Making sense of research in Higher Education
Dr David Plowright2016, Being Scholarly - Festschrift in honour of the work of Eli M Bitzer
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Abstract
I was meeting with E about the problems that postgraduate researchers experience when carrying out their research. E was a well-respected and eminent professor from Stellenbosch University. I had known him for about four years. We both had an interest in supervising and supporting postgraduate researchers undertaking masters and doctoral study. 'You've asked a very interesting and,' I added pointedly, 'a very important, question. Like all good questions, it raises a whole raft of other questions and issues.' E nodded thoughtfully. 'And the answer?' he asked. 'Well, the question was about whether or not we can collect qualitative data in an experiment? Of course, as you know, the methodology textbooks will answer that we should collect quantitative data and not qualitative data in an experiment.' 'Yes,' he nodded, 'but I suspect you've got a view about that?' 'Funny you should say that!' I laughed. We had spoken before about supporting postgraduate researchers in South Africa. We were aware, of course, of the academic and policy issues associated with postgraduate programmes of research, especially at doctoral level. For example, South Africa currently aims to increase its PhD numbers from 1,421 in 2010 to 5,000 each year by 2030 and increase the number of academics with PhDs from 34% to 75% (National Planning Commission, 2011). This is, of course, a mammoth task but unlikely to be achieved. More tellingly, there is evidence that private-sector employers in South Africa believed that a PhD did not have much relevance to the world of work (Treptow 2013). This suggests that it may be time to introduce a professional doctorate to sit alongside PhD programmes in South African universities. A professional doctorate would be aimed at evaluating and improving practice in the workplace and be more relevant to the needs of both commercial and not-for-profit organisations in South Africa.
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The PhD conundrum in South African academia
South African universities need more academics with PhDs, from historically disadvantaged population groups in particular, but they face a conundrum. In order to have more staff with PhDs, they need to produce more PhD graduates. But in order to produce more PhD graduates, they need more staff with PhDs to supervise. This paper explores this conundrum by comparing academic qualifications with national policies and targets, by developing a quantitative profile of staff without PhDs and describing government and institutional measures to improve academic qualifications. An Institution’s supervisory capacity is found to be closely related to institutional history. Four main factors are identified: (1) whether the institution was originally established as a traditional university or as a technikon; 2) whether it was advantaged or disadvantaged under apartheid, which was closely related to the racial group for which it was established; (3) whether it was merged or not post 2004; and if so, (4) with what type of institution it was merged.
Multiple paths to success. In N. Cloete, J. Mouton and C. Sheppard (Eds.), Doctoral education in South Africa.
Method and selection criteria • Quantity: Increasing the number of PhDs produced in South Africa -Capacity to supervise -Institutional pressure -More efficient models to produce PhDs? -Concerns about quality -Student preparedness -Postdoctoral positions • Efficiency: Improving performance and completion rates -Selection or acceptance of doctoral candidates -Funding -Administration -Departmental and institutional support -Supervision -Research experience -PhD thesis examination as quality control • Summary of findings • In conclusion
“The Learning of Learned ‘Learning Organizations’?”: How Southern African Universities Use a Professional Competency Framework for Research Management and Administration: Selective Cases
Systemic Practice and Action Research, 2023
How universities, respected for their position at the apex of learning, employ competency frameworks in order to increase learning impacts is acknowledged by the authors as a researchable problem. The respective natures of universities and professional work, the latter, which is often intensely integral to universities, means that universities have to take on board managerial as well philosophical means of learning. This article explores how staff at six universities employ a Professional Competency Framework for Research Management and Administration (PCF-RMA) to bring about organizational learning. Participants provide qualitative data which are condensed into six narrated cases to show how a PCF-RMA, created through action research, enters into the university systems and translates into individual and organizational systems thinking towards applied outcomes. Using the theoretical lenses of Senge's five disciplines and core competencies for competitive advantage, we argue that systems thinking is not essentially about the system as an abstracted entity, but about sensitized individuals who actively 'think through' using the PCF-RMA to improve their own work and career prospects, while also improving the work of the research support offices for university research purposes. In short, systems and funding impacts. As such, the PCF-RMA, while initially carried through individuals, has a systems opportunity to change not only individuals but also set up a trajectory for generative holistic changes as articulated within organizational learning theories. The study recommends future research to employ a diverse and broadened scope in the domains of theory, context, and methodology. Aside from prompting ongoing research, this study offers an opportunity to demonstrate increased research impact, an area which stakeholders of research, including the funders, increasingly emphasize.
