Supporting students' wellbeing

Supervisors should regularly check in with students and be alert to any possible personal circumstances. If concerns should arise or be identified, supervisors should balance a sympathetic approach with an understanding of the boundaries of the role, and support students to access the relevant support services: 

• Your Doctoral Programme Director or Doctoral Programme Manager/Administrator will support on circumstances being dealt with at the departmental level, and should be your first point of contact for support in managing research student cases. Academic department contacts for PhD programmes can be found here. 
• LSE’s Student Wellbeing Service can advise you on individual cases and they provide support, counselling and advice to students. This includes support on mental health, disabilities and long-term medical conditions and specific learning difficulties. The Disability and Mental Health Service (part of SWS) provide MyAdjustments plans for students if required to help supervisors, departments and the PhD Academy in providing appropriate support to students. Support is also available from SWS with serious wellbeing cases, and supervisors are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the School’s Cause for Concern process.
• LSE’s Report and Support pages provide information for students and staff about the policies, procedures and guidance in place at the School around discrimination, harassment and bullying. 
• The PhD Academy provide wellbeing events and coaching sessions, and can help signpost you to support services elsewhere in the School. 
• The Students Union can provide support, wellbeing activities, and advice for students with financial challenges.  
• Health and Safety and Research Ethics can advise on specific projects, especially around fieldwork and data collection. 

If you are unclear how to address specific student circumstances then you should seek advice from your Doctoral Programme Director in the first instance. You may also contact the PhD Academy. Overall responsibility for decisions around registration lies with the Research Degrees Sub-Committee, which is supported by the PhD Academy. Queries on individual cases, regulations and procedures should therefore be directed to the PhD Academy (phdacademy@lse.ac.uk). 

During an interruption, students remain registered with the School, but are not enrolled. This means that they retain their student status, but their engagement in study and the requirement to make academic progress are suspended for the duration of the interruption. Departments must therefore not provide formal academic support or require the student to make progress in their research during the period of any interruption, whether formally or informally.  

This does not, however, mean that departments should withdraw all support, or cease all contact with the student. On the contrary, supervisory teams, programme directors and programme managers are required to remain accessible to interrupted students, as they are students’ primary points of contact with the School while interrupted, and play a key role in ensuring a smooth return from interruption. In particular, supervisors are required to work collaboratively with programme managers, programme directors, the PhD Academy, the Disability and Mental Health Services team, the Student and Advice Engagement team and other School support services to ensure that students are appropriately supported throughout their interruption, and in the process of returning and reintegrating. 

It is particularly important for colleagues to understand that students must not undertake any activities during their interruption that which would normally require health and safety or research ethics approval. This includes fieldwork, data collection and any work involving human participants. Supervisors should remind students of this restriction and ensure that any research requiring approval is postponed until their return to study. 

Judging the appropriate level of engagement and contact

Some students will benefit from low-intensity and non-mandatory engagement with the department community and research environment during their interruption. For others, stepping away completely will be essential to their wellbeing and academic progress. Supervisors should exercise judgement in determining what level of engagement is appropriate in the circumstances, in consultation with the programme director and relevant support services where necessary. 

Students who wish to maintain some level of engagement may do some or all of the following: 

• Attend departmental work-in-progress seminars or research events. 
• Make use of LSE Library resources. 
• Retain access to office or study spaces for occasional use, subject to availability and departmental approval. 
• Have occasional check-ins with their supervisors to discuss developments in their lives, or in their field, and their plans for return. 

However, this engagement must never constitute formal supervision, submission of work for feedback or participation in assessed activities. The emphasis should be on ensuring students feel connected without creating academic pressure. Maintaining occasional contact also allows supervisors to monitor whether the student requires additional wellbeing or institutional support, signpost students appropriate support services and ensure the student has clarity on the process for returning to study. 

Preparation for return from interruption

A well-structured interruption process, supported by clear communication and collaboration between departments and institutional services, will ensure that students can return to study effectively and with appropriate academic and wellbeing support. Most students will have submitted a return-to-study work plan as part of their interruption application.  

In cases where a student has interrupted at short notice, they will usually be required to submit a work plan, agreed with their supervisors, to the PhD Academy in advance of their return, for approval by the Research Degrees Sub-Committee Chair before the student is permitted to re-enrol.  

