PhD support

Doing a PhD can be very demanding and stressful at times. It is therefore very important to keep your mental fitness at a high level. It is good to know that if you are facing problems at work, that there are several ways of getting support that will enable you to solve the problem or make it more manageable.

Reading advice

A good PhD guide to read at the start and throughout your PhD time is Managing your Mental Health during your PhD: A Survival Guide by Zoë J. Ayres. It contains chapters on e.g. mental health, self-care, how to thrive instead of survive, managing expectations and your supervisor, impostor feelings, the publish or perish issue, and putting your academic skills into a broader context. You can download the PDF via your own university library access. The graduate school also compiled a list of PhD tips to help you navigate your personal PhD trajectory, and the PhD council wrote a PhD advice guide. A useful online guide about (mental) health and wellness with information and exercises is HelpGuide.org.

Dutch academia

Are you familiar with the Dutch academia? Here you can find a very good introduction that hopefully helps you to find your way.

If you are a PhD candidate and feel that you would like to talk about your PhD trajectory with somebody outside your own work environment, please do not hesitate to contact the PhD advisor for EPS, Susan Urbanus, or find local support at your university in the list in below. Alternatively, you can contact the EPS PhD Council.

If you have doubts about whether the issue is big enough to involve another person, please remember that it is easier to solve an issue when it is still small and that all information will be treated confidentially.

Support and mediation at EPS partner institutes different universities associated with EPS, where you can also find the contact information for local counsellors and confidential advisors.

Leiden University
Mental fitness
Confidential counsellors

Radboud University Nijmegen
PhD Organisation Nijmegen – PhD welfare
Confidential advisors for PhD candidates

Maastricht University
Support & Training for current PhD candidates
Confidential advisors for PhD candidates

University of Amsterdam
Support for PhD candidates – University of Amsterdam (uva.nl)

University of Groningen
PhD support

University of Utrecht
Support and confidential counsellors
Selection guide – Talk in confidence, report or file a complaint – Utrecht University (uu.nl)

VU University
Help, support and advice for PhD candidates

Wageningen University & Research
General and mental health guidance for PhD candidates at WUR
Social safety & wellbeing (link only for WUR members)