Impact of guidelines on the stress level and expectations between doctoral students and supervisors

Abstract

This study investigates the expectations and the stress level of doctoral students and supervisors. To this end we interviewed nine doctoral students and eight supervisors from four doctoral education programs at the Faculty of Engineering at Lund University (LTH): Biomedical Engineering; Food Technology, Engineering and Nutrition; Mathematics; and Risk and Safety. The study subjects differ in the level of detail in requirements of courses and papers in the study syllabi and internal guidelines. From the interviews, we saw that in subjects with ambitious requirements, such as Biomedical Engineering and Risk and Safety, the requirements contribute to stress among both students and supervisors. At the same time, the requirements serve as a guide for project and time management, which in turn reduce stress. On the other hand, the stress induced by uncertainty regarding the expected performance became evident in the interviews with students from Food Technology, Engineering and Nutrition, and Mathematics, where there are very loose and rather home-made guidelines. Here, the role of clearly communicated expectations and a good relation between the supervisor and the doctoral student seem to be essential for reducing stress. Some supervisors felt stressed about assuring enough money so that doctoral students can perform their research with sufficient quality, while others had strategies to handle both time con- straints and delivering results to the funding body. Most interviewed students appreciated having clear require- ments regarding the number of publications to achieve their doctoral degree. However, it seems as if having technical tools in terms of detailed guidelines to reduce uncertainty and clarify expectations is not enough to reduce stress among doctoral students. The support system of supervisors and peers is crucial to the students’ mental health and wellbeing.