These plans are an essential mechanism, designed to ensure that students receive appropriate support and are enabled to reintegrate effectively and efficiently following their return to study. This is particularly important as poorly managed returns from interruption are highly likely to cause delays to progress, putting timely submission at risk. 

Supervisors should help students to manage their expectations about re-engagement with study and to support a gradual reintegration. This is particularly important where students have been away for a significant period. Where changes to the supervisory team are required, the process of appointing replacement supervisors should begin as soon as the requirement for a replacement is identified, to ensure that arrangements can be in put in place before the student returns. Where supervisory team changes are necessary, it is reasonable to ask students to share their work to date in its current form – even while they are interrupted, and without completing any further work – to allow supervisors to assess the remaining work required and plan appropriate academic support. 

A collaborative approach to student support

Interruptions are often linked to personal, health and wellbeing related, financial or visa-driven challenges. Lead supervisors and department colleagues are expected to take ownership of the process by which students are signposted to support services and for co-ordination of the return to study process. In return, department colleagues can expect to receive timely advice and support from colleagues in central divisions, particularly the PhD Academy and Student Advice and Engagement teams, as well as the Disability and Mental Health Service. 

Accordingly, if a supervisor or any other departmental colleague has concerns about a student’s wellbeing or capacity to return to study, they should seek advice from the PhD Academy about how to manage these as soon as possible. Programme directors and managers play a crucial role in supporting supervisors, as they are expected to ensure that local support is in place before the student’s return, and to co-ordinate central support divisions to ensure that wider support is available where necessary. 

When a student is due to return, supervisors will normally be expected to complete the following actions:

• Schedule and complete a pre-return light-touch meeting, normally 4-6 working weeks before the student’s return, to revisit the student’s return to study plans, and to discuss whether anything has changed since the plan was approved, such that the plan may need to be adjusted. 
• Schedule and complete a post-return meeting, normally no more than 1-2 weeks after the student’s re-enrolment in the programme, to begin the student’s formal re-engagement with their studies, and the department and School community and research environments. 
• Support a phased re-engagement where appropriate, recognising that students may require time to adjust.

In complex cases, departments are actively encouraged to consider convening a case conference to ensure that all relevant stakeholders are aligned and can provide tailored support. These should be proactive rather than reactive and should be convened early. 

The PhD Academy is always keen to provide a high level of support and advice in these cases, but Departments are expected to take ownership of arranging and managing these meetings, as well as the resulting support and signposting process. Department colleagues are closest and best positioned and to understand students’ experiences and support needs and are also accountable for ensuring that students receive appropriate support. 

Case conferences should be considered in the following circumstances: 

• Where students have experienced illness, mental health challenges, disability-related difficulties, discrimination, harassment, visa-related disruption, financial insecurity or housing difficulties that may affect their ability to make progress with their research. 
• Where students’ engagement with study is a serious cause for concern.  

Case conferences will normally include the following. 

• The lead supervisor, in their capacity as the faculty colleague with responsibility for managing the student’s progress and signposting the student to appropriate support services. Other members of the supervisory team will normally also be invited. 
• The programme director, as the department colleague responsible for overseeing support for doctoral students. 
• The programme manager, as the department colleague responsible for facilitating local administrative processes and departmental support. 
• Members of the PhD Academy’s professional staff, as the School division responsible for overseeing the LSE research degree student experience. This will normally include the PhD Academy Assistant Manager (Casework and Advice) and a member of the Research Degrees Management team (as a note-taker). Other members of the PhD Academy team may also attend in cases involving particularly high levels of complexity, or involving research council funded students. 
• The Student Advice and Engagement Team, for cases involving student visa-holders. 
• The Financial Support Office, in cases involving students in receipt of School administered studentship funding, and/or in cases involving financial hardship. 
• Disability and Mental Health Services, in cases where students have faced wellbeing challenges or already have agreed MyAdjustments plans. 

Case conferences help departments to co-ordinate a whole-School, whole-person approach, preventing delays in re-engagement and ensuring that all relevant teams are aware of and responsive to the student’s needs.

Student Minds’ website, The Wellbeing Thesis, provides support to students through the PhD journey. 

Mind: Student Mental Health provides support for all students. 

Information on wellbeing and mental health from the Vitae website.