It should be a training experience so when you start you know relatively little about research and supervision but by the time you finish you not only have a thesis you have learned how to run your own future studies and support others to do so, ethically and effectively. But…
https://twitter.com/fromphdtolife/status/1549842504169693184
In most cases even basic research skills aren’t taught and that’s why the PhD is so stressful. People aren’t supported to get their research done or navigate academia. Meaning they get distressed, some leave, others continue but lacking core skills. So the problems perpetuate.
The whole time we keep bleating about academic mental health while doing remarkably little about it. And absolutely nothing about supervision and tuition for undergraduate or postgrads. With all that happening it’s not surprising people are struggling and unhappy.
We could solve the majority of mental distress in academia next term simply by delivering teaching and pastoral care adequately while supporting staff to do so. Yet we just offer mindfulness webinars and take on more students and leave staff to work it out by themselves. Hopeless
I also note many of the replies and quote tweets for the thread I’ve linked to above assume
- all research is STEM research
- it all happens in labs
- “learning by doing” is appropriate for research training 😬😬😬
I’d argue we have these attitudes because PhD tuition is so poor
- all research is STEM research
- it all happens in labs
- “learning by doing” is appropriate for research training 😬😬😬
I’d argue we have these attitudes because PhD tuition is so poor
It’s great if you feel your graduate school/programme adequately prepared you for whatever job(s) came next. But it’s worrying if you aren’t aware this is NOT the case for everyone and there are huge inequalities in the way PhDs are run. It’s not a personal attack. We need change
Just because you’re a PGR or academic it doesn’t necessarily follow you understand the PhD process, particularly global inequalities, or the wider issues around poor PGR programmes causing or worsening mental distress. There’s a whole (growing) evidence base on this.
I’ll list all this as a #ResearchTip as we really do need to get better at understanding and appropriately responding to the numerous and well documented problems of postgraduate training. #AcademicTwitter #AcademicChatter #gradschool #MedEd #HigherEd #PhDChat #PhDHelp
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