Psychological Safety in Higher Education: Theoretical Foundations and Practical Implications

Abstract

With the continuous deepening of the "student-centered" concept in global higher education, psychological safety has gradually become a core theoretical keyword for understanding student subjectivity, academic participation and educational equity. Although psychological safety originates from organizational psychology and has been widely discussed in corporate and team environments, its theoretical integration in the field of higher education is still imperfect, and its systematic application and conceptual expansion are still limited. Drawing on the highly competitive and evaluation-driven context of higher education in the Asia-Pacific region, this paper systematically examines the theoretical applicability of psychological safety within this environment. This study clarifies the core concepts, internal dimensions, and underlying mechanisms of psychological safety, and proposes a comprehensive mechanism model encompassing three key dimensions: individual, relational, and structural. By comparing the practical cases of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), the relevance and applicability of the three-dimensional mechanism model in different cultural backgrounds are verified, providing empirical support and practical reference for the localization and promotion of psychological safety theory in higher education. The study also pointed out the limitations of current work, which are mainly reflected in the theoretical level and the lack of first-hand empirical data. Future research needs to verify the robustness and cross-cultural applicability of the model through qualitative interviews, classroom observations and questionnaires, and further reveal the impact of culture, policies and governance structures on the construction of psychological safety.