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Academic themes: workload, Recognition & Rewards and supervision

Three themes are currently central to the Dutch academic world — and directly resonate with what Meerkat for Universities has been focusing on for years. Below you can read what is going on, what it means for your role, and which of our programs helps you to meet the related challenges.
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Workload & social safety

At Dutch universities, 61% of academic staff experience very high work pressure (Universities of the Netherlands/ICTU, 2024). Nature’s global PhD survey (2025) shows that well-being is strongly related to the quality of the supervision relationship, and that 43% of PhD candidates worldwide experienced discrimination or harassment. The ‘workload paradox’ is striking: employees at universities are often satisfied with their work, but still heavily burdened. It is precisely attention to work relationships and well-being that appears to relieve that pressure.

What does this mean for you?

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PhD candidate or supervisor
You recognize the pressure of deadlines and the dependence on one relationship, and the realization that that relationship makes the difference between flourishing and getting stuck.
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Supervisor or academic manager
You feel the tension between substantive pressure and concern for the well-being of those you supervise, often without having had any training in it.
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HR or faculty board
You are looking for structural, measurable ways to improve workload and social safety, beyond a one-off survey.

How Meerkat for Universities fits in:

Our PhD training courses (Effective Negotiation, Managing Myself/ Leading Others) work directly on the skills that make pressure manageable. Our Supervisor and Mentor training explicitly pay attention to well-being, stress and psychological safety. And the Triangle Tuning Programme gives research teams a shared language to strengthen collaboration.

Recognition & Rewards

The national Recognition & Rewards programme (UNL, NWO, KNAW, NFU, ZonMw, runs until 2026) shifts the assessment of scientists from mainly publication output to a broader palette: Research, education, leadership and impact. Almost half of the faculties are in a transition phase. The new Strategy Evaluation Protocol 2027-2033 (UNL/NWO/KNAW, March 2026) confirms this course: from now on, research units will also be explicitly assessed based on PhD policy, academic culture and responsible research practices — no longer just on output.

What does this mean for you?

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PhD candidate or supervisor
Your career path is valued more broadly than just publications, but that also requires skills such as leadership and collaboration that do not come naturally.
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Supervisor or academic manager
Guidance and mentorship now formally count in how you are evaluated.
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HR or faculty board
You need to make this culture change concrete within your faculty, with programs that go beyond policy documents.

How Meerkat for Universities fits in:

The course ‘Managing Myself, Leading Others’ helps PhD students develop their leadership intelligence — one of the core domains within Recognition & Rewards. Our Supervisor training places as much emphasis on relational leadership as on subject matter. And the TTP provides faculties with a concrete, validated instrument (Birkman) to make the cultural change measurable.

Cooperation in the PhD supervision triangle

European research (Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics, 2025) shows that although training for supervisors and academic leaders is widely seen as important, in practice it is often not mandatory and inconsistent. At the same time, PhD supervision rarely consists of one relationship: often two or more supervisors are involved, each with their own style and their own expectations.

What does this mean for you?

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PhD student or supervisor
You sometimes navigate between several supervisors with different expectations, without a shared framework.
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Supervisor or academic manager
You share the guidance with colleagues but rarely have the time or language to coordinate how best to do it.
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HR or faculty board
You see that the quality of supervision depends heavily on individual supervisors, and you are looking for a way to strengthen that structurally.

How Meerkat for Universities fits in:

The Triangle Tuning Programme has been developed specifically for this triangle dynamic, using the Birkman method as a shared language and simulated conversations with professional actors. Our Supervisor training takes a closer look at role awareness within these often asymmetrical relationships.
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Would you like to deal with
thematic challenges
within your Graduate School,
team or faculty?

We are happy to think along with you about what is needed.
Plan a meeting