133 132 Chapter Six: Supporting Postgraduate Students Being Generous on Encouragement and Support Postgraduate students experience immense insecurity when they find themselves getting stuck and getting nowhere on their research after spending years on it. Many of them are ambitious and expecting high of themselves with previous unfailing history of excellent academic performances. Very often this is the first time they encountered such difficulties which feels like a failure for them. It could be very panicky and exhausted to keep on swimming without seeing where to head to but sink if they stop. Supervisors could normalize such frustration by pointing out that every researcher could encounter such moments and it is a process of learning, and encourage students by highlighting their part of work done well so far. Your trust in their ability and seeing their potential would mean a lot to them and give them strengths to face the hardship. Chapter Six: Supporting Postgraduate Students “ “Thank you”, “Good job”, “Nicely done”, “Keep up the good work” are very simple phrases that can make a difference in postgraduate student life. It is important for a human to be appreciated by the supervisor or the boss. It is easy to feel frustrated while already trying to give the best we can. However, advisors have the tendency to forget that the person in front of them is more than just a student, with feelings. The PhD process is extremely hard by itself and it is easy to get lost and depressed in the middle. You are constantly looking for something, and you do not even know what it is. It happened to every single PhD I met (including myself) and most of the times the reason was the advisor was too pushy or unsatisfiable. A way to reduce this would be to show the students that the Professor (role model) cares and appreciates the hard work and the all-nighters a postgraduate student is doing. Sometimes it is just nice to hear that our role model think we are on the right path, that it will all be fine and that this is all part of the process. Treating postgraduate students as humans can drastically reduce the stress, tension and the depression we all go through during our studies and is an aspect that should be taken seriously. ” ~ Anonymous Student ~
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