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Understanding the mental health of postgraduate researchers
Find out more about the supportive services available for PGRs, as well as information on common mental health concerns for researchers.
ßÏßÏÊÓƵ Mental Health Support Services
It’s very easy to become completely focused on your research, to the detriment of your physical and emotional wellbeing. Postgraduate studies involve highs and lows but if you are experiencing difficulties, please do seek help immediately.
If you find yourself struggling mentally or emotionally, then there’s lots of support available and your first point of contact is the Student Centre. They have a variety of information available on their Health and wellbeing pages, including specific contacts and further advice if you need urgent help for yourself or another researcher.
They also have a range of therapeutic and counselling services, including one-to-one sessions and group workshops. You can also reach out to an advisor via MyßÏßÏÊÓƵ for additional support.
PGR Wellbeing Advice
As wellbeing is a key part of the researcher journey, the Office for Students funded a U-DOC project at ßÏßÏÊÓƵ that focused on addressing the challenges of PGR mental health, via prevention and early intervention. An output of this project was the creation of a poster by the U-DOC team and Chimney Design, which suggests some strategies for self-care that may help doctoral researchers to manage their own mental health and wellbeing.
Similarly a group of PGRs in the School of Psychology conducted a study to identify how psycho-social factors, such as the presence of social groups, one's relationships with their supervisor and the availability of social support, can have a positive or negative effect on student's health and how they can affect a student's PhD progress. Their findings were published in the article .
There is also a Student Wellbeing module on Canvas, which all PGRs are invited to enrol in, with useful information on wellbeing events and key contacts. You can also watch highlights from the PhD Survival video by Angel Productions on the Researcher Development Canvas module (ßÏßÏÊÓƵ login required).
Imposter Feelings
One of the biggest challenges facing PGRs is imposter feelings, sometimes referred to as 'Imposter Syndrome', which is the overwhelming feeling that you don’t belong on a research degree. The nature of academic research means that just when you think you’ve got the hang of something, you’re challenged by new ideas or data. Also the more you succeed, the more visible you become, and therefore the greater the need to protect your expertise.
It’s helpful to think of these feelings as part of being an academic, rather than a syndrome, in order that you can try to accept it as part of the process and not to let it dominate your thinking. If you find it impossible to shake off these feelings and it’s getting in the way of your research, please talk to someone, such as your supervisor or the Student Centre.
There are also a range of online resources on imposter feelings, including articles by researchers:
- The Thesis Whisperer article -
- The Research Whisperer article -
- 100 Days to the Doctorate article -
Other Support Services
There are other support services available to PGRs, such as Vitae’s advice and guidance on researcher wellbeing. Researcher Wellbeing Cymru (RWC) is an online resource designed to enable researchers to foster a healthy sense of wellbeing. There is also Student Minds, the UK’s student mental health charity, which provides a mental health toolkit, training and advice.