Academic Impostor Syndrome in Students and Academic Staff: Navigating the pathway to Confidence and Control

Impostor syndrome has received growing attention in recent years because of its universality and maladaptive association with wellbeing and performance outcomes recognised in professional and academic settings. Researchers have grappled with measurement issues in the quest for a gold standard. Initial pursuit by the first two authors was to develop a measure that would capture students’ approaches to their studies in the context of impostor perceptions. Issues emerging from the literature review covered fear of evaluation, fear of being discovered, impression management, feelings of not belonging and unfavourable comparisons with others. We confirmed that these were commonly reported in students from 2 UK universities (N = 332), and in presenting our findings to international audiences, academic colleagues also reported impostor intrusions that impaired their wellbeing and debilitated their confidence. We therefore worked on strategies to counter each of 10 domains identified and empower students and academics to navigate their way to confident control.