Relational Work in Higher Education: University Staff Perspectives on Institutional Responsibility for Student Well‐Being

ABSTRACT

As concerns about student mental health have intensified, responsibility for supporting student well‐being is increasingly negotiated in everyday interactions between students and staff. This study aims to foreground the relational and caring dimensions of academic practice. It does so by examining how university staff understand and navigate their professional role in relational work to support students, and how this work is shaped by structural and emotional conditions. Drawing on five focus group interviews with 27 teaching and student‐support staff across multiple campuses and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, the study shows that care, trust, and accessibility are integral to everyday pedagogical and support practice. At the same time, relational engagement is weakly formalised and unevenly recognised, creating tensions around professional boundaries, workload, and emotional responsibility. The findings suggest that responsibility for student well‐being is channelled through everyday staff–student relationships within institutional frameworks that provide limited structural and institutional recognition.