PhD students have double the risk of developing a psychiatric disorder than the rest of the 'highly educated' population, http://www.businessinsider.com/phd-students-could-face-significant-mental-health-problems-2017-8, 5th Aug. 2017.
My comments on the above article:
My experience as a free service Honorary Staff, Honorary Faculty and Visiting Faculty for nine years in an Indian deemed university, fits with the article's broad view. I think the PhD program in some parts of Indian academia puts inhuman mental pressure on the PhD candidates if they have a PhD guide who does not give proper guidance. There is a complete lack of accountability from the PhD guide. The student, who would typically be in the mid-twenties, has to be mortally afraid of his PhD guide as his PhD can be easily messed up by his guide. And, very unfortunately, there are some brutal and inhuman professors in Indian academia, who can extract brutal revenge from a PhD student who dares to go against them or complain about them or simply does not follow his orders.
For me to watch mid-twenties young men who could have had a good paying job in the software industry if they had chosen to go for industry, having to become grad-slaves of some unethical or sometimes plainly incompetent PhD guide professors, was particularly upsetting.
I think there should be some human rights group in India that ensures accountability from Indian (academic) professors who exploit and mentally harass their PhD students, and even punishes such professors by naming-and-shaming them and by having a negative record entry in their academic record. Really! It gets that bad, at times, in Indian academia.
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My comments on the above article:
My experience as a free service Honorary Staff, Honorary Faculty and Visiting Faculty for nine years in an Indian deemed university, fits with the article's broad view. I think the PhD program in some parts of Indian academia puts inhuman mental pressure on the PhD candidates if they have a PhD guide who does not give proper guidance. There is a complete lack of accountability from the PhD guide. The student, who would typically be in the mid-twenties, has to be mortally afraid of his PhD guide as his PhD can be easily messed up by his guide. And, very unfortunately, there are some brutal and inhuman professors in Indian academia, who can extract brutal revenge from a PhD student who dares to go against them or complain about them or simply does not follow his orders.
For me to watch mid-twenties young men who could have had a good paying job in the software industry if they had chosen to go for industry, having to become grad-slaves of some unethical or sometimes plainly incompetent PhD guide professors, was particularly upsetting.
I think there should be some human rights group in India that ensures accountability from Indian (academic) professors who exploit and mentally harass their PhD students, and even punishes such professors by naming-and-shaming them and by having a negative record entry in their academic record. Really! It gets that bad, at times, in Indian academia.
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