Academic bullying and abuse of graduate students by faculty and academic advisors is an unfortunate reality in some graduate degree programs. The sacrifices students make to complete a graduate degree, the high-stress and isolating environment, and the power differential between academic advisors and their students creates an environment ripe for potential abuse. Abuse in graduate school comes at a high price for victims who often suffer physically, mentally, financially, and academically as a result.

In universities where academic bullying occurs, it is often an open secret tolerated because the faculty perpetrators bring money and prestige to the university. While it should be the university’s responsibility to protect students from abusive advisors, graduate students are often left to protect themselves from academic bullying. Reporting this abuse can result in retaliation from the professor and fellow students, loss of academic progress, and sacrificed future opportunities. Stories from abused graduate students repeatedly show that the costs of reporting are born disproportionately by the student and rarely are their consequences for the abusive faculty member. This leads to under-reporting, emboldens abusers, and enables universities to ignore the problem.

These articles bring awareness to the problem, discuss the consequences of academic bullying, explore how students can detect and avoid ending up working with an abusive advisor, and what they can do if they find themselves in an abusive academic environment. Graduate school is challenging enough without abusive graduate school faculty making things harder.