Teaching your students to trust themselves

This is an anonymous post from a ‘failed’ PGR, now working in researcher development at a UK University. Part of their role is supporting supervisors and PGRs navigating the process and complexities of a supervisor/supervisee relationship. Photo by Siora Photography on Unsplash When it comes to my ‘failure’ as a PGR it is difficult to know where to …

Supervision: the balance between support and autonomy

This is a guest post by Chloe Casey, Postgraduate Researcher at Bournemouth University whose own PhD is investigating the role of supervision in PhD student mental health. She Tweets as @ChloeCaraCasey We all know that supervision can shape doctoral students’ experiences, but are supervisors to blame for the increased prevalence of mental health problems in …

The invisible Others: stories of international doctoral student dropout

This is a guest post jointly written by Melissa Laufer and Meta Gorup, doctoral candidates at the Centre for Higher Education Governance Ghent at Ghent University in Belgium. Together, they explored the dropout experiences of international doctoral students and the factors that contributed to the discontinuation of their studies. The full article, ‘The invisible Others: …

what do we really know about PhD mental health, and how can this support our students?

This is a guest post from Dr Sylvia Anne Mackie, Lecturer in Research Communication at Swinburne University of Technology, and is based on her published work reviewing the available research into the mental health of PhD candidates. Photo by Neil Thomas on Unsplash There have been a number of recent research articles, and even more journalistic opinions shared  about the experiences of PhD …

Signposting a new article: Why are mental health problems elevated among graduate students?

I am linking to a new article by Dr Furaha Asani that should be of interest to supervisors. It concerns graduate student mental health and the experiences of marginalised people. Below is an excerpt from her article. Click here to read the original article on Editage Insights. The seminal article published in March, 2018 by Evans and …

new workshop: adding value to doctoral education

This is a guest post by Dr Billy Bryan a Policy Consultant at Technopolis Group managing projects in higher education, research policy and international development. He is also a workshop facilitator for HEInnovate. He has a PhD in Medical Education from the University of Sheffield, a higher education teaching qualification (PG Certificate in Learning and Teaching in HE) …

to increase PhD student satisfaction, recruit academic supervisors who contribute positively to the departmental culture

This is a guest post by Dr Florence Phua, Associate Professor in the School of Construction Management and Engineering at the University of Reading. It draws on her and her co-authors recent research into the determinants of PhD student satisfaction, and the role of the supervisor in context in providing that satisfaction. The full published …