Understanding the mental health of postgraduate researchers
The Office for Students funded U-DOC project at Sussex ran for almost two years, reporting on 31 January 2020. The project's overarching aim was to provide a sustainable best practice model for the sector to address the challenge of doctoral researcher mental health.
It focused on the aims of prevention and early intervention, and also on the development and implementation of new practice for supporting doctoral researchers, and enhanced staff and student training across the institution, in partnership with statutory health services. A literature review and a survey of almost 6,000 doctoral researchers and other professionals informed the outputs listed below.
The team are collating the publications that stem from U-DOC on . Follow the project if you want to keep up to date with developments.
Learn more about the project, and the people involved, further down the page. Further outputs will be added to this page in the coming months.
Research Outputs
Guide for Setting Up a PhD Online Support Group
Written by ESW researcher Claire Durrant, based on her own experience of developing a support network within her School, this is particularly timely given the current lockdown. It is supported by regular webinars.
Guide to setting up a PhD Online support group
Suggested Self-Care Strategies Poster
Created by the U-DOC team and Chimney Design, this poster suggests some strategies for self-care which could help doctoral researchers to manage their own mental health and wellbeing. The poster is a starting point for discussions around potential barriers to self-care.
Self-care strategies poster
Workshops
Looking After Yourself During the PhD
Dr Sophie Valeix (U-DOC and SITUATE coordinator) designed this workshop in collaboration with the university's Counselling Service, to be delivered to doctoral researchers as part of their regular training programme at Sussex. It has since been tailored to the Covid-19 situation; those slides are shared here.
Looking After Yourself during the Covid-19 Pandemic Lockdown
Looking Out for One Another in the PhD Community
A sister workshop developed in partnership with the charity Student Minds, aimed at giving doctoral researchers the skills, confidence and experience to support fellow PGRs while also looking after their own wellbeing. Contact for further information.
Supervisor training
Coming soon
Researcher-Led Initiatives
- , a monthly meet-up on campus and, now, online: Karolina Szpyrko (MFM), Thabani Mutambasere (Global Studies) & Abigail Rieley (HAHP)
- Setting up an Online Support Group for PhD researchers: Claire Durrant (ESW)
- : Kate Meakin, Manuela Salazar & KAtherine Hendrickx (MFM)
- : Gemma Houldey (Global Studies)
- Researching Difficult Data peer support group: Alexandra Kempton (English)
Publications
to keep up-to-date with developments.
Berry C, Valeix, S, Niven, JE, Chapman, L, Roberts, PE & Hazell, CM 2020, ', International Journal of Educational Research, vol. 102, published 3 June 2020.
- available to 麻豆传媒 of Sussex staff and students via the Library,
Hazell, CM, Chapman, L, Valeix, SF, Roberts, P, Niven, JE & Berry, C 2020, , Systematic Reviews, vol. 9, published 26 August 2020.
Hazell, C 2020, '', Cherish: Resources & Information for Supporting Students in Higher Education, published 5 October 2020.
Berry, C, Niven, J, & Hazell, C 2021, , published online by Cambridge 麻豆传媒 Press: 15 November 2021
Hazell, C.M., Niven, J.E., Chapman, L. et al. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 8, 305 (2021).
The Office for Students funded project Understanding the Mental Health of Doctoral Researchers reported on 31 January 2020, and the survey has now closed. We will be updating this page with further research outputs in the coming months.
Project News
January 2020:
We now have a Self-Care Strategies poster based on U-DOC research, designed in collaboration with Louise Harvey of Chimney Design. It is available as a pdf if you wish to use it as a visual aid in your office or work space. Please download and share with friends and colleagues.
U-DOC Self-Care Strategies Poster [pdf, 72KB]
November 2019:
We are so proud to share doctoral researcher Claire Durrant's implementation guide for setting up PhD online support groups. On the 25th of November, Claire presented her guide in a webinar, availble to all doctopral researchers. This webinar will be scheduled as part of the Researcher Development Programme and will now run regularly in 2020.
October 2019:
Successful first PhD Games Night on the Wednesday 30 Oct, a U-DOC funded researcher-led initiative. Register to the next Game Night .
October 2019: Student Voice and the Co-creation of Interventions for Improving Post-Graduate Researcher Mental Health and Wellbeing
We are pleased to annouce our South-East dissemination event on: Student Voice and the Co-creation of Interventions for Improving Post-Graduate Researcher Mental Health and Wellbeing. It is a one day event taking place in Brighton on the Monday 9th December 2019. The event is co-organised by the 麻豆传媒 of Sussex, the 麻豆传媒 of Portsmouth and Vitae. South-East Universities and local organisations involved or interested in PGR mental health/wellbeing are welcome.
June 2019: A Sussexful Conference!
