Illuminating the liminality of the doctoral journey: precarity, agency and COVID-19

Is there a fit between PhD candidates’ and their supervisors’ perceptions on the impact of COVID-19 on doctoral education?

“…Both supervisors’ and supervisees’ negative estimates of the impact of COVID-19 on PhD candidates were related to reduced levels of well-being: increased levels of stress and burnout symptoms. In this regard, our results support the findings of previous studies suggesting that COVID-19 pandemic increases stress and the risk of developing burnout symptoms among both the supervisees and supervisors (Atkinson et al , 2021; Donohue et al , 2021; Betts, 2021; Camerlink et al , 2021). The results further extend the findings of previous studies by showing that hardships caused by the pandemic for PhD candidates reflect negatively on both supervisors’ and supervisees’ well-being.…”

“…Based on the restricted empirical evidence, it seems that the COVID-19 pandemic has predominantly had a negative impact on PhD candidates (Atkinson et al, 2021;Aubry et al, 2021;Camerlink et al, 2021;Donohue et al, 2021;Myers et al, 2020). For instance, we recently showed that PhD candidates typically estimated the COVID-19 pandemic as having a negative impact on their study progress and study well-being (Pyhältö et al, 2022).…”

“…A reason for this might be fewer informal meetings such as coffee break meetings with the supervisors due to the lockdowns. In addition, reduced levels of wellbeing due to the COVID-19 pandemic have been detected (Atkinson et al, 2021;Donohue et al, 2021), including increased stress levels (Camerlink et al, 2021;Guintivano et al, 2021), mental and physical fatigue (Adarmouch et al, 2020;Stamp et al, 2021) and poorer work-life balance (Aubry et al, 2021).…”

“…In particular, PhD candidates have been found to suffer from negative pandemic effects (Andersen et al , 2021; Donohue et al , 2021; Krukowski et al , 2021; Viglione, 2020; Lokhtina et al , 2022). Among the influences detected are reduced productivity (Cui, Ding, and Zhu, 2021), delays in timelines (Adarmouch et al , 2020; Atkinson et al , 2021; Ramvilas et al , 2021), expiry of research funding (Stamp et al , 2021), lack of or limited access to the data and participants (Pyhältö et al , 2022), erosion of research support networks (Guintivano et al , 2021), restrained access to the resources provided by the institution and a reduction in well-being (Atkinson et al , 2021; Donohue et al , 2021). Based on the limited empirical evidence, doctoral supervisors have also been influenced by the pandemic.…”

University students' psychological distress during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A structural equation model of the role of resource loss and gain

“…The COVID‐19 pandemic brought about even greater, rapid changes, challenges, and stressors (e.g., remote learning, a threat to wellbeing, isolation, etc.) which likely compounded these mental health concerns among many university students (Appleby et al, 2022; Atkinson et al, 2021; El‐Monshed et al, 2021; Heumann et al, 2023; Kaparounaki et al, 2020; Mutinda & Liu, 2021; Resch et al, 2022; Riboldi et al, 2023; Rogowska et al, 2020; Wang et al, 2020; Wathelet et al, 2020; Zainal Badri et al, 2021).…”