A wave of departures, many of them by mid-career scientists, calls attention to widespread discontent in universities. The level of unhappiness among academics was reflected in Nature’s 2021 annual careers survey. Mid-career researchers were consistently more dissatisfied than were either early- or late-career academics (see ‘Mid-career malcontent’). In the United Kingdom, pension cuts have worsened ongoing university-faculty strikes. Now, researchers in secure, long-term posts are quitting. “For mid-career individuals, it says something much more significant if they have got a mortgage, car and kids — and still are leaving,” Jackson adds.
