his commencement speech on Saturday, Dr. Murthy connected the importance of building meaningful relationships in public health to stories from his life. Some were deeply personal or painful, but all of them carried lessons on the power of love and personal connection to bring healing. One example of that connection is the Okinawan tradition of Moai (模合), in which small social groups commit to providing support for one another through all of life’s ups and downs, and which Dr. Murthy said changed his life and helped him navigate critical decisions.

He closed his speech by encouraging the audience to meditate and draw strength from the love of people who have supported them on their journeys. “Know that you are deserving of this love, and know that love is always there for you whether they are with you or not, because it resides in your heart.”

Drs. Vivek Murthy and Nancy Messonnier

Drs. Vivek Murthy and Nancy Messonnier

Dean Nancy Messonnier, MD , echoed the importance of support and unity in public health in her own comments to the graduates.

“Remember, public health is a team sport,” she said. “It requires collaboration, empathy and a willingness to listen to diverse perspectives. Our world is a tapestry of cultures, beliefs and experiences, and it is through understanding and unity that we ourselves help create and foster that we can address the most pressing health issues.”

After walking across the stage to thunderous applause, graduates joined a network of more than 22,000 Gillings School alumni who live and work in all 100 North Carolina counties, all 50 states in the U.S. and more than 100 countries around the world.

Find photos from the event , read the Commencement program  (PDF) and watch a recording of the live-streamed ceremony .

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  4. (PDF) Hard Work and Academic Burnout on Students Taking Thesis in

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  5. (PDF) EMOTIONAL AND ACADEMIC BURNOUT OF STUDENTS COMBINING EDUCATION

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  6. PSYU1102 Essay.docx

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  1. Academic and Athletic Burnout Podcast

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  3. Trailer for my video on academic burnout! #academicburnout #burnout

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  1. Academic stress and academic burnout in adolescents: a moderated

    Introduction. Academic burnout is a persistent, negative, learning-related psychological state that occurs primarily in students (Zhang et al., 2007) and consists of three dimensions: emotional exhaustion, outside of study, and reduced personal achievement (Lin and Huang, 2014).In China, academic tiresome is a more colloquial expression for academic burnout, and the three manifestations of ...

  2. Academic Burnout: How to Prevent it and What to Do

    Here are the ways you can overcome your academic burnout. 1. Seek Help: You may need the help of a professional. Speak to a guidance counselor, mental health counselor, school counselor or other professional to help you overcome school burnout. You may also enlist the help of friends, family and teachers. 2.

  3. Why Are Academics So Burnt Out?

    You may wonder why so many academics suffer from burnout. From the outside, academic jobs still look quite attractive. But during my almost 20 years in British academia, the higher education ...

  4. How to Cope With Academic Burnout at University

    Work overload. Having a large amount of academic work to complete by a certain deadline can often add to students' stress levels. This is especially true when you feel you need to achieve a certain grade. Professor Jackson said: " When work is done right, it should be enjoyable and feel meaningful and rewarding.

  5. Does Burnout Affect Academic Achievement? A Meta-Analysis of over

    Burnout is understood to have many adverse consequences for students. However, several equivocal findings in the literature mean that it is currently unclear to what extent burnout affects academic achievement. To address this lack of clarity, the aim of the present study was to provide a first meta-analysis of the relationship between burnout and academic achievement. A literature search ...

  6. Academic Burnout: the solutions to a seemingly unsolvable problem

    Academic burnout often goes hand-in-hand with perfectionism and people's attempts to stop the person from working are merely seen as a challenge to work harder. ... even earlier than you'd expect. Even before essay questions are released, I have already started thinking about potential topics. Every stage of my preparation work, whether ...

  7. The Effect of University Students' Academic Self-Efficacy on Academic

    The results indicated that academic self-efficacy can negatively predict academic burnout. Moreover, intrinsic motivation and learning engagement have a significant mediating effect between academic self-efficacy and academic burnout. Finally, we constructed a model comprising four variables and found that it explained 47.62% of the variance in ...