The South African PhD : insights from employer interviews
Perspectives in Education, 2013
Current international trends reveal that doctoral education is increasingly expected to satisfy workplace demands. In South Africa, Work Integrated Learning (WIL), introduced as part of the HEQF, is the principal initiative to facilitate greater relevance of higher education in the workplace. There has, however, been significant confusion regarding its precise definition and implications. This article presents insights gained from interviews conducted in 2009 with employers of doctoral graduates (located outside the higher education sector) regarding their expectations of doctoral education. The implications thereof for WIL are discussed and, based thereon, recommendations are made to facilitate greater workplace relevance for doctoral education in South Africa. Keywords: doctoral education; Work Integrated Learning (WIL); HEQF; doctoral graduates; doctoral education; South Africa
Doctoral education in South Africa: Models, pedagogies and student experiences
2009
ii DECLARATION I hereby declare that the work contained in this thesis is my own unaided work. It has not been submitted for degree purposes to any other university. Signed: ___________________________ Date: ________________ of ___________________________ 2009 iii ABSTRACT People who hold doctoral degrees are considered valuable national resources able to produce knowledge to address pressing problems, and important sources of labour for the higher education sector. However, in 2006, only 1100 people graduated with doctoral degrees in South Africa. This limits the potential for research and improvements in higher makers, supervisors and people who do PhDs. AKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many of the academic staff at Wits contributed to this thesis. Most obviously my supervisor, Professor Michael Cross, was a source of ideas, guidance and painstaking (and often painful) critique. His support, tolerance, flexibility and good humour were all important in arriving at this outcome. He was also instrumental in my access to funding, through a relationship with the Spencer Foundation, for which I am grateful. Professor Hilary Janks listened to my ideas and shared her interest in postgraduate pedagogy. Doctor Cecile Badenhorst gave me the tools to become a writer through her inspirational course in Research Writing. She also took an ongoing interest in my research and contributed in many interesting conversations. Many, many others offered words of advice and encouragement when we met in the corridors and tea-room. I would like to thank Professor Mitchell Gonhert of Wits Civil and Environmental Engineering, Professor Christopher Gilmour of UCT Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, Doctor Anne McLennan of Wits Public and Development Management and Professor Lindy Stiebel of UKZN English Studies for facilitating my access to the case studies.
Challenges in Postgraduate research: how doctorates come off the rails
2005
Worldwide the completion rate for doctorates ranges from poor to abysmal. The responsibility for this must be shared by candidates, supervisors and the institutions to which they belong. In particular, postgraduate students create a number of problems that cause their studies to derail. While supervisors can change particular supervision protocols to improve doctoral throughput rates, the extent to which postgraduate students themselves take ownership of their research, will ultimately determine their degree of success. This ...
Values and Purposes of a PhD : Comparative responses from South Africa and Mauritius
2016
This paper compares the motivations of two developing countries, South Africa and Mauritius, in promoting doctoral education. Both are concerned about addressing their underproduction of PhDs, but is this focus a luxury in the face of prevalent societal issues, e.g., the HIV/AIDS pandemic, crime and unemployment in South Africa? Are PhDs resolving post-apartheid societal problems? Is their pursuit primarily about developing a competitive advantage? In Mauritius, alignment of the state agenda and the higher education system provides pragmatic interventions to establish itself as the knowledge hub of the Indian Ocean islands. However, the philosophically-driven PhD infuses potentially a critical disruption of “comfortable collaborations” with the state agenda. So what is the worth of a PhD, especially in the field of education? This paper suggests that the value of an educational PhD in developing world contexts has both enabling and constraining potential: to personal, institutional,...
Halse, C. & Mowbray. S. (2011). Editorial. Special edition in 2011 of Studies in Higher Education: Theorising the doctorate. Vol 36, Issue 5, pp. 513-525
Studies in Higher Education
The purpose of this special issue of Studies in Higher Education is to stimulate more nuanced thinking about the impact, effects and contributions of the doctorate in a context of rapid and diverse changes in the policies, processes and products of doctoral education around the world. Doctoral research plays a 'crucial role in driving innovation and growth' of nation states, and is a significant contributor to national and international knowledge generation and research outputs (Smith 2010, 4) but there is a striking absence of systematic research into the multidimensional impact of the doctorate. Underlining this point in relation to the impact of PhD graduates in the UK, Raddon and Sung (2009) note the lack of any:
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Patterns of practice in South African doctoral education: an empirical study
Acta Academica Supplementum, 1, 1-22, 2010
In South Africa, doctoral education is usually organized in a traditional supervision model, but the practice of supervision differs across academic units and supervisors. In her comparison of PhD experiences in British universities, Chiang identified two research training structures: Teamwork and Individualist. These different structures affected the research environment, the relationships between supervisor and supervisee, and the experience of doctoral study. Can such differences be observed in South African universities? In a qualitative study of four academic units from different disciplines, I was able to detect four patterns of practice in the ways in which doctoral supervision and research activities were organised. This paper characterizes these patterns of practice and discusses their impact on the doctoral experience.
