Transforming Doctorate Education: Views from Supervisors

This paper will discuss how a transnational, structured, dual-award doctoral programme, jointly delivered by two South African universities and one British university, is focusing on promoting policy and strategy shifts, curriculum innovation, and course development as part of transformation imperatives at the heart of academic enterprise in advancing inclusive educational futures. The doctoral partnership, which is funded by the Department of Higher Education and Training, aims to make progress towards two of WSU’s strategic objectives, which are to increase the percentage of academic staff with doctorate qualifications and to increase research capacity and output. These objectives were recently emphasised by the VC and Principal, in her encouragement for staff to pursue postgraduate opportunities, to forge forward in teaching, research, and community engagement, enabling WSU to be an impactful African university.
Adopting a collaborative autoethnographic approach, we explore how our doctorate programme initiative has been experienced by supervisors from the three institutions as they negotiated differing time zones, IT infrastructure and access, institutional and national policies, and supervision cultures. Findings of the study will inform recommendations for theory, practice, policy and research.