However, while these consequences manifest differently on an individual level, as doctoral candidates we struggle  with the cross-pressure that arises as a result of these challenges in combination with the temporary nature of our employment and project conditions. With this open letter we therefore wish to point out the need for:

A clarification of the PhD students’ situation to counter increasing uncertainty, especially for the PhD students  who are entering the final period of their doctoral education; for the PhD students who has been forced to fundamentally restructure their planned research activities (e.g. data collection, research objectives, research  stays); and for the PhD students who have not (or only to a very limited extent) been able to work during the lockdown of society.

A paid extension of all PhD students’ contracts, which would to some extent create a uniform solution for everyone, despite different individual circumstances. Such an initiative has already been implemented for assistant professors at the professional colleges in Denmark, just as the Independent Research Fund has given one-year extensions for ongoing research projects. For many PhD students, however, the compensation for both lost working hours and extra workload may also be supplemented with the possibility of exemptions in relation to teaching obligations, PhD courses, etc., which we know that Roskilde Doctoral Schools will also present as a solution in terms of so-called ‘interim guidelines’.

In the following, we will outline the issues that are highlighted by the PhD students across the four research departments at Roskilde University and substantiate each issue with specific examples offered by the PhD students in collectively gathered notes and writings about our situation (many of which have already been handed over to different layers of the university’s administration and management). It is important to point out that the issues outlined below overlap to a great extent and are interrelated on many levels, and that we are aware that not all issues are unique to the PhD students’ situation. However, they are included to emphasise how the mentioned cross-pressure is acutely felt when thoughts and experiences about the circumstances are put to words.

List of issues:

In line with many other public and private employees, Roskilde University’s doctoral candidates have been obliged to work from home in unfit settings that are often not arranged or approved as workstations and under circumstances that the Danish Health Authority cites as sources of stress, depression and burnout. Many must navigate in-depth work with care responsibilities for often small children (some with diagnoses and intensified care needs), other family members and roommates, and many have concerns for friends and family elsewhere or about the danger of infection, finances or limited social contact. This leads to unhealthy working postures, concentration difficulties, interruptions, fragmented working hours and lower productivity (if any productivity at all).

Many of Roskilde University’s doctoral candidates are facing such fundamental disruptions to their field work, laboratory work or other forms of data collection and empirical work that they have been forced to rethink key aspects of their research projects. The disruptions include hindered or severely restricted access to, for example, laboratories, archive collections, field sites and other locations, as well as contact to research participants and cosupervisors (in for instance hospitals) that has been limited or rendered impossible. Some also experience delayed or stranded proceedings in relation to their applications for access to certain archives and locations.

Many of Roskilde University’s doctoral candidates are reporting interrupted, delayed or cancelled PhD courses, summer schools, seminars, consortia, certifications, dissemination activities and conferences. Even where courses and activities are just postponed or restructured this is often critical because they are part of specific arrangements for the research projects, where, for example, certain methodological or theoretical inputs were planned to bring the projects forward in different ways.

For many of Roskilde University’s doctoral candidates the digitalization of teaching and supervision has meant that we’ve taken on a far heavier workload than usual in the past couple of weeks, and will continue to do so throughout the spring so that the university can carry on running as constructively as possible. Extra efforts (and work hours) are also required to deal with students’ personal issues and increased cooperation problems as a result of the mental pressure resulting from the lockdown situation (an observation that is also affirmed by Heads of studies and Heads of RUC’s basic sections).

For many of Roskilde University’s doctoral candidates research stays have been put on hold, and in many cases it seems more and more unrealistic that they will be possible to carry through, cutting us off from vital opportunities to build networks and contribute to international research environments and collaborations as well as getting crucial feedback on specific aspects of our research.

Many of Roskilde University’s doctoral candidates point out derivative effects of the general lockdown, such as the lack of access to research libraries and equipment, and limited or reduced opportunity for academic feedback on our projects, which is usually taking place via many formal and informal channels, such as lunch groups, office communities and in the daily contact with supervisors, external partners and other colleagues.

Overall, these issues constitute fundamentally changed conditions for the completion of our doctoral educations. The still ongoing challenges have not only resulted in severe disruptions of our research projects as well as in lost and/or disadvantageously restructured working hours, but for many the mentally and physically exhaustive circumstances will also affect our well-being both in the short and the long term. In many cases, and on several different parameters, this will furthermore reduce the quality and originality of our research, our acquired competences and our research networks, which can ultimately and crucially affect our future career opportunities.

We, the PhD Students, therefore stand together with our colleagues and our employer and wish to contribute to the efforts to find a national or local solution in order to secure paid extension of our contracts together with the unions, Universities Denmark and the Ministry of Education and Research, and we appreciate the efforts to prepare revised PhD guidelines via Roskilde Doctoral Schools at the local level.