Can the doctoral student feel good? That's what it said on the invitation I received. The question was both funny and thought-provoking. In this case, the question was also the title of a theme day I was invited to participate in.
The theme day brought together, among others, directors of studies, the board of supervisors and representatives from the doctoral student union. Today they were to discuss quality in doctoral education and the thoughts were both many and not always aligned among the participants. I took the initiative and presented how SFS-DK sees the matter.
It is perhaps not surprising that doctoral education raises both emotions and questions among those who work with quality in and for doctoral education, let alone among those who implement it. It is the highest form of education that universities provide. This is where tomorrow's researchers and academics are trained and the cutting-edge expertise in Swedish society is promoted. Doctoral education is also a time when the doctoral student can devote up to five years to their special interest, it is a fantastic opportunity for personal development and increased belief in their own abilities.
But it is also a time marked by worry and stress, which makes the perhaps initially subtle and somewhat basic question both important and relevant.
As recently as this spring, the report “How are doctoral students?” was released in collaboration between SFS and the ST Trade Union. The report shows that for some time now there have been signals that the doctoral student’s work environment is both stressful and unsustainable. Many doctoral students are reported to experience levels of anxiety and stress that are dangerous to their health. The image of a prosperous future academic is fading. Why is this so?
There are 17,000 doctoral students in Sweden (17,371 to be exact). One fifth of Sweden's doctoral students stated that they had difficulty sleeping a couple of days a week because of their job; one quarter had to work overtime several days a week; and one fifth felt that they did not have the opportunity to take a vacation. For me, this is a bleak side of Swedish doctoral education. These are just some of the examples mentioned in the report "How is the doctoral student doing?".
The reason why the doctoral student's work environment is important is because doctoral education plays a central role in our common social life. Through research, new knowledge and ideas are produced that are often spread far beyond the academic world.
An important part of doctoral education is precisely the contribution to our common society. In academia, an important part of the public conversation is also initiated and conducted. I would like to argue that without doctoral education, part of that conversation stops. Because without a doctoral education, we also lack a future academy. It is of course the case that the entire Swedish academy does not stop, decline, or even disappear because the Swedish doctoral students do not have a safe and functioning work environment.
The attractiveness of Swedish postgraduate education, on the other hand, and in the long term, the quality of the contribution to the public discourse risks faltering. If we want to shape the academy of the future and sow the seeds for a better, perhaps even sustainable, academic culture, it starts in postgraduate education.
So a more relevant question to formulate would be: If doctoral education shapes academia, how do we shape sustainable doctoral education?
A socially sustainable doctoral education means that the institution works to ensure that doctoral students can educate themselves, work and contribute in the academic space without unjustified pressures and obstacles. A socially sustainable doctoral education is about both the situation today and the processes, structures and frameworks that shape the social conditions for future doctoral students.
Being a doctoral student means undergoing an education and sometimes also being nurtured into academia. When asked if it is possible to feel good as a doctoral student, a more nuanced answer – rather than a straight-up scream – is sometimes difficult to give. Despite this, I believe that sustainable doctoral education with prosperous doctoral students begins when we together decide to create a sustainable academy.