SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Poor mental health is an issue for many of our readers. That fact is underscored by the response to a tweet sent by @NatureNews earlier this week, which highlighted that rates of depression and anxiety reported by postgraduate students are six times higher than in the general population (T. M. Evans et al. Nature Biotechnol. 36, 282–284; 2018), and asked what should be done to help. The figures are a shock, but it was the reaction that blew us away: more than 1,200 retweets and around 170 replies.
“This is not one dimensional problem. Financial burden, hostile academia, red tape, tough job market, no proper career guidance. Take your pick,” read one. “Maybe being told day in, day out that the work you spend 10+ hrs a day, 6–7 days a week on isn’t good enough,” said another.
The feedback emphasizes something that Nature has highlighted often in recent years: there is a problem among young scientists. Too many have mental-health difficulties, and too many say that the demands of the role are partly to blame. Neither issue gets the attention it deserves. “I’d love to see some of the comments under this thread published,” wrote one responder. “There needs to be real conversation about this, not just observation.”
We agree — which is why we are publishing some of the responses. (You can read the full thread here.)
(Score: 5, Informative) by khallow on Monday April 02 2018, @01:52PM (1 child)
For example, in the field of math, which I was a student for over ten years (though not consecutively), the typical trajectory for the successful tenured professor would be, first, a relevant undergraduate or post-graduate degree (I started with a very mediocre degree in physics and then acquired a masters degree in applied math with very good grades). Then at both PhD programs I attended (ultimately dropping out the first time), one had to first pass a set of fairly rigorous exams (though easier than the top rung colleges, the second time I went through that, I spent the summer before practicing on some harder entrance exams from other schools which had answers online and easily passed the lot). Then select an advisor and complete a dissertation (which was very hard and I only managed my second time through). And finally, after defending the dissertation (which was easier at my school than many), picked up the PhD.
At that point, one would then need to apply for either postdoc or tenure-track positions usually at schools lower quality than the degree granting institution. At that point, I went off the rails and into my accounting job in Yellowstone National Park since I didn't even bother to do that.
There are so many PhD graduates in math at this point, that IIRC about half would have to leave academia altogether in order for the numbers to work. Needless to say, I was one of those. Moving on, success at this stage would be more likely to be a postdoc than tenure-track since schools are picky and often want to see more demonstration of academic success (ye publishe or perishe). A common, lesser failure was to end up a permanent lecturer. Depending on the school, that can a good job or an incredibly lousy one. I've seen lecturers who've happily taught away for decades and I've heard of schools where they burn out in a year or two and are readily replaced by more.
Moving on, postdocs if successful apply for and obtain a tenure-track position. These are lower rung professorships that have the expectation that if the department likes the professor, he or she can obtain a tenured position after a number of years (usually five to seven years). Tenure-track is the last filter and it is just as abusive as all the rest. Depends on the school again, but most have most of the tenure-track people handling the workload - more classes to teach, more adminitrivia to administrate, meetings/conferences to manage, etc. Anyway, if you survive that and the department still loves you, then you can be voted tenure by whatever group/decision process does that. Usually, you only have two chances at this. Someone will usually give you a second chance, if you fail the first time. Rule of thumb is to give up if you fail the second time.
And of course, once one has tenure, it's days of wine and roses (well, I'm only partially sarcastic). Again it depends on the school, but for most, you have to massively misbehave in order to lose tenure and the stress is much lower than what you had to go through to get there. This very pleasant working environment and the accompanying prestige is a large reason why so many people go through this in the first place.
So how does this have to do with mental health of the participants? Obviously, there are the many years of stress - a typical mental health problem generator. But also there is the fact that the majority of people going into these programs have an unrealistic idea of where they'll be when they exit (often encouraged by schools looking for cheap labor to cover undergraduate classes). When that unrealistic self-image gets shoved through the meat grinder of the academic progression, mental health issues naturally develop.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 02 2018, @03:06PM
I was surprised to hear that at this school, misbehavior includes dissent from current identity dogma. So much for academic freedom.