The academic context in Brazil has undergone a series of transformations over the past few
years. The academic environment has been gaining prominence in scientific research for
revealing a stressful context with a high incidence of mental illness among students and
teachers. In this context of Brazilian postgraduate courses, on the one hand, it has policies to
encourage the development and qualification of stricto sensu courses, on the other hand, it
observes a reduced reduction in the budget and, consequently, an increase in precariousness as
a whole. The logic of productive specification gains its contours within Higher Education
Institutions, fostering characteristics such as flexibility, specification, valuing quantity at the
expense of quality, among others. Thus, the focus of this study is focused on the understanding
of the Quality of Life at Work (QWL) of professors who work in graduate programs in Regional
Development, their sources of well-being and discomfort and, consequently, their strategies of
coping. The phenomenon is analyzed through three related dimensions: 1) The formation of the
academic field of regional development; 2) an objective dimension of the set of activities
performed by professionals (work conditions and organizational support and organization of
work); 3) a dimension of the set of activities developed by professionals (social and professional
relationships, recognition and meaning of work). Based on a survey carried out with 76
professors from graduate programs in Regional Development, through a data collection
instrument consisting of: a) Structured characterization questionnaire; b) Quality of Work Life
Assessment Inventory; c) Occupational Coping Scale; d) Adapted Workplace Well-being Scale
It was proved, in general, that the factors related to teacher malaise are more directly related to
working conditions, organizational support and work organization by the institution. On the
other hand, it can be said that the teaching exercise, in turn, is based on subjective factors related
to the meaning of work, recognition and socio-professional relationships. The results obtained
also indicate that professors of graduate programs in Regional Development have more
confidence in internal actors in the academic environment (students, professors and TAEs) than
in external actors/institutions such as (TV, Merchants and Federal Government).
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