Crossing borders and boundaries: Positioning joint doctoral degrees as a capacity building initiative

Doctoral education has evolved from the single isolated scholar on a lone knowledge quest into a diverse array of programme formats and supervisory arrangements. This diversity within doctoral education systems and structures include the crossing of national borders and institutional boundaries for both students and supervisors, sometimes through formal arrangements such as dual and joint degree programmes. While such arrangements have been in existence for some time, the research on the topic is limited, which often restricts our understanding to anecdotal evidence. Existing research also does not explore the complexities inherent to these arrangements when partnerships are forged between more than two partnering institutions, when North-South divides are crossed, when there are historical and current inequalities to navigate, and differences in structures, policies and practices across the partnering institutions. In parallel, there is the shared responsibility for the development of the doctorate candidates into early career researchers. This paper reports on an innovative funded transnational, structured joint doctoral degree programme in the field of higher education that involves three partnering institutions in the United Kingdom and South Africa, while also building skilled supervisory capacity. The programme sets out to support a cohort of doctoral staff-as-students within the three institutions exemplifying an internationalised curriculum underpinning the enhancement of supervisory capabilities at all three institutions, and the enrichment of their local research environments. The programme has the goal of transforming teaching, learning and research leading towards enhanced quality, success and equity in universities by establishing an academic pipeline (particularly in the South African context) that is transformative and disruptive yet equitable, and which addresses transformation imperatives in higher education. The programme demonstrates how foci on student development, staff development, and programme or curriculum development can be integrated. The key themes that delimit the project include equality, diversity, inclusion and well-being; transnationalisation, decolonisation and transformation of the curriculum; and developing creative spaces in higher education curricula. All the doctoral staff-as-student candidates projects fall within these delimited areas of interest. In the paper we explore what potential for innovation joint doctoral programmes of this nature may offer in terms of a) structuring collaborative spaces in doctoral programmes; b) development of early career researcher capacity (for both students and novice supervisors); and c) challenging institutional hierarchies and establishments.