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Paper short abstract:

This explorative qualitative study,interviewed 15 post graduate students with diagnosed mental illness in South Africa. Results show that post graduate students expressed some positive but mostly negative issues to being supervised while they experienced a mental illness.

Paper long abstract:

Although there has been much research on the needs of students with more visible disabilities, the unique needs of students with invisible disabilities have received less attention (Mullins & Preyde, 2013). This is despite the point that students with so-called invisible disabilities are the fastest growing student population group. Psychosocial disability (or mental illness) is regarded as part of the invisible disabilities as they are less visible to the observer than physical, sensory or mobility disabilities.

Internationally there are very few studies looking at students' experiences with psychosocial disabilities at a university, particularly in a supervision context. This point is supported by Shor (2017) who states that there is little work looking at difficulties that students with psychosocial disabilities face when they are at universities. A recent study by Mutanga (2017) who carried out a synthesis literature review of students with disabilities experiences in South African higher education, found no studies that looked at psychosocial disabilities in this context.

This explorative qualitative study, using a semi-structured interview schedule, interviewed 15 post graduate students with diagnosed mental illness in South Africa. Results show that post graduate students expressed some positive but mostly negative issues to being supervised while they experienced a mental illness. Issues of stigma, self-disclosure, relationships, and power were highlighted. Recommendations about the future were also discussed.