Nearly half of PhD students have an increased risk of mental health problems

Nearly half of PhD students have an increased risk of mental health problems, 40% are considering quitting

47% of PhD candidates in the Netherlands are at increased risk of mental health issues. This is evident from the PhD Survey by the PhD Network Netherlands (PNN), in which 1,601 PhD candidates in the Netherlands participated. International PhD candidates, in particular, are at increased risk of mental health issues: a staggering 55.6% of them have an increased risk of mental health issues.

Work pressure is also a major problem for PhD candidates: almost 60% of PhD candidates report experiencing high or excessive workloads, particularly due to the sheer volume of work, perfectionism, and pressure to publish. Furthermore, a staggering 62.5% of PhD candidates work more hours than agreed upon in their contracts, an average of approximately 4.4 hours more. A third of PhD candidates also exhibit serious symptoms of burnout: PhD candidates who experience high workloads are particularly likely to exhibit burnout symptoms. Furthermore, over a quarter of PhD candidates indicate they expect they will not be able to complete their project within the agreed timeframe, especially when their contracts are shorter than four years.

It's therefore not surprising that 41.6% of PhD students have considered quitting their program, 6% of whom do so very regularly. For 24% of PhD students, doubts about the science are a reason for considering quitting, and for 12.8%, mental health issues play a role. Other important reasons include doubts about their own ability to complete the program and problems with supervisors.

While PNN chair Lucille Mattijssen isn't surprised by the results, she still finds them alarming. "This isn't the first study to show that many PhD students struggle with mental health issues and high workloads, but it is the first to demonstrate this nationally. It's sobering to see that workloads are the same everywhere, regardless of institution type, PhD program type, or field of study. It's now up to universities, university medical centers, and research institutions to make their work environments healthier for PhD students, otherwise they run the risk of seeing many PhD students turn their backs on academia for good."

Following the research, PNN recommends that PhD programs should not last shorter than four years. "That's already the standard, but it's still too often deviated from," says Mattijssen. PNN also advocates for better training for PhD supervisors, so they can not only prevent themselves from increasing their PhD students' workloads, but also intervene if the workload becomes too much for PhD students due to other factors. Finally, PNN recommends applying the new Recognition and Reward for Scientists specifically to PhD students and abandoning strict publication criteria for them as well. "The number of publications isn't a perfect predictor of researcher quality, so it's not for PhD students either."

More reports based on the PNN PhD survey will be published soon, including those on contract characteristics , supervision , teaching , and non-standard PhD trajectories .