PhD to Professor: Graduate Mental Health

Over the last few weeks we've been taking a look at academic careers from PhD to Professor, through the eyes of our students, Fellows, and alumni. 

So far we've heard from current PhD candidate Jacqueline Gallo (2017), and alumnus and Research Fellow at Gonville and Caius College, Joseph Ashmore (2009).  They both talked about what drew them to their subject and why they chose to follow an academic career path. But it's also important to talk about the challenges that individuals might face along the way. Sofia Ropek-Hewson (2015) completed her PhD at Pembroke last year and is currently President of the Graduate Union (GU). One of her main areas of concern is graduate mental health, so the GU has been taking steps to understand where the problems lie and how they can be solved. In today's blog she writes about that process.

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Times Higher Education recently reported a ‘mental health crisis among postgraduates’, and referenced a study in which over half of postgraduates surveyed experienced symptoms of psychological distress. Over forty percent of students surveyed felt under constant strain, and other common symptoms included depression, unhappiness and sleeping problems.

Similarly, at a mental health forum organised by the Graduate Union during the summer, postgraduates talked about anxiety, depression, isolation, difficult supervisor relationships, and about how hard it is to find housing if you have children. They talked about a ‘Cambridge culture’, exemplified by a rigid commitment to excellence which made them feel like they couldn't fail or be vulnerable. Some felt like they couldn’t take holidays, work fewer than eighty hours a week, or ask for help. This culture, combined with other structural issues and problems inherent to PhDs and Master’s, are making postgraduate students rely more heavily than undergraduate students on University provisions like the Disability Resource Centre and the Students’ Unions’ Advice Service.

In response, the Graduate Union is running a survey on postgraduate mental health, organising a series of events and working with the University to prepare a targeted strategy and action-plan.

Our first event was a panel on supervisor relationships and mental health. We talked about the need for the University to communicate that the breakdown of student/supervisor relationships isn’t the end of the world, and that it’s possible to change your PhD supervisor.

We discussed sharing good models of supervision between departments and colleges, writing up case studies and organising departmental best practice guides. We also talked about the need for more explicit sharing of supervisor responsibility, to reduce the troubling dependence on one person.

We debated the need for mandatory supervisor training: currently, supervisors are under no obligation to complete training in preparation for supervising PhD students. We agreed that training needed to be mandatory, as well as, ideally, department-specific.

We talked about the strength of PhD cohorts in some departments compared with others and the possibility of paying PhD representatives to run surveys, organise events and attend meetings. It was noted that strong PhD communities helped postgraduate students improve the working environments in their departments.

Finally, we acknowledged that University staff are often under enormous pressure, that PhD supervisions aren’t always included in workload models, and that staff suffer from mental health problems, too. Caring for our staff and students are inevitably intertwined issues.

We’ll be carrying on these discussions, and if you have any thoughts, or would like to work together, please get in touch: president@gradunion.cam.ac.uk.

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If you're a current student experiencing mental health problems there are lots of people to reach out to, including your Graduate Tutor, the College Nurse, and the Graduate Parlour Welfare Office.  Visit the Graduate Welfare and Support page on our website for more information.