Concern over quality of SA’s doctoral degrees

ACROSS the world, there has been a massive increase in demand for doctoral education. The claim that there’s a correlation between a country’s economic stability and the proportion of its population who have doctorates has led to national targets being set for doctoral graduation.

In 2010, 1 420 doctoral candidates graduated in South Africa. Since then, the number has more than doubled. The high increase in both intake and graduation has led to concerns about quality.

A key question is: How did South Africa find the capacity to double its numbers, given that the number of supervisors has grown at a markedly slower rate over this period?

To answer some of the concerns, South Africa’s Council on Higher Education is about to conduct a national review of higher education institutions that offer doctoral-level qualifications. This will be the first of its kind for the council, which, among other things, is responsible for developing and implementing systems of quality assurance for higher education.

Every institution that offers doctoral qualifications has to develop a self-evaluation report indicating how it ensures it meets the doctoral standard. The report has to specify, with evidence, how the institution assures the quality of every step of the doctoral curriculum. This ranges from selecting students to allocating supervisors, providing institutional support, developing and reviewing proposals, ethical clearance and the examination process. It also needs to demonstrate how the institution ensures that its graduates embody specified doctoral attributes.

A review panel then verifies and interrogates the claims by the institution. This is followed by a report to the institution. Institutions that don’t meet all the requirements are required to submit an improved plan to the council.

If there are serious concerns after this, the Council on Higher Education has the authority to withdraw accreditation from the academic institution.

We do not know whether the rapid increase in the number of doctorates has led to a weakening of quality. Perhaps the rise in predatory publications, a problem faced across the continent, suggests there is cause for concern. What is known is that some institutional audits undertaken 10 years ago uncovered problems with examination processes at doctoral level.

The quality of the doctorate has significant implications. Poor doctoral education can set the scene for the nature of knowledge creation and dissemination in the whole university.

If quality processes don’t safeguard academic integrity at doctoral level, then they are unlikely to protect quality at lower levels.

Perhaps the review will open the space for a national discussion on some of the conservative aspects of doctoral education in the country.

Far more innovative approaches are needed.

The review might be the vehicle for the necessary institutional conversations. |

Sioux McKenna is the director of the Centre for Postgraduate Studies, Rhodes University