A few weeks ago, the 麻豆传媒 of Sussex co-organised the . We are delighted to report that the event brought together 195 delegates amongst whom were researchers, service providers and policy makers from 97 institutions in 11 countries! Across two days and 55 sessions, experts working at the interface of higher education and mental health and wellbeing discussed how to understand and improve postgraduate researcher’s experiences. Sussex Provost Professor Saul Becker highlighted the crucial need for universities to support their postgraduate researchers in any way possible. Professor Gordon Harold, Sussex deputy pro-vice chancellor (Research Excellence Framework) and leader of - one of the UKRI mental health networks, talked about the complexity of understanding the causes of mental ill-health. Dr Clio Berry and Dr Cassie Hazell, researchers on the U-DOC project, presented the preliminary research findings emerging from their rigorous systematic review of the literature, focus groups carried out at Sussex and a (still open!) national survey. Yasser Kosbar and Dr Sophie Valeix, also from the U-DOC project team, shared their personal experiences of wellbeing challenges during the PhD alongside two current doctoral researchers from the 麻豆传媒 of Portsmouth.
You can find out more on this event from the journals and .
19th May 2019: Our first Researcher-led Mental Health and Wellbeing Initiative has been launched!
Evie Browne and Gemma Houdley from the School of Global Studies are holding a series of wellbeing workshops for Global Studies and IDS doctoral researchers in June and July 2019. Find out why this is important and more details on the events in Gemma's blog .
29th April 2019: New podcast episode on Mental Health during the PhD as part of the project's recognition of 麻豆传媒 Mental Health Day 2019 (7th March) by Planet PhD (funded by the Doctoral School's Researcher-Led Initiative Fund): free to listen !
In their first themed episode, Planet PhD chat to Sophie Valeix and Josh Hutton, both previous PhD students, about mental health and wellbeing during the doctorate. As well as sharing their personal experiences of mental health issues during their PhD, our guests talk to us about why they think doctoral students are particularly vulnerable to developing problems...
28th January 2019: New opportunity for Sussex doctoral researchers to fund their own mental health/wellbeing initiatives
We are pleased to announce that our Researcher-led Mental Health and Wellbeing Initiatives scheme is now open for applications. The scheme is open to all Sussex doctoral researchers... Read more
21st November 2018: Submissions invited for 1st International Conference on the Mental Health and Wellbeing of Postgraduate Researchers
The Doctoral School is delighted to announce the 1st International Conference on the Mental Health and Wellbeing of Postgraduate Researchers which will be taking place in Brighton at the Jury's Inn Waterfront Hotel, 16-17 May 2019... Read more
7th September 2018: SMaRteN-ing up about student mental health: U-DOC invited to the research network pre-launch event
The 6th September marked the launch of SMaRteN - a new research network being led by the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) in London which aims to improve our understandings of student mental health...Read more
About the project
The project's overarching aim is to provide a sustainable best practice model for the sector to address the challenge of doctoral researcher mental health. In particular it will focus on the aims of prevention and early intervention. Secondary aims include the development and implementation of new practice for supporting doctoral researchers; enhanced staff and student training across the institution, and working in partnership with statutory health services.
The project is led by Dr Jeremy Niven, and is arranged into five work packages:
- A research package led by Dr Cassie Hazell and Dr Clio Berry
- A supervisor training package led by Dr Jeremy Niven
- A researcher development package led by the Doctoral School, comprising
- Accessible training and guidance to enhance doctoral researchers' awareness of mental health and the support on offer
- Development of a specific training module for staff in the professional services who directly support doctoral researchers
- Support for specific doctoral researcher-led interventions
- Liaison with local statutory NHS services, led by Dr Jeremy Niven
- Evaluation and dissemination, led by Dr Jeremy Niven
The project will run from 1 April 2018 until 31 January 2020.
Administrative support for the project is provided by the Doctoral School. Please contact Paul Roberts, Assistant Director of the Doctoral School if you would like to find out more about the project.
You can also read the Sussex news story which was released following the award.
Key Project contacts
- Dr Jeremy Niven, Director of Doctoral Studies (Life Sciences)
- Dr Sophie Valeix, Project Co-ordinator
- Miles Willey, Head of the Doctoral School
Doctoral Researcher Representatives
- Justin Crow (School of Engineering and Informatics)
- Josh Hutton (Science Policy Research Unit)
- Yasser Kosbar (School of Education and Social Work)
- Lina Skora (School of Psychology)
- Rebecca Teague (School of Life Sciences)
- Marie Tuley (School of Law, Politics and Sociology)
Research package contacts
- Dr Cassie Hazell, Visiting Research Fellow (Psychology)
- Dr Clio Berry, Research Fellow (Psychology)
Professional services contacts
- Katherine Hegarty, Acting Head of Counselling
- Paul Roberts, Assistant Director of the Doctoral School
- Miles Willey, Head Of Research Student Administration Office