HSW in Higher Education is shifting from compliance to enterprise design

Health, Safety and Wellbeing (HSW) is no longer a back office function for higher education institutions. It is a core enterprise risk and performance lever.

This was made clear in September last year when SafeWork NSW ordered the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) to pause a course portfolio review, due to a "serious and imminent risk of psychological harm". Although universities facing a difficult financial environment cannot necessarily avoid these operational imperatives; if they don't pay careful attention to the shift HSW landscape to inform planning and execution, they risk facing significant operational setbacks.

In AptoNow's recent higher education HSW operating model benchmarking, we assessed universities across seven dimensions of HSW maturity, from vision and governance through to systems, culture, and service delivery.

Three insights stood out:

1. Psychosocial risk is now the defining issue:

   Reported high or very high psychosocial risk among university staff increased from 62 percent in 2020 to 73 percent in 2023. This sits materially above the cross industry benchmark. Institutions need stronger leading indicators, not just incident reporting.

2. HSW is being elevated to executive level: Most Group of Eight universities now have WHS reporting directly to a senior executive. This reflects a deliberate move to strengthen oversight, accountability, and enterprise alignment.

3. Integrated wellbeing models are emerging: Leading institutions are breaking down siloes between staff and student services. Shared leadership enables faster triage, clearer accountability, and more consistent policy oversight.

We observed four key trends among the institutions that participated in the benchmarking.

Proactive institutions often have sound foundations but fragmented systems or inconsistent cultural adoption. The question for university leaders is simple. Is HSW positioned as a compliance function, or as a strategic operating model capability?

In looking at leading institutions, we observed common patterns across the seven components of their HSW operating model:

Health, safety and wellbeing will continue to be a key strategic priority for university leaders in 2026. If your institution is grappling with these issues, please reach out to the AptoNow team to discuss how we can help.