  8. Pandemic burnout is rampant in academia

    Desiree Dickerson, an academic mental-health consultant in Valencia, Spain, says that burnout is a problem inherent in the academic system: because of how narrowly it defines excellence, and how ...

  9. How to Handle Academic Burnout

    Left unchecked, academic burnout can lead to poor quality of life, anxiety, and depression, risky behaviors such as gambling and drug use, and underachievement or even drop-outs (Farina et al., 2020). Read on to learn about academic burnout and what you can do to avoid it. Academic burnout has three components: Overwhelming emotional exhaustion,

  10. Behavioral Sciences

    Burnout is one of the major problems in higher education and is linked to a decline in students' academic performance and achievement. Burnout, when prolonged over time and added to stress and high workloads, promotes the intention to drop out of studies, which translates into negative consequences for individuals and groups. Academic engagement is proposed as an effective alternative to ...

  11. Academic burnout among master and doctoral students during the COVID-19

    The development of burnout in students is directly related to excessive and prolonged stress caused by piling school work and academic demands combined with drained energy, reduced enthusiasm ...

  12. Academic burnout: what it is, what it does and how to beat it

    University of the People describes academic burnout as a negative emotional, physical, and mental reaction to prolonged study that results in exhaustion, frustration, lack of motivation and reduced ability in school. Studying the same subject matter for a prolonged period or working on similar assignments or projects in the long term can cause ...

  13. The Relationship Between Academic Burnout and Personality Traits

    Academic burnout is the term for a phenomena where students may show emotional/physical exhaustion, low self-efficacy, self-doubt in capabilities, detachment from others and work, and cynicism (Maslach, Leiter 2016). Students at risk for burnout may also be at a higher risk for dropping out. ... What is Nursing Compassion Fatigue and Burnout Essay.

  14. [PDF] Literature Review of Academic Burnout

    R. Amelia. Published 2022. Education, Psychology. : This literature review study is motivated by a phenomenon that shows that students are very vulnerable to experiencing academic burnout. The purpose of this article is to review academic burnout research, to find out the definition of academic burnout and the factors that influence it.

  15. Academic stress and academic burnout in adolescents: a moderated

    Conclusion: Academic anxiety partially mediates the relationship between academic stress and academic burnout, and this mediating role is moderated by academic self-efficacy. Average, standard ...

  16. PDF Literature Review of Academic Burnout

    vulnerable to experiencing academic burnout. The purpose of this article is to review academic burnout research, to find out the definition of academic burnout and the factors that influence it. The review in this article is carried out on 18 research results from international journals starting in 2017-2020. The results of the

  17. (PDF) The Relationship between Time Management and Academic Burnout

    The results showed that academic burnout was directly and positively associated with maladaptive coping but directly and negatively explained by adaptive coping. In addition, emotional exhaustion ...

  18. Why Are Academics So Burnt Out?

    You may wonder why so many academics suffer from burnout. From the outside, academic jobs still look quite attractive. But during my almost 20 years in British academia, the higher education ...

  19. ACADEMIC BURNOUT ESSAY.docx

    The academic burnout can be prevented if one must apply the power combo -- getting organized, managing your time wisely, and taking care of your well-being. Generally, academic burnout is not just a mere drama or an excuse of a student to slack off. It is a real thing and the earlier you address it, the easier it is to overcome and be prevented.

  20. Students & Burnout: A Critical Review

    Students & Burnout: A Critical Review Essay. Burnout, and in particular, teen burnout, has become an issue of fundamental concern as it is positively correlated with negative behavior and emotional outcomes, such as substance abuse, alcoholism, emotional breakdown, depression, fatigue and the proliferation of antisocial behavior. Perhaps these ...

  21. Gillings School's 84th commencement celebrates Class of 2024

    United States Surgeon General and Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy, MD, MBA, joined the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health in celebrating 676 graduating students of the Class of 2024, nearly 650 of whom attended the Dean E. Smith Center for the Gillings School's 84 th commencement on Saturday, May 11.. The Surgeon General's commencement speech commended the newest group of Carolina ...