Care-full advising in the neoliberal academy: how to support PhD students through challenging fieldwork.

This is a guest post by Martina Angela Caretta, PhD. Associate Professor in the Department of Human Geography, Lund University Fieldwork, whether in a far away location or in the same city where the institution you are working at is located, is a corner stone of several natural and social sciences disciplines. Through fieldwork, PhD …

Supporting graduate student wellbeing though everyday practices, rather than ‘add-on’ initiatives

This is a guest post by Professor Kimberly Griffin, Dean of the College of Education at the University of Maryland, Dr Terra Hall from Pepperdine University, and Di-Tu Dissassa, Ashley Hixson, & Joakina Stone, all from the Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education at the University of Maryland. They work together as part of the Trajectories …

Is it possible to be a bullying supervisor without realising it?

This is a guest post by Dr Elizabeth Adams of Scafell Coaching. Elizabeth is a Researcher Development consultant with strengths in coaching, innovation and entrepreneurial leadership. Image via @BelievePHQ on Twitter In a recent Australian study (530 researchers) around half the respondents indicated that they had experienced bullying. Bullying and harassment were also highlighted as …

Being open to critique, transparent in your motives, and when needed, step out of the way

This is a guest post by Manuela Schmidt, currently working at Jönköping University and Linneaus University and Erika Hansson, of Kristianstad University. Manuela and Erika met during their respective doctoral programs. Manuela in health science and Erika in psychology. After reaching ‘the other side’, both with PhD’s after their names, they decided to ignore the …

Empowering researchers through ‘experienced uncertainty’

Ruth Albertyn and Kathy Bennett are both affiliated to Stellenbosch University in South Africa where they are involved in supervision and research development. Based on their research expertise in doctoral education and postgraduate supervision (Ruth) and experienced uncertainty and identity development (Kathy), they conducted a collaborative auto-ethnographic study to gain insight into the sources and …

Launching the Are You OK? supervisor toolkit

By Dr Kay Guccione I've been part of a fantastic research collaboration between the University of Glasgow, The University of Sheffield and Heriot Watt University. Our research has now completed and from our findings we have designed a toolkit for doctoral supervisors, that aims to enable good conversations around mental wellbeing and research degrees. Find …

To support PGR wellbeing, focus on building a strong relationship

This is a guest post by the University of Lincoln’s Dr Trish Jackman(@Trish_Jackman), Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology. Trish has authored two recent papers on mental health and wellbeing in doctoral researchers, and is Principal Investigator on the Getting Off to a Mentally Healthy Start in Doctoral Study project. The piece below coheres around …

Developing PhD researchers’ supervisory skills as an antidote to pandemic frustrations

This is a guest post by Dr Abeer Hassan, Reader in Accounting at the University of the West of Scotland. Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash In this blog, I explain how in addition to supporting my PhD researchers mentally and emotionally during lockdown, I continued to support them to focus during this difficult time by enhancing their academic …

A proactive approach to learning doctoral writing

This post is by Dr Kay Guccione. It provides some thinking points on the supervisor’s role in developing doctoral writing. The passive model The assessment part of the PhD is almost always a lengthly written document — the doctoral thesis. It’s been this way for so many years now. Yet I see repeated again and …

Supervising LGBTQ+ doctoral researchers: ‘none of their business’?

This is a guest post by Dr Kieran Fenby-Hulse, Impact Manager at Teesside University and Dr Ross English, Doctoral College Manager at the University of Brighton  In 2019 we published the results of a survey of LGBTQ+ Doctoral Researchers studying in the UK. As would be expected, the responses revealed a range of perspectives and experiences, positive …