Administrative Support for Graduate Education Success in Resource-Poor and Culturally-Challenging Environments

Abstract

For any university to become successful in producing new knowledge it must invest heavily in graduate education. The developing world has dwindling resources investment in graduate training, yet countries cannot develop without graduate programmes. The challenge is that most postgraduate students do not receive adequate support from programme administration. There are no deliberate efforts to understand the cause of high dropout or delayed completion schedule of most graduate students. Providing tailored administrative and supervision support to graduate units is vital in reducing high attrition rates. This chapter provides key challenges facing graduate education in a resource-poor and culturally challenging environment. It proposes innovative remedies on student engagement, focusing on the need to develop tailor-made programmes to support student success at graduate level. The focus is on preparing, supporting, and enabling graduate students to successfully complete their studies.