Swiss-Wide Mental Health Survey (SWiMS)
The Swiss-Wide Mental Health Survey (SWiMS) is a national initiative led by actionuni, carried out together with 13 mid-level staff associations from higher education institutions across Switzerland. The goal of SWiMS is to provide a comprehensive, data-driven picture of the mental health, well-being, and working conditions of academic mid-level staff across Switzerland.
Academic mid-level staff make up nearly half of Switzerland’s academic workforce and play a crucial role in research, teaching, and innovation. Yet, international research and local experience indicate that this group faces increasing pressure, job insecurity, and elevated stress levels. Switzerland has lacked a coordinated, national dataset to understand these challenges. SWiMS provides such data, enabling institutions, policymakers, and associations to identify structural issues and implement evidence-based improvements.
Between May and October 2024, a total of 2,518 doctoral researchers, postdoctoral researchers, and other mid-level staff participated in the survey. Participation was fully anonymous and voluntary.
Each participating institution received its own institutional report. On this page, actionuni publishes the national report of SWiMS 2024 and a related statement by actionuni’s co-presidents:
The report can also be found on zenodo.
Key findings
- 22% of respondents meet the criteria for problematic depressive symptoms.
- 17% rate their mental health as poor or very poor.
- 24% feel burned out at least once per week.
- 39% report being completely stressed about uncertain career prospects (59% among postdocs).
- 53% do not clearly understand the mental health resources available to them; 67% doubt their effectiveness.
- 18% have personally experienced bullying, discrimination, or harassment in the past year; 55% have heard of such incidents.
- Despite these challenges, 61% report being rather satisfied with their job, and 71% describe their working group as collaborative.
Contact: survey@actionuni.ch and president@actionuni.ch
The actionuni survey team consists of Zoran Kovacevic (ETH Zürich), Neele H. Heiser (University of Geneva), Patricia Eiche (University of Basel), and Dr. Timon Elmer (University of Zurich).