What can I do to help?

Encourage realistic student expectations and reflection

• Suggest candidates attend inductions and university events. Are there colleagues closer to completion willing to share their experiences and tips?
• Acknowledge the emotional aspects of the research journey. Some students keep a reflective journal as they progress through their candidature.

Advise students about how to proactively create a supportive work environment

• Encourage students to connect with peers and colleagues across the university. Is peer mentoring or group supervision an option?
• Be mindful of students more likely to become isolated e.g. new international students, part-time students with multiple roles.

Share your supervision framework with candidates early

• Your supervisory style and expectations about student roles and responsibilities.
• Preferred modes of communication and frequency of meetings.
• The purpose of constructive feedback.
• Your willingness to address any issues that arise in the supervisory relation and supervision process.

Promote positive wellbeing strategies:

• Open dialogues about the importance of optimising mental health and wellbeing.
• Invite students to develop stress management and wellbeing plans.
• Discuss student strengths and skills and how they apply them. Which skills do they need to develop next?
• Identify periods of peak pressure such as preparing for confirmation and leading up to final submission.
• Support students to set clear, achievable goals and to return to their sense of purpose when they are feeling de-motivated.
• Recognise when students are in the grip of perfectionism or the ‘imposter syndrome.’
• Promote problem solving, time management and the benefits of study-work-life integration.
• Inform candidates they are welcome to discuss stressors when they arise and promote help seeking action when issues contribute to psychological distress.
• Highlight access to student support services as part of ongoing professional practice and self-care. Counselling and Psychological services (CAPS) holds regular workshops on managing procrastination and perfectionism and provides online counselling sessions.

Observe early signs of stress, periods of low coping and emerging mental health issues

• Observe early signs of concern such as students missing meetings, withdrawing from shared work-spaces, failing to submit work, or becoming tearful or frustrated in meetings.
• Raise your observations with them as early as possible.
• Consider reaching out to the student if they haven’t been in contact with you for a while.
• Students who are enrolled part-time, studying off campus and those not working in research team may be more isolated.