Moreover, Ph.D. studies, unlike other university study programs, often involve fewer colleagues, interactions with faculty (i.e., supervisors), and often little academic support, especially in contexts of no established graduate schools. Consequently, one could refer to Ph.D. studies as a solo cognitive journey.
Given the above, Mr. Boafo presented on mental health among sub-Saharan African Ph.D. students at German Universities. Statistically, 18,900 sub-Saharan African students are currently studying in Germany. This country remains the second-most-popular destination for sub-Saharan African Students for higher education in Europe, after France.
In his presentation at the 2023 ANSA Conference in Hamburg, he argued that pursuing a Ph.D. is synonymous with swimming from a (deep) sea, river, and pool to a bathroom. On the one hand, you can easily give up at the stage of swimming in the deep sea, which is often the case in your first year of PhD studies. In effect, you can easily drown by losing interest in your research topic. On the other hand, swimming in the bathroom is the closing phase of your doctoral studies, including activities of thesis approval by supervisors for grading and journal paper submissions for academic career entry success.
In conclusion, findings revealed two primary mental disorders faced by PhD students: Anxiety disorders and Depression. On the one hand, Anxiety disorders are caused by individual determinants, such as jumping into a Ph.D. program after a master's program, inexperience causing time and money wastage, and being in a state of dilemma by remaining or quitting academia. On the other hand, the determinants for Depression are from the academic community (e.g., I felt alone in my world: where were my Eve and Adam, as promised) and structural (e.g., who to go for guidance: a supervisor or an outsider).
The Afrika Netzwerk für Studierende und Alumni Afrika (ANSA) Conference involves former scholarship holders of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) who have either spent a research or study period in Sub-Saharan Africa or come from this region and are conducting research, studying in Germany or have done so in the past.
