Those who have experienced academic harassment or other inappropriate and unprofessional behaviours from their academic supervisor, have you ever used the harassment prevention or consultation service in your university? What did they do and what happened to your situation afterwards?
We have a ハラスメント相談室 in our uni and I’ve been considering paying a visit.
I am a PhD student whos had a hard time with my supervisor. I have asked the internet about making a report about him and everyone says things will get worse from that point onwards.
Note: I cannot change supervisors because he is the only one in my dept. And I cannot change departments too. So I am stuck with him for the next 2 years ish
7 comments
Go ahead and talk to them, and be ready to give up studying at your current university. Change requires sacrifice from the victims.
My story may not be useful for your case, I’m just sharing to inject some hope for a positive outcome. It was for another person, not me, but I reported a lecturer to the ハラスメント相談室 at my uni. The response was timely and transparent, it took only a week to issue a written warning to the lecturer and I was informed of all the steps although I wasn’t the victim. So, some centers are useful, don’t lose hope if you decide to consult them.
didn’t know academic harassment was a thing
This is not my case but one of my senpai who study the same Japanese university as me. The professor didn’t let him and other students graduate on time by not allowing them to publish a paper and force them to work for him with little pay. One day, someone (not my senpai) complained about him to the Harassment office and the professor let him and other students graduate the next semester, lol. I think that in his case, they didn’t reveal who complained though.
I have translated in several of those consultation sessions. It shocked me and made me angry.
Every time the counsellor sympathised with the student, and told them there was nothing they could do.
Now, I cannot speak for all universities here, and I’m relating this second hand—but the response and ensuing backfiring shitstorm was so bad when a colleague of mine complained about power/sexual harassment that they ended up leaving Japan entirely. So tread carefully, and make sure you know what your institution’s corporate culture is like so you know the risks. Are there prior cases of reporting harassment that you know of? How did they end up?
I’m sorry to hear about your situation. At one of my previous workplaces, there was a case where a senior professor was harassing a junior professor. The junior professor filed a complaint. The university’s response was to tell the senior professor to knock it off and that he couldn’t be in the same room as the junior prof. Well, that didn’t work so well, because when it came time for faculty meetings etc. the senior prof had to be there, so the junior prof was excused, effectively exiling him. He ended up quitting soon after.
My point is, your supervisor probably deserves to be reported, but it’s not going to improve your situation. I hate to say this, but it will probably make it worse if the university is not prepared to fire him and find a replacement. Either you need to find some way to work with him or transfer to another school. If you do decide to transfer because of this, by all means report him. Make sure to document cases of harassment as they occur.