**6. Conclusion**

The challenge here is to reshape the higher education environment and to develop struc‐ tures that enable both educators and students to flourish in educatively supportive cultures. Huyton [94] argues that failure to recognize the importance of emotional labour can have a detrimental effect on educators and the pastoral support service they provide to students. We argue that recognition of care for academics themselves and not just their capacity to provide emotional support for others is essential. While some argue that workload allocations must include 'emotion work' [45], it is difficult to see in the current climate of performativity how this could actually gain traction. However, turning a blind eye to it is not the answer either. Higher education institutions need to become more supportive, empowering and healthy places where both students and staff can develop personally, socially and intellectually. Given the once traditional academic freedom of the academic (albeit clearly currently under siege), who if not academics will stand as the final bulwark against the insidious and perva‐ sive problem of neo‐liberalism and new managerialism in education and in particular the clearly stressful and adverse consequences it is having on the educational experience of all.
