“Instead of being rewarded for my hard work and dedication, I was told to work harder. Asking for a Saturday or Sunday off was met with wide-eyed stares and silence, with a colleague ‘subtly’ reminding me in a meeting that if I wanted to succeed as a PhD student and researcher giving up my life, friends, and family was a sacrifice that had to be made,” she said. “Of course I was prepared to work long hours, as I knew that I was committing to a career and life that didn’t consist of a nine to five schedule. However, as time passed I felt like I was being dragged unwillingly to the battle front lines, and forced to sacrifice my life for the benefit of my supervisor and lab.”

Lisa isn’t alone in the issues she has expressed about her graduate program. The reality is that graduate students and post-doctoral researchers are considered to be the next generation of highly skilled professionals with analytical and communication skills, able to influence science, technology, policy, and the economy to the benefit of society. Despite this, research shows that while universities and institutes once nourished our next generation leaders, the last decade of large-scale organisational change, government funding cuts, and an increasingly grim job market has led to many graduate students feeling overworked and struggling psychologically.

Research carried out in Australia, the US and elsewhere has shown that large numbers of academics are overloaded, demoralised and depressed. Many are suffering from insomnia and disorientation, as well as physical illnesses related to workplace stress. A 2002 survey of 8,732 Australian university academics found approximately 50% of those interviewed were at risk of psychological illness, compared to 19% of the Australian population overall. Since then, the situation seems to have worsened. A 2014 Guardian survey of academics, ranging from Vice Chancellors to PhD candidates, reported 80% of the more than 2,500 respondents suffered from anxiety. The survey also showed that almost 35% suffered from depression and did not suffer from psychological illness prior to the commencement of their studies in academia. A 2014 report from the University of California, Berkeley also found that 60% of graduate students felt overwhelmed, exhausted, hopeless, sad, or depressed nearly all the time. One in 10 said they had contemplated suicide in the previous year.