by Dr John Turnpenny (UEA)
There has been concern in many countries for decades about poor wellbeing and mental health among students and staff in Higher Education institutions, including universities. In response, there is no shortage of recent initiatives to support wellbeing. In the UK, for example, there are research programmes, evidence hubs, charters, and strategies. There are also many different interventions, from direct support for people with wellbeing or mental health issues, to more indirect preventative measures such as improving supervision training.
However, why does such support sometimes struggle to have the desired impact? In my recent article in Policy & Politics, I examine some of the political and operational challenges of supporting wellbeing of postgraduate researchers (PGRs1), and the interactions between these challenges. In the UK there is an ongoing debate about PGRs’ status: they are often seen as neither, or confusingly both, staff and students. While PGRs pay fees to their institution, they contribute significantly to research and teaching, often while on casual contracts. I show how and why this status ambiguity has profound and complex implications for the capacity to design, steer, implement, engage with or benefit from support.
First, the ambiguous status of PGRs often leads to their marginalisation within Higher Education (HE) organisations (‘organisational marginalisation’), which in turn reinforces status ambiguity. Second, there is evidence of low political capacity at individual, organisation and wider systemic levels. This includes the capacity to gather allies for, and overcome opposition to, design and implementation of support initiatives. It is strongly related to organisational marginalisation, and includes lack of understanding by other staff and students, and relatively low voice within HE organisations. Third, there are significant gaps in operational capacity. These include lack of resources, and fragmented responsibilities for PGRs and their wellbeing, both of which limit effective deployment of resources in service of wellbeing support. Fourth, low operational capacity reflects, but can also amplify, low political capacity. For example, low political capacity apparent in various forms of lack of understanding can lead to low operational capacity. Additionally, low operational capacity through a) heavy reliance on particular individuals, and b) fragmentation of PGR governance, can also reinforce low political capacity, through, for example, amplifying organisational marginalisation.
What are the implications for improving support for PGR wellbeing? It is not likely that deciding to resolve PGR status ambiguity one way or the other will suddenly improve wellbeing. Analysing and addressing the complex interactions between capacity gaps, and minimising organisational marginalisation, is likely have more success. This is of course a challenging prospect. However, it has an urgency in particular for the sake of PGRs – in the words of one interviewee those ‘not quite students and not quite staff’ – who experience the sharp end of politics.
Dr John Turpenny is an Associate Professor in Politics and Policy at the University of East Anglia, UK.
This article was originally published by the Politics & Policy Journal Blog and is republished here courtesy of the editorial team. The original piece is available at: https://policyandpoliticsblog.com/2025/02/19/improving-support-for-postgraduate-researchers-wellbeing/
It is based on findings of an peer reviewed academic article published in the journal and available at: https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/pp/aop/article-10.1332-03055736Y2024D000000056/article-10.1332-03055736Y2024D000000056.xml
