The "Nature PhD Students Survey 2019" is a worldwide study on the wellbeing of PhD students and their attitudes towards academia. The Wellcome Trust's report on research culture, "What Researchers Think About the Culture They Work In" (2020), examines the attitudes of academics at all stages of their careers, including PhD students, towards research culture. In this report the author extracts data from both surveys for 1,069 PhD students studying in the UK (526 students from the Nature survey and 543 students from the Wellcome survey). The overlapping themes of these two research projects paint a picture of the experiences of PhD students studying in the UK. This is important because PhD students in the UK, while being students, often sit within communities of employed research staff. In this report, previously unpublished data is used to understand the realities of being a PhD student in the UK covering three key themes: (1) working hours and pay; (2) management and leadership; and (3) bullying and harassment. The report ends with some specific policy recommendations for institutions, supervisors and funders.