0.1 ABSTRACT
Research on student mental health has historically focused on undergraduates with a relative dearth of research on Postgraduate Research (PGR) students (Vitae, 2018). The study sought to redress this imbalance and heeds the call of Advance HE’s PGR Experience Survey (PRES) to investigate engagement and well-being amongst PGR students, alongside indications that they experience higher stress levels (Advance HE, 2019; Williams, 2019). Based on these precepts, this PhD research sought to tap into the lived experiences of PGR students via a longitudinal interview-based Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) study.
19 full-time PGRs from University of Manchester (UoM) (n=9) and the University of Salford (UoS) (n=10) across their 1st to 4th (writing-up) year were interviewed in three separate phases over a three-year period. The sample included home, international, and EU students (now having Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) status).
Four master themes were identified as common across the three phases. They were shared between the universities: Resources and coping strategies to manage the PhD, Challenges from COVID, Pivotal role of PhD supervisor and Poor mental health, Emotional/Overwhelmed and exhausted/ immense stress of the PhD. There is also a range of master themes that are more phase or university-specific.
Recommendations arising from the lived experiences of the study’s PGR students include the perception that treating PGR students more like staff may bring benefits. There is also a perceived need to improve university support systems and mental health support training for students and to provide dedicated PGR social spaces, specialised PGR counselling services, increased social events, less frequent attendance monitoring for international students, standardised supervisor relationship training and improved university administration and systems.
There are also implications for research and theory on occupational stress and wellbeing, how the PGR students' experience of stress in this study can be elucidated through an understanding of Conservation of Resources (Westman et al, 2004) or in the context of Transactional Models of Stress (Cox & Griffiths, 2010).
