Suicides amongst Ph.D.s and other high professionals

I am across the first case of suicide in the year 1973 when I was a M.Sc. student. One of my seniors doing Ph.D. had committed suicide. He was in-service candidate who had come to Delhi for his higher studies. Coping with professional needs with that of family seemed to be too much. I am told that he committed suicide for personal reasons. Prior to that, one of the scientists of our Institute had committed suicide due to professional problem. The concerned scientist did not do well in his experimentation and feared wrath of his supervisor. Probably this may not be only problem. Some commit suicide for purely economic reasons, as they are unable to find job despite good education. And if they are in job, they do not have either job satisfaction or work environment is not good enough to progress. As I goggle through internet, I understand that suicide is one of the important causes of death of young and mid-career persons in many developed countries. Of course, in such countries, the basic facilities are available to every citizen. And the causes of suicides could be highly personal, rooted in their cultural and social upbringing, and inability to adjust in the society that they live in. It is hard to imagine that despite scientific and technological advances, personal space remains such a complex enigma to understand. It seems more advanced is the society, more is the pressure at individual level to succeed at all costs. And success is often measured in terms of standing in the societal hierarchy, position of power or authority or both, and overall wealth. At times, religious dogmas prevail. And these include, in ultimate, making human sacrifice for family or societal happiness. In the educational institutions especially of advanced nature, many students and even staff members undergo distress, as they face career options, stumbles over progress or do not get along. Distress appears to be more in the professional courses like those of medicine, engineering or advance studies like post-graduation degrees like M.Sc. and Ph.D. or super-speciality courses.  Many of these courses are highly specialized. They demand absolute commitment, discipline and dedication. And they are of long duration. With mandatory requirement of Ph.D. for academic and scientific career, most educational institutions have Ph.D. programmes in every subject. And a large number enrol into such programmes. Some are in to Ph.D. because that is next to M.Sc. Some go in for Ph.D. because they might ditch it during the course if they land in a job. But as the students go along, they seem to stick to it in the absence of no-choice and even if initial enthusiasm wears off. Ph.D. programme is a passion and not a time-pass option. And slowly some of the Ph.D.s feel the heat as it tests their patience, perseverance and also intelligence, sometime leading to distress.  

There is no systematic study in India on this aspect. However, in Belgium, Katia levecque of Ghent University and her other colleagues from Italy, The Netherlands and China have published findings of their survey (Research Policy 46: 868-879) in May, 2017 amongst the Ph.D. students of Flanders (in Belgium) in comparison to the general population and the highly educated employees. These researchers found that nearly 50% of Ph.D. students undergo psychological distress and about 32% are at the risk of common psychiatric disorder, especially depression. And these estimates are higher than the control groups used for comparison.

Unlike in the past, more and more young people are going in for higher education in continuation, out of passion or as a matter of compulsion. Most Ph.D. students are in the range of 22-30 years of age in India. And this is the critical time in their career, as choosing a career of choice and earning it is difficult, multi-tasking and long drawn proposition.

Some lag behind in their studies, others in execution of their research project. As Ph.D. is time pass for some, there is a lack of clarity of goal to be achieved. As Ph.D. is of 3-4 years or even more, this time-pass Ph.D.s try their luck at the competitive examinations conducted by various Public Service Commissions to get coveted jobs in the Government sector. Yet, the successful Ph.D. students do face different problem. If they progress well and publish in time, that becomes a drag. Some of the supervisors drag their feet to complete student’s project, as they fear loss of trained personnel and uncertainty of finding suitable candidates to work with. And this sets in confrontation between supervisor and student. Is there jealousy too for the supervisor to feel or fear? In the developed countries, the recommendations of supervisor and other faculty often decide career prospects of Ph.D. students and any friction between two can add to the distress.

Ph.D. students must share the blame for their lack of interest, inconsistency of their work, inability to cope with stresses and imbalance of work and personal life needs. And the authors of this work do list a “work-family interface” and “perception of a career outside academia” related to this distress.

Katia Levecque also reports organization policies responsible for distress and mentions job demands and job control, the supervisors’ leadership style and team decision-making culture. Although most institutions have various committees to oversee the progress of the students and play a positive role in fruition, organizational policies often differ a lot, clashing with various interest groups and expectation of excellence. Often, these policies remain static and do not address the problems as they occur. The institutions of higher learning need to take cognisance and frame the policies commensurate with their goals.