and mental health crisis

Academia was once driven by curiosity, intellectual freedom, and the quiet joy of discovery. Yet for many of its brightest minds, that passion slowly transforms into relentless pressure. The very individuals who enter universities with idealism and dedication often find themselves trapped in a cycle of publish-or-perish demands, grant anxieties, administrative overload, and unspoken expectations of constant productivity. Excellence is rewarded not with balance, but with more work. The most capable scholars become the most burdened — supervising more students, leading more projects, serving on more committees — until the boundary between commitment and exhaustion disappears.

This culture does not merely stretch talent; it consumes it. When passion becomes performance, and curiosity becomes output metrics, academia risks burning out the very people who sustain its intellectual foundation. The question is no longer why scholars feel overwhelmed — but why the system depends on their overwork to function at all.