Helping Your PhD Researchers Thrive — Not Just Survive
PhD Thriving: Evidence-Informed Support for Individuals, Cohorts, Academic Staff and Research Environments
The Data – The Best Days of Your Life?
An authoritative meta-study published in May 2026 found that almost 1 in 3 Early Career Researchers (ECRs) had symptoms of severe depression. Almost 1 in 3 had symptoms of anxiety, over a quarter reported an eating disorder, 23% reported they were misusing alcohol, and 1 in 5 reported suicide ideation. Most of these conditions are three to four times more common in ERCs than in the age-matched general population.1
When you add other related issues such as social isolation, imposter syndrome, low motivation, worries about money and future career prospects, the picture is even bleaker. There are signs that things will get worse before they get better. The idea that just by entering a PhD programme, a person will dramatically increase their chances of developing major mental health conditions is something that should be a concern to all of academia. Without ERCs, universities’ ability to generate new knowledge and teach others will be dramatically altered.
Those of us already working with PhDs know that helping students transition from a surviving to a thriving mindset can positively impact all domains of their lives. Much of the support PhDs need to thrive is relatively low-cost and accessible. For example, creating inclusive, compassionate, self-sustaining doctoral communities is within reach of all universities; it simply requires access to knowledge and some mindtraining techniques.
Our aim is to support PhD candidates to fulfil their potential on their doctoral journey. This means helping students shift their mindset from surviving to thriving. This is an obvious oversimplification, but it emphasises the direction of travel needed to maximise the PhD opportunity. When we work with individual students, the relationship begins with a simple yet powerful step. We ask them to describe their current conditions and mindset and then establish how they want them to change. The approach is quite similar when dealing with larger groups of PhDs. Two indispensable foundations support this work: compassionate communication and a clear understanding of what the different mental states (surviving, coping, coasting, and thriving) mean in practice.
It’s a challenging time for everyone in higher education, but postgraduate students in particular are coming under great pressure. Peer-reviewed evidence indicates that at least half of all PhDs are likely surviving rather than thriving. The level of reported psychological suffering within cohorts is, as far as we know, at unprecedented levels. Some of these issues are unsurprising if you consider that many universities lack a systematic approach to evaluating whether doctoral students are thriving in the most important domains: happiness, wellbeing and success (academic performance). If you don’t know what the problem is, solving it is abstract. There is also a challenging trope in some universities that a PhD is about the survival of the fittest; such ideas can normalise psychological suffering.
The primary function of a university is not clinical or therapeutic; it is educational and academic. However, there are signs that in some cases the PhD journey itself may be a causal or contributory factor in poor student wellbeing and quality of life. Universities risk major difficulties if they fail to appreciate how PhDs feel about their health, research, relationship with the institution, and the future. Without relevant data, PhD thriving becomes ad hoc, anecdotal, imaginary, rather than an effective, evidence-based process.
Why Do We Know So Much About How To Tackle These Problems?
PhD Thriving was founded by Dr Stephen Morris, a consultant in applied neuropsychology with over 20 years’ experience of supporting people to transition from surviving to thriving, both in universities and the wider community. He has been researching and teaching contemplative practices for a quarter of a century as a specialist academic mentor; he has thousands of hours of experience helping undergraduates and postgraduates increase their happiness, wellbeing, and success. He has provided funded meditation support for PhD students and is helping to establish the Global PhD Meditation Project. Stephen has also contributed to research into PhD mental health and staff training in compassionate communication. A range of academic and university support staff contribute to the PhD Thrive project, including Study Skills Specialists and other academic and university support staff.
The Hidden Cost of PhD Survival
Evidence shows that failing to objectively evaluate and address the explicit health, wellbeing, and academic limitations of PhD candidates is costly in many ways. Candidates who survive rather than thrive often take longer to complete their research; they likely need more support as their health and motivation decline; they may disengage in several ways and may harbour a sense of disappointment, or worse, from their institution.
Anecdotally, many PhDs who ‘successfully’ reach viva within the anticipated timescales and are awarded a doctorate may have struggled, sometimes for years, to keep going. And they may describe the PhD journey as a ‘disaster’ from which they may take time to recover. The irony is that almost all PhD candidates begin their research with optimism and enthusiasm. We are here to help universities move upstream on issues linked to thriving, making the PhD experience fulfilling and worthwhile on every level. Rather than reacting to crises or negative news headlines when they occur, we encourage universities to create supportive, positive environments where researchers are more likely to flourish in the first place.
Reference:
1 Dreisoerner, A., Goetz, V., Frohnmayer, D., Tran, U. S., Voracek, M., & Nater, U. M. (2026). Prevalence and severity of mental health problems in early-career researchers: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Nature Human Behaviour, 1-20.
