Tuesday 01-05-2018 - 14:34

Last week, we held the second of our new Postgraduate Forums. I was pleased to see so many attendees enjoying the discussion (and the pizza!). It’s a really positive step forward to hold events addressing topics important to Durham’s often-overlooked postgraduate community.

The forum’s theme was mental health, an issue that disproportionately affects postgraduate students and one that created some really interesting responses.

Poppy Brown, a Dphil student from the University of Oxford and author of the Higher Education Policy Institute report ‘The Invisible Problem: Improving Students’ Mental Health’, was our guest speaker. She spoke to us about her report and the need for more rigorous research around postgraduate mental health.

Caroline Dower, Head of the University Counselling Service, also spoke about a new project around the supervisory relationship. She is looking for participants willing to share their experiences of supervision and will be reaching out shortly to departments and MCRs.

We then had some revealing group discussion around the following questions:

·        What about being a postgraduate contributes to poor mental health?

·        What about being a postgraduate contributes to good mental health?

·        What does Durham do well to support postgraduate wellbeing?

·        What could Durham do better to support postgraduate wellbeing?

The thoughts recorded from this discussion will provide an invaluable basis for how we, as a Students’ Union and a wider University community, address the topic of mental health in the future.

And it’s through this discussion, that we have planned our PG Mental Health Matters campaign that will launch in the week commencing 14 May. I’m looking forward to having a campaign focussed on the specific issues surrounding postgrads, and making sure that their views on the subject are visible to the whole University. I’m also looking forward to the puppies we’ll have in the SU that week, but that’s just an added bonus!

For more information, read our report on PG Forum here.