Professors bothered by lack of leisure, study shows

Lack of skilled staff and pressure to publish stand in the way of free thinking

Almost three in four German academics have said they miss the “creative leisure” necessary for excellent research, according to a survey aimed at gauging their concerns.

The survey found that more than two-thirds of respondents said that “research and teaching suffer from pressure to publish quickly”. Additional reasons for the lack of time to think were pegged as a shortage of skilled staff and too many administrative tasks.