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The Times Higher Education (THE) recently reported on a paper by Malcolm Tight, professor in Higher Education at Lancaster University's department of educational research.

The paper argues that there has been no substantial change in academic workloads in the UK - which average a hefty 55 hours a week - for nearly 15 years.

Professor Tight said: "On average, there simply is a limit to the number of hours a week people can and are prepared to work, and it has been reached."

The Independent reported recently that there is likely to be a significant increase in school leavers seeking to remain in education. The recession is encouraging more people to seek further training or study in order to improve their employability and “avoid the dole”.

We’ve had a busy couple of weeks at College and University Support Network for the Support Line and the online InfoCentres.

‘Financial Issues’ accounted for over 50 per cent of all calls in the last fortnight, making it by far the most important issue for our callers. ‘Working Conditions’ accounted for 20 per cent of calls, including allegations and health and safety issues. This was followed by calls on ‘Personal Issues’, ‘Health and Wellbeing’ and ‘Careers’.

Our Online Support team is here for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It could be a straightforward question you need an answer to, or a bigger issue that’s troubling you where we can give you some extra support.

Online support is a confidential service for you to use as you need it. You can be open and honest in the knowledge that our advisors are there to support you, not to pass judgement.

It’s easy to take the first step; fill in some simple details including what’s on your mind and send it off to one of our trained advisors for a personal email response.

We hope you have enjoyed the summer break, managed to unwind and had the chance to relax.

uring the summer period, service use figures for CUSN showed a 57 per cent increase in those contacting us about ‘People and relationships’ compared to spring.

Contact within this category includes issues such as difficulties with relationships with colleagues, bullying and harassment.

Between May and August in 2009, there were 643 ‘interactions’ on such issues compared with 428 in spring (January and April) and 500 between May and August 2008 (an increase of 35 per cent). Enquiries can come in the form of telephone support, online support or use of our InfoCentre.