Steve* is a doctoral researcher completing an online PhD programme who is based in the UK but comes from another country.

*Steve chose his own pseudonym.

Okay, so it has both the positive and negative impacts on my mental wellbeing. Like I’m starting with the positive aspects, like, so when you are starting remotely, so you have more flexibility in working schedule. So, you can go in between like work, family responsibilities and other personal activities as well. But you can manage those works when you are working remotely.  When you are working remotely, you have more chance to getting used to it, larger communities, like if you join different academic societies, student societies across UK, so any countries of the world, so you have a better connection. There is some negative impacts as well. Like when you are working remotely, so you are away from the campus environment. So often you feel like something like loneliness. I think we are we are giving more times on a screen, so screen time, we always work on desktop in most cases, so, but when you are completely working remotely, time on a screen, so like you are on online meetings and like reading literatures and like getting engaged with other peers as well, so it is it causes some mental problems as well, especially in my mental being like anxiety, eye stress as well. So, these are the negative sides.

Yeah, so another thing is that like when you are working remotely, so you sometimes work independently and you have to make your own decision. So, I think this is important for your career growth as well. So, because of finishing your PhD, so you are going to work as a member of a different team. So sometimes you might need to lead that team as well. So, from that point of view, so there is a positive influence over your decision-making capability.

Okay, so like when you are working with different tools, online tools, and like you have access to different online platforms as well, including like online library, online access, like we are using apps anywhere so you can use different types of softwares which is needed for your study, like when you are doing the quantitative or qualitative analysis. So, you need to have access to those tools as well. So, it’s increasing your skills in a specific field, including going through different research tools, like accessing different resources, online resources, like when you are reviewing literatures, you might need to get access to different like journals, articles, and books.

So positive sense is that like, so you are getting the chance of getting immediate feedback from the supervisors, okay. So, when you are working in person, so sometimes it’s hard to get connected with them because they have other responsibilities as well. But when you are working remotely, so you can send queries through e-mail, so they can give feedback when they’re free. And if I think about the negative side, there are many, but I think the main thing is that, so when you are giving more time on a screen, so it creates some issues with your physical and mental health, like anxiety, headache, eye stress, etc. So, it’s sometimes it’s difficult to manage. And so, in that case, I think what you need is to get a break on your studying.

So, as we know that, so university provides mental health and wellbeing support as well. So that’s an option. So, to getting in touch with them. So, when you are in stress or finding difficulties with mental wellbeing. And another thing is that so when you are keeping in touch with your community. So, if you are in close with your community, we have larger communities from my own countries as well. So, if you are in close with the community, so you can get in touch with them, with different occasions, festivals. And during weekends, you can go for like visit, travel with them and have some chit chat with them. So, it’s an important thing, think that socialising with the community people, it affects positively, so it refreshes your mind. So, I think that’s another factor which could impact your mental health and wellbeing in a positive sense.

My supervisors always ask me, so if I have any issues, like I had some issues with my health as well, and also like some issues with my family members as well. So, it’s some things like emotional and… wellbeing issues, okay, and I had issues with my physical health as well. So they always, they were always in support, like if I need some time, like when I was giving some assignments, so, but I could not manage it on proper time due to my mental health and physical health issues. So they were always in touch with me. So, what’s going on and what support I might need?  I feel like I was lucky, luckiest person.

So, like I take support from advice from my colleagues as well. So, who are the current PhD students? So, what they do actually when they were facing similar sorts of difficulties. So sometimes I do chit-chat with them and hear about their own experience and share my own experience as well. And then we try to share our thoughts with how we manage those difficulties. So, I do both things, like working or like traveling or like even hiking with both from the people from my community.

Yeah, so some they are also doing same sorts of courses. Okay, so like also they are doing master’s or PhD as well, so we share our journey as well. There’s some there are some professors, working here, okay, so from our own community. So, we share our experience with them as well. And they also give our mental support and some feedback because they were going through the similar situations. So, I can get feedback from them as well. And also, like they are more aware about our situations because we are from the same sorts of community.

So, there, so you know, so different levels, you have different sorts of responsibilities. So, as a PhD student, so you have to work on proper time, so like working with your assignments and giving feedback, getting feedback from your supervisors and like there are some deadlines for those as well. So, if you don’t maintain a schedule for your work, your family time, and like your laser time, so you can’t finish it on proper time. 

So, I think so if we had some sorts of like chances of getting informal discussion. So, it could help us like getting refreshed. So not just only thinking about your work, but… trying to get rid of that stress. And there could be some like, although the universities are arranging those, sorts of activities, like getting outdoor activities, like arranging different trips, like laser trips. So, it helps actually, so refreshing your mind. And I think if there were specific working groups, like… in which you are working on, so it could help sharing your thoughts within those working groups. And… Also, I think that they, we already have those support options for health and mental and health wellbeing, so, but sometimes we feel uncomfortable sharing our thoughts, okay, so, like, feeling like that. Some sometimes shyness, what they might think, so they there might be some like we might think like that those are personal issues, so we can’t share with them, so it so sometimes it creates some tone of discomfort sharing your own experience. So, but if there was a chance of like removing those types of thinking and make them aware like it’s important for your own mental health and wellbeing. So, then I think the students could have more interest on using that helpline.