Supervisor’s support ‘crucial’ to novice academics’ well-being

Supportive supervision is a hallmark of job satisfaction among Australia’s freshly fledged academics – more so than the guarantee of continuing employment – with their mental health suffering after they earn their PhDs, notwithstanding the famously stressful ordeal of doctoral study.

A survey of early and mid-career researchers (EMCRs) has highlighted the initial postdoctoral years as a crunch point in academia, with new academics significantly more anxious and depressed than their slightly senior colleagues.

Their well-being at work largely hinged on feeling that the boss had their back. EMCRs who reported being “very satisfied” with their workplace culture were also likely to say they felt “very” supported by their supervisors, and somewhat less likely to say they expected to have their contracts renewed.

Nevertheless, job security emerged as the most common theme when they were asked to propose solutions for the issues they faced.

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The figures come from a study of about 300 early career academics from the health and medical faculties at the University of Melbourne and Monash University. The participants, most of whom had obtained their doctorates since 2010, were quizzed on their career development, workplace culture and mental well-being in an online survey between late 2020 and early 2021.

Co-author Trevor Steward, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Melbourne, said lack of supervisor support was a common perception among one-quarter or so of the participants, with many “really struggling”. Most were “fresh out of their PhD” and needed their supervisors’ guidance on grant applications and journal submissions.

But some said their supervisors seldom saw them and had no idea what grants they were pursuing. “These folks just have a sense of instability as a consequence of the poor funding environment for medical research – that the floor’s going to fall out from under them,” Dr Steward said.

He said it was an encouraging finding in some ways. “We’re not likely to convince the government to double the budget of funding councils overnight, but at least we can try to target the early career researchers who are really hurting,” he said. Supervisors who headed units in hospitals may struggle “to review your grant application, but perhaps another person can step in and help you plot the steps to get you to a stable career”.  

Almost one-fifth of respondents reported witnessing misconduct, often authorship transgressions where names were unjustifiably added to garner favours. “Absolutely nothing can be done about authorship due to the power imbalance between junior and senior academics,” a participant observed.

While EMCRs overall experienced mental health problems at similar rates to the Australian adult population, “level A” academics – research fellows – were a marked exception.

Compared with the next level of seniority – “level B” lecturers – they proved about 50 per cent more likely to report clinically significant depression and twice as likely to report clinically significant anxiety, suicidal ideation and thoughts of leaving academia.

While the survey did not cover PhD students, Dr Steward said many level A academics were challenged by the transition to being academic staff. Students who thrived in the intellectually challenging and highly structured world of graduate study were not necessarily prepared for “the realities of academia”.

“It requires a completely different skill set. You have to learn how to be comfortable with instability, fend for yourself and define your own path. I’ve seen a lot of folks really struggle with that.”

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com