Invited discussant comments during the UCL–Penn Global COVID Study webinar ‘Doctoral Students’ Educational Stress and Mental Health’

Abstract

This discussant commentary considers the findings presented in the UCL-Penn Global COVID Study webinar 4 ‘Doctoral Students’ Educational Stress and Mental Health’ and the research article published from the series of webinar in this journal, ‘The effects of cumulative stressful educational events on the mental health of doctoral students during the Covid-19 pandemic’. The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the education of hundreds of thousands of graduate students worldwide by curtailing their access to laboratories, libraries, and face-to-face interactions with peers and supervisors. This has resulted in considerable stress, given that expectations on research productivity during the period have remained unchanged. This note suggests three principles to help graduate students cope with the impact of Covid-19 on their educational journey: (1) support student resilience; (2) support student learning; and (3) support students technologically.