A new survey shows people working at universities, polytechs and wananga are stressed about their future.

The Tertiary Education Union surveyed over 1000 people and results show 70 percent believe their wellbeing is worse now than ten years ago.

TEU president Sandra Grey said most staff experience significant stress because of under-funding from central government.

"There's more pressure on staff to teach more students with less resources and there's more compliance costs because the Government is requiring more and more things to be audited and counted," she said.

She said staff are being pressured to admit students who don't have the correct qualifications to study, and to change students' marks so they pass courses.