The arduous journey: Experiences and consequences of bullying and discrimination for <scp>PhD</scp> students from 34 countries

Abstract Drawing on data from 6356 PhD students from 34 countries, this study examines the experiences and consequences of bullying and discrimination, and the moderating role of institutional mental support. Descriptive analyses reveal that 22.34% of students experienced bullying, most often perpetrated by supervisors (48.13%), while 21.28% experienced discrimination, primarily based on gender (40.09%) and race (31.69%). Regression analyses demonstrate that both bullying and discrimination have significant negative associations with students' satisfaction (bullying: β = −0.440, p &lt; 0.001; discrimination: β = −0.395, p &lt; 0.001) and perceived improvement in job prospects. Bullying is further associated with a reduced likelihood of pursuing a research career ( β = −0.226, p &lt; 0.001), an effect not observed for discrimination. Heterogeneity analyses indicate that these associations vary by gender. Crucially, while institutional mental support is directly associated with enhanced student satisfaction and outcomes, its buffering role against the negative associations of bullying and discrimination is largely insignificant, except for partially mitigating bullying's association with perceived job prospects. As the data are cross‐sectional and self‐reported, these results should be interpreted as associations rather than causal relationships. The results remained consistent after applying inverse‐probability‐weighted regression Adjustment (IPWRA), underscoring bullying and discrimination as pervasive, damaging stressors in global doctoral education and suggesting that institutional support systems, while beneficial, are insufficient alone to counteract their adverse consequences.