Title: Postgraduate student mental health: a systematic literature review of wellbeing themes and proposed solutions

Authors: Jennifer Hynes; Ayşe Nur Ayıboğan; Hasan Koç

Addresses: Faculty of Business, Berlin International University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany ' Faculty of Psychology, Yaşar University, Üniversite Caddesi, Ağaçlı Yol, Bornova, İzmir, Türkiye ' Berlin International University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany

Abstract: Wellbeing significantly impacts individual productivity, yet postgraduate students face numerous challenges during their master's and doctoral studies, including high levels of depression, sleep issues and suicidal ideation. Moreover, mental health problems have been worsening over time (Wu et al., 2023). Against this backdrop, this systematic literature review applies the PRISMA and PICO frameworks to explore three research aims: (1) identifying wellbeing topics in the literature, (2) examining factors influencing postgraduate wellbeing and proposed solutions and (3) highlighting barriers to these solutions while providing future research recommendations. Analysing 24 studies, the review categorises three wellbeing themes and ten sub-themes (RQ1), provides 16 literature-derived solutions under five categories (RQ2) and identifies five challenges and ten actions to address these obstacles (RQ3). The study underscores the need for holistic interventions, addressing macro- and meso-constraints and outlines four avenues for future research to advance postgraduate student wellbeing.

Keywords: postgraduate students; wellbeing; universities; neoliberalism; mental health; higher education; higher education leadership; higher education strategy; academics; supervisors.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIE.2026.150267

International Journal of Management in Education, 2026 Vol.20 No.1, pp.92 - 123

Received: 14 Nov 2024
Accepted: 04 Feb 2025
Published online: 05 Dec 2025 *

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