A Critical View On Doctoral Supervisor Capacity Development At A South African University Of Technology

Abstract

Growing the number of doctoral graduates, increasing the capacity for study supervision, and enhancing the quality of research output and impact remain some of the many challenges for higher education institutions in South Africa – especially for universities of technology (UoTs). Study supervisors at UoTs often lack sufficient experience and capacity to guide doctoral students to timely and successful completion. This article explores one such case as an example of critically assessing the capacity, quality, and effectiveness of supervisory development at a UoT. Our valuational stance involves observing aspects of institutional support to grow supervision capacity, comparing research performance to peer universities in the UoT cluster and engaging the South African university system as related to relevant literature on doctoral supervision and graduation. The selected institutional case revealed that supervisory capacity and subsequent graduations have improved significantly over time. However, the challenge remains to graduate increasing numbers of doctoral students, hence the need for further enhancing supervisory capacity. The inquiry also points to the need for increasing throughput figures and graduation in meeting institutional targets. The UoT under scrutiny had introduced several strategies to capacitate doctoral supervisors, including promoting relevant supervisory skills, scientific writing and communication. It also promoted research dissemination, incentives to support research capacity development, and policies to enhance quality supervision. Since the range and scope of developmental actions and activities at the selected UoT were too broad to evaluate in one project, the focus was on one aspect of supervisor support, namely an institution-wide postgraduate supervision developmental programme. Programme results for the period 2017 to 2021 were critically evaluated, addressing two key dimensions: enhancing doctoral supervision capacity and trends in doctoral graduations. These dimensions are discussed against the background of relevant literature on supervisory capacity, peer UoT cluster trends in South Africa, as well as trends related to the whole public university system in South Africa. The article concludes with important lessons learnt from the institutional case and suggestions to enhance research into doctoral supervisor developmental interventions within an UoT context.