UGS launches new wellbeing initiatives for PGRs
The University Graduate School is excited to announce a suite of new wellbeing initiatives tailored to postgraduate researchers (PGRs).
Following a successful funding bid, we will be using a grant from the Institutional Research England QR Funding to Enhance Research Culture scheme, to provide monthly PGR mental health workshops and weekly online group coaching for PGRs from February 2023.
The mental health workshops will be delivered by Bloomwise, a mental health consultancy business established by two University of Birmingham PGRs, who have the lived experience of studying for a PhD at UoB. Topics will include ‘Stress awareness and management’ and ‘Starting and managing a conversation’ (about mental health). You can book your place on the February workshop now and keep an eye on our PGR mental health workshops Eventbrite collection for details about the upcoming workshops.
Meet Bloomwise.
Our online group coaching programme for PGRs will run at 10:00 on Tuesdays and 14:00 on Thursdays every week (excluding the main vacation periods) and will be delivered by Dr Vikki Burns, founder of The PhD Life Coach and formerly an academic supervisor at UoB. In the sessions, Vikki will help you develop effective working approaches and coping strategies to deal with issues like coping with uncertainty about the future, managing the inner critic and procrastination. Each session will focus on a different topic. Find out more and join the coaching community via our PGR coaching webpage.
Meet The PhD Life Coach.
All of the coaching sessions and half of the mental health workshops will be delivered online, and at different times, helping to ensure that PGRs can get involved, including those who are part time or distance learners who are away from main campus.
We know that studying for a postgraduate research degree can be demanding and that PGRs face unique challenges. If you want to find out more about the PGR resources and contacts that are there to support you check out our PGR Wellbeing and Support page. You can also find further information about the University Wellbeing services on the Your Wellbeing page and a helpful summary of who you can contact in different circumstances on the Time to Talk? page.