Research into Doctoral Education: A Survey of Institutional Research Projects in Southern Africa
Institutional Research in South African Higher Education - Intersecting Contexts and Practices, 2016
If it is accepted that IR is about exploring, understanding and explaining the institution for the institution in a broad and comprehensive sense (Webber & Calderon 2015), it is equally important for IR practitioners to view doctoral studies as much more than the number of postgraduate enrolments, throughput figures and the amount of subsidy generated. Factors influencing doctoral provision and education Research on doctoral education has to attend to various interlinking factors that influence the nature, completion and quality of doctorates. As Figure 2 below suggests, at least three sets of factors impact on doctoral studies, namely contextual, administrative and academic factors.
Scaling up Professionalization of Research Management in Southern Africa
The journal of research administration, 2020
In the furtherance of knowledge, researchers and research are supported organizationally, but sometimes organically. Yet the research enterprise needs to be systemically managed. Research managers, however, are still striving to define their functions. Is research management part of the continuum of research itself ? Is it an occupation? Is it a profession? Increasingly scholars are problematizing what the professionalization discourses mean for research management. Alongside other professionalization initiatives, the Southern Africa Research and Innovation Management Association (SARIMA) developed a Professional Competency Framework (PCF) for research management. The article addresses at a microto-meta level of analysis, the conceiving of the PCF, and then posits how the developmental journey towards a PCF may fit into a macro impetus towards professionalization. The findings extend theorising around competencies, professionalization and attendant methodologies.
A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION DOCTORATES IN SOUTH AFRICA 1994-2007
Journal of Public Administration , 2010
This study is a critical analysis of Public Administration doctorates in South Africa between 1994 and 2007. The methodology utilised was that of a content analysis of completed Public Administration doctoral abstracts (116 in total). A 10 percent sample of completed theses was also examined. Four main analytical variables were used namely the focus of the field, the research purpose of the thesis, type of methodology used and whether the doctorate contributed significantly to new knowledge. The variable of focus showed that doctorates focus primarily on practice at the expense of theory. The analysis of the variable of purpose showed the overwhelming majority of doctoral research to be conceptual in nature which indicates that the main aim of the research is to identify and conceptualise the research problem under investigation. This type of research is primarily descriptive in nature and is not generally viewed as original research. The analytical research question 'what type of methodology' was addressed through the variables of qualitative, quantitative and secondary. The analysis showed that over half of the doctorates were classified as secondary research. Finally the variable of whether the doctorate made a significant contribution to knowledge showed that the majority of doctorates did not meet the criterion of contributing significantly to new knowledge in Public Administration. By triangulating findings from these analytical variables it was concluded that there is a general weak standard of doctorates in Public Administration in South Africa.
Achieving doctorateness: Is South African higher education succeeding with graduate attributes?
South African journal of higher education, 2023
This article applies findings from the recent national review of South African doctoral qualifications to examine ways in which universities interpret the formulation of, and apply in the context of a differentiated higher education system, the graduate attributes established in the qualification standard, in order to achieve the characteristics of "doctorateness". The article explores the concept "graduate attributes" itself, the extent to which it is manifested in institutional, supervisory and examination practices, and how the concept is conveyed to and understood by students. National review findings indicate inconsistencies in conceptualisation and application both between and within institutions. In this article, emphasis is placed on the primary need of developing in the doctoral graduate the capacity to enter, as a deep-thinking researcher, into a community of practising peers, whether in the academy or in a profession.
Doctoral discourses in South Africa
Perspectives in Education 29(3), 30-39, 2011
In the South African context, three doctoral discourses are heard, each with their own assumptions about the purpose of doctoral education and the kinds of people who undertake doctoral study, and with their own implications for the practice of doctoral education. Two of the three discourses are familiar and well documented in the local and international literature. The third is an emerging discourse identified in the course of a qualitative study of four doctoral programmes at three South African universities. This paper unpacks these discourses, examining tensions that arise between them. I argue that all three discourses contribute useful perspectives to our national understanding of doctoral education, and I discuss some implications for the practice and research of doctoral education.
Global perspectives on the professional doctorate
International journal of nursing studies
Are South African doctoral qualifications educating the thinkers we need?
South African Journal of Science
The recently completed national review of the doctoral qualifications offered by South African higher education institutions has provided important insights into the national landscape of doctoral education, and raised many questions. One key question is whether our doctoral qualifications educate our students to be the broad and critical thinkers needed to address current and future scientific and societal challenges. In the South African higher education context, we must ask ourselves whether we are providing the academic and intellectual depth required to enable our doctoral graduates to achieve the graduate attributes that we express as our national aspirations, and we need to consider new approaches to doctoral education.
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