Doctoral Students’ Experiences of Supervisory Bullying

The power dynamic in the student-supervisor relationship is perceived to be unequal, with a good relationship between a student and supervisor important for a doctoral students’ success. Many authors have discussed the power differential between a student and supervisor, with some reporting exploitative, aggressive, and intrusive supervision as resulting problems. However, no publicly available study has specifically reported bullying as a by-product of the student-supervisor relationship. As victims of bullying are typically reluctant to voice their concerns face-to-face, data for this paper was sourced from student’s experiential evidence located on internet blog sites. The eight blogs which form the data for this study were analysed for common themes. The six themes that emerged from the data were confusion, unrealistic work demands, criticism, anger and rage, inappropriate attention, and abuse of power. By exploring the doctoral students’ experiences of supervisory bullying, this paper will discuss a previously unreported issue in the doctoral student-supervisor relationship, and provide guidance for institutions to stop the bullying before it even has a chance to begin