Mental Health & Wellbeing of PG Students: Community & Belonging

Following some initial breakout-group discussions, Dr Laura Leonardo from the Newcastle University opened the workshop with ​“Peer Pastoral Support: a Supportive, Co-created Postgraduate Researcher Environment”. She was presenting with Ms Chang Liu (Newcastle University) and Dr Harriet Palin (Durham Wildlife Trust), while Zack Gray (Newcastle University) was another contributor, although he was not in attendance.

Dr Leonardo set the scene by mentioning that, around 2017, it was clear that their doctoral students were struggling with various challenges. Her response was to create a scheme to select, train and mentor teaching assistants, enabling them to independently run a PGR support group. ​“We know that isolation creates a mental health emergency, and we were hoping to offer some tangible peer support for everybody in that situation,” she said.

Dr Leonardo went on to explain that certain parameters were put in place to ensure that nobody felt uncomfortable or pressurised. She made it clear to the teaching assistants that they were not mentors, nor were expected to take over the role of supervisors, nor try to solve problems which are unsolvable. However, their own experiences were invaluable because they had ​‘been there’. Dr Leonardo added that she was on hand to answer questions, and she held debriefing sessions with the teaching assistants at regular intervals. (They were also paid for the work they did.) 

As one of the teaching assistants in the scheme, Dr Palin was invited to reflect on her experiences. She observed that people sometimes used the PGR support group because they felt lonely, which is a common experience amongst doctoral candidates. ​“The purpose of the group was not to socialise or discuss personal issues,” she explained, ​“they were not support groups in the sense that we were giving mental health advice. We had candid discussions about topics such as getting the most out of your supervisor. It also gave me the opportunity to improve my own mental health as well as provide support for my peers.” 

Ms Liu then explained the methodology behind the support groups and gave us an insight into the feedback they received from participants. She said they did not collect contextual information (such as age, residence, subject, place of residence): ​“These variables warrant further exploration to deepen our understanding of the impact” she added.

Following the opening session, Dr Rebecca Nash from the University of Southampton then introduced “’Motivation to keep pushing on’: the role of dialogic skills workshops on PGR​‘belonging’”. She spoke about the workshops which she had designed, which took a dialogic approach to academic skills while avoiding a lecture-style format. As she explained, her initial workshop looked at the pervasive challenges faced by PGRs, namely imposter syndrome, a sense of isolation and a lack of academic preparedness. 

“I wanted to address a lot of these points in an academic skills setting, and I did so by adapting a dialogic model of teaching. This ensured that lots of different voices were heard. I wanted PGRs to feel that they weren’t alone – and to allow for collective problem-solving.” She added that she was interested in Anne Lee and Rowena Murray’s supervision framework, which she also used as a model for the workshops. 

In the 2023–24 academic year, Dr Nash delivered 51 sessions and the doctoral candidates who attended came from across all faculties. Students openly gave feedback and were invited to suggest improvements. She concluded: ​“I felt it was important to explore the process of becoming a doctoral student – the transition can involve a knock to the confidence and stress. I struggled as a PGR, and I bring that honesty (as much as I can remember of the experience) into the workshops I run.”

The event concluded with a lively question-and-answer session.