Graduate students locked down? PhD students' satisfaction with supervision during the first and second COVID-19 lockdown in Belgium

Factors associated with suicide risk among Brazilian graduate students during the COVID-19 pandemic

Though pandemic-related suicides are a concern, little is known about factors potentially linking graduate student life and suicide risk. This study identified factors associated with suicide risk among Brazilian graduate students (N = 5,344) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilizing the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, this study revealed that 31.5% of participants presented some risk for suicide: 16.6% "low risk," 4.7% "moderate risk," and 10.2% "high risk." Higher income and religious affiliation were identified as protective factors. Identified risk factors encompass non-heterosexual orientation, a history of depression or posttraumatic stress or common mental disorders diagnoses, the use of medications-both general and psychopharmaceuticals-without medical prescription, antipsychotics use, alcohol consumption, lack of health insurance, and dissatisfaction with life as a result of accessing social media networks. The high vulnerability of graduate students to suicide risk highlights the need for institutional suicide prevention initiatives.

Profiles of PhD students’ satisfaction and their relationships with demographic characteristics and academic career enthusiasm

The satisfaction of doctoral students is very important for the quality of higher education. Based on two-factor theory (also known as Herzberg’s motivation–hygiene theory), this study used a person-centered approach to examine possible doctoral student satisfaction profiles. In total, 4,964 participants were included in the study, and the results of latent profile analysis showed that they could be classified into four subgroups: (i) the low-motivation–low-hygiene group (700 participants, 14.1% of the sample), (ii) the low-motivation–high-hygiene group (979, 19.7%), (iii) the high-motivation–low-hygiene group (1,554, 31.3%), and (iv) the high-motivation–high-hygiene group (1,731, 34.9%). Analyses showed that the PhD students differed significantly in their satisfaction-profile membership depending on their gender, age, country, study-abroad status, work status, and caring responsibilities. Specifically, male students, younger students, and students studying abroad tended to be more satisfied with both motivation and hygiene factors. Besides, regarding maintaining and stimulating doctoral students’ academic career enthusiasm, motivation factors can compensate for the negative impact of the absence of hygiene factors, not the other way around. Therefore, it can be seen that two-factor theory has a certain explanatory power for changes in academic career enthusiasm, but it must be adjusted in a certain way considering the special characteristics of the population.

Navigating postgraduate research during the COVID-19 pandemic: A scoping review

Background

The worldwide coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic compelled higher education institutions and postgraduate students (master’s and PhD) to rethink their research designs, as alert level restrictions affected data collection.

Objectives

To identify and map out the breadth of evidence available on the challenges and opportunities for conducting postgraduate research during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Method

A scoping review was conducted in CINAHL, MEDLINE (EBSCO), SCOPUS and PubMed databases. The authors independently began by screening the titles, the abstracts and full texts. Duplications were removed during the title and abstract screening by exporting them into EndNote.

Results

The search identified 463 documents, and 12 were included in the final review. The documents were studies commentaries, letters (n = 1) from India and guidelines from countries across the globe. The common themes that were reported on the challenges of conducting postgraduate research were the inability to collect data, the digital divide and changes in study designs.

Conclusion

The review reports on the opportunities and challenges in conducting postgraduate research during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the limited evidence on the opportunities of conducting postgraduate research, most postgraduate research stalled because of COVID-19 restrictions. There is a need for more literature to explore further postgraduate research opportunities during COVID-19 and beyond.

Contribution

The focus on the challenges and opportunities in conducting postgraduate research during the COVID-19 pandemic may assist in the development of strategies needed to mitigate the effects of this and future pandemics.