The document discusses mental health issues experienced by postgraduate researchers (PGRs) and the UKCGE Working Group on Mental Health and Wellbeing. It provides examples of common issues faced by PGRs like pressure, perfectionism, isolation, unclear standards, and poor supervision. It then outlines the working group's aims to support PGR wellbeing, map their journey, advise on policies, and produce guidance. The working group seeks contributions to promote its work and resources to support PGR mental health.

1. Why do PGRs Experience Mental
Health and Wellbeing Issues?
Examples from a Case Book
Professor Fiona Denney
Brunel University London
Honorary Sectary, UK Council for Graduate Education
Vice-Chair, UKCGE Working Group on Mental Health and Wellbeing
Email: Fiona.Denney@brunel.ac.uk
Tweet: @FionaD273

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Agenda
• A bit about me
• Why PGRs experience mental health problems
• Background to establishment of working group
• Aims, activities & outputs of working group
• Ways for you to get involved
• Take-home messages

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A bit about me…
• 23 year career in UK higher education
• 5 different universities – full time
• Plus external examining, part-time teaching and consultancy across other
universities both UK and overseas
• Background as an academic in Management Studies, with specialisms in marketing,
new product development and management and leadership
• Moved to working in academic staff / researcher development in 2003
• Over 10 years working nationally and in 3 London universities on researcher
development and academic staff development
• Executive Committee member and Honorary Secretary for UK Council for Graduate
Education; Vice-Chair Mental Health and WellBeing Working Group
• Principal Fellow, Higher Education Academy
• Currently the author of the postgraduate module for Epigeum’s courses on Mental
Health and Wellbeing due for launch in 2020

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I am so desperate to finish it that
I don’t think I can even put it
down in writing how strongly I
feel…And if that is not good
enough for a doctorate then I am
just, quite simply, not bright
enough to get one ever
Perhaps I’m really not
capable of the level of
original thought
necessary to get a PhD?
I’m suffering badly from panic
attacks…heart fluttering all the
time and major anxiety feelings in
my tummy that it’s not good
enough, that I’m not good
enough and that I’ll fail my viva
hugely.
With my head down in the work and being very
focused, I feel okay. It’s only really when I look at the
bigger picture now that I feel disheartened and
depressed. I know I should have much more faith in
the work that I’ve done, but [supervisor] has sucked
every last little drop of self-esteem out of my body.
I’m so scared that it’s not good
enough that I just get
overwhelmed by the feelings
of panic whenever I think
about it. I can’t do this any
longer.
Why PGRS experience mental health problems

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Why PGRs Experience Mental Health
Problems
• Huge pressure to succeed
• Disposition towards improbably high standards – perfectionism and imposter
syndrome
• It’s personal – it’s “my” project
• Isolation – “No-one else understands…”
• Wooliness of the standards being required:
• It feels like a mountain to climb. I just wish that someone had given me clear guidance from
Day 1 what I needed to do to complete this. The wooliness is what I cannot bear. Everyone’s
opinions differ on the quality and substance of the work
• It’s a LONG journey…
• I feel depressed and angry and am impatient for this unbearably long process to be over.
• Poor work/life balance – worse if part-time & working full-time
• Plus…

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Not sure that this is what I want to do for the
rest of my life…
• Meet Cassie:
• Super-bright, articulate, bubbly…and unhappy
• Researching for a PhD in physics
• Felt “persuaded” to do a PhD after her undergraduate degree
• Struggles with her relationship with her supervisor
• Really questioning whether this is what she wants to do for a career
• Cassie had a series of 6 coaching sessions over 3 months and ultimately left
her PhD and took up temping administrative jobs in retail.
• Did she fail? Does it matter?
• She was much happier!

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Poor fit with culture / values in the
department or research team
• Meet Liam:
• Serious, dedicated, quiet and with high levels of ethics and integrity
• Researching in psychology – unhappy about the values of his team
• Long working hours, pressure to conform, lack of academic freedom in determining
his own research direction
• Liam had a series of coaching sessions and by the 3rd, had identified
another research team in another HEI that fitted better with his values.
• Within 2 months he had a job there and was much happier
• How often do we think about the importance of a ”values-match” in
recruitment and induction for new PGRs?

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Lifecycle transitions, finances, insecure
housing
• Meet Virginia:
• Confident, articulate and loves her research project
• Knocked by several changes in accommodation
• Needs to move again due to problems with the landlord
• Exhausted and worn down by the changes which detracts from her research
• Knock-on impact on her relationship with her supervisor
• Virginia was directed to the services for financial and accommodation
support and eventually got a flat with her boyfriend that was stable
and enabled her to finish her PhD

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Poor supervision / supervisory relationship
• Meet Sara:
• Normally confident but presents as being extremely timid and nervy
• Her supervisor shouts at her in the lab in front of everyone else
• Then he brings her flowers and chocolates the next day
• She is terrified of him, doubting herself and her abilities and starting to show
signs of anxiety and depression
• We focused on supporting her personally and making sure that the
supervisory issues were dealt with

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Background to UKCGE Working Group on
MHWB
• 6th March 2017 – UKCGE wellbeing event held in Liverpool
• UUK Stepchange report on mental health in higher education
• An increasing awareness that this is everyone’s problem in society
• Increasing mental health problems on our campuses
• “A silent epidemic which emerges at the end of professional
development workshops” (Sarah Bell, Sheffield University)
• A reality and a challenge whose time has come…

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Aims and Activities of Working Group
• Individual –
• Mapping the PG student journey
• Transition from UG to PG study
• Identifying wellbeing “pinch points” in the journey
• Supporting interventions that may be necessary
• Recommending intervention pathways
• Institution –
• Advising on a standard for supervisory support for PG health and wellbeing
• Analysis of existing resources and creation of a portal leading to these
• Provision of train the trainers materials and workshops
• Information and support for staff health and wellbeing
• Systemic –
• Reviewing the systems that are involved in supporting PG student mental health & wellbeing
– public health, higher education and political systems
• Identifying and evaluation power and control in the HE system

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Future Outputs from Working Group
• Strategic Briefing Papers:
• What is happening, why it's happening and what can we all do?
• The formation of an institutional student mental health & wellbeing policy &
what stops universities preventing PGR wellbeing problems?
• Adopting a ‘whole university approach’ to mental health.
• Practitioner Papers:
• Recognising and supporting PGR lifecycle pinch points (co-produced with
PGRs featuring brief case-studies)
• Supporting PGR supervisors in promoting PGR MH&W

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Ways to Contribute
• Contact myself, Ian Covey or Parmjit Dhugga
• Promote what we are doing in conversations with other people
• Check the UKCGE website for events, resources etc – including the
next MHWB conference 5-6 November 2020 in Brighton
• Tell supervisors to check our website and join a supervisors network
• Deans and Directors of Graduate Schools have a network
• Tweet your thoughts to us @ukcge

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Take-home Messages to Pass onto
Doctoral Students
• If you are struggling, ask for help and keep asking until you get it
• If you see students struggling, help them to get help
• Before you get to that point:
• Join in with a community. Spend time with peers and staff. Develop your
own networks.
• Don’t neglect social ties outside of the university. Spend time with family and
friends. Take up a sport / hobby / interest.
• Get help with good time management.
• Take breaks. Check out Kay Guccione’s #takebreaksmakesbreakthroughs
• Work on your end of the supervisory relationship – and get help if it breaks
down

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16. THE VOICE OF THE UK
POSTGRADUATE COMMUNITY