Almost half of female PhD candidates experience unwanted behaviour
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Op veel wc's op de campus zijn borden te vinden, die bezoekers wijzen op de vertrouwenspersonen. Foto ter illustratie
Bullying, discrimination, sexual harassment… New figures from Statistics Netherlands reveal that many female PhD candidates face unwanted behaviour. 'This is very worrying', says the PhD Network Netherlands.
How do recent PhD graduates fare after finishing their dissertation, and how do they look back on their experiences as PhD candidates? The Dutch statistics agency CBS conducted a survey to answer these questions.
44 percent of recent female PhD graduates reported experiencing unwanted behaviour during their PhD. Among men, this figure was significantly lower, at 26 percent.
The unwanted behaviour included bullying, discrimination and intimidation. One in ten women experienced sexual harassment.
Perpetrators may be professors, peers and other people PhD candidates ‘came into contact with during the PhD’. The figures don’t include a breakdown by type of perpetrator.
Worrying
‘This really is very worrying’, says Martijn van der Meer, chair of the PhD Network Netherlands. ‘Almost one in two women and a quarter of men experience unwanted behaviour. That’s a lot.’
He argues that the figures demonstrate the necessity of the increased focus on social safety in higher education and research. The Social Safety programme, which offers grant funding for promising solutions in this area, is a good example of this according to Van der Meer.
Workload
Meanwhile, workloads have increased in recent years. Although Statistics Netherlands has no historical data on misconduct, it did previously conduct a workload survey among PhD graduates, in 2019.
Then, 60 percent of respondents described their workload as either high or very high. In last year’s survey, this figure rose to 68 percent. Women were more likely than men to report high workloads (72 percent vs 63 percent).
Disheartening results, according to Van der Meer: ‘Over the past five years, there’s been a lot of focus on workload, but the figures are only getting worse.’
Satisfied
Despite the challenges they faced, 86 percent of recent PhD graduates were generally satisfied with their PhD process, down from 93 percent in 2019. Men were marginally more positive about their experiences than women.
Have you experienced excessive workload, bullying, or another form of inappropriate behavior as a PhD candidate at Radboud University – and would you like to talk about it? If so, please contact Vox for a confidential conversation. The editorial team can be reached at [email protected].
