POOR POSTGRADUATE THROUGHPUT BEGINS WITH SUPERVISORS, CHICAGO PROFESSOR SAYS

Poor postgraduate throughput begins with supervisors who fail to recognise that master's and doctoral candidates are still students who need to be taught.

These assertions were made by Chicago State University’s Professor Byung-In Seo during a Supervisor Boot Camp hosted by iYunivesithi Walter Sisulu's Directorate for Postgraduate Studies.

Speaking to a cohort of postgraduate supervisors from various faculties, Seo challenged academics to move away from viewing supervision as an administrative responsibility and instead embrace their role as teachers.

“Postgraduate students need teachers. They don't need to be supervised. They don't need advising or chairpersons. I don't care what anybody tells me; postgraduate students are students, and students need teachers," said Seo.

Seo further asserted that many supervisors assume postgraduate students should remember everything they learnt during previous qualifications. This, she said, was one of the leading contributors to stagnant postgraduate studies.

“What makes supervisors think master's students are going to remember everything from honours? They can't. It's impossible. Our brains have a limited capacity, and if we can adopt the mindset that these are students who need teachers, then we've done our job," said the Professor.

Echoing Seo’s sentiments, Walter Sisulu’s Director for Postgraduate Studies, Professor Asabonga Mngeni said feedback from postgraduate students showed that there was a need to invest in supervisor development.

"One issue that we come across when we interact with our postgraduate students, they always complain about some supervisors. They say supervisors are not available, are not responding on time, and even when you look at the types of comments supervisors give to our students, you can really tell that there is something missing," said Mngeni.

Mngeni said the workshop formed part of Walter Sisulu's efforts to improve the quality of postgraduate supervision, increase doctoral throughput, and ultimately contribute to the country's target of producing more doctoral graduates by 2030.

"The Council on Higher Education's 2021 report informed us that we have about 3800 PhD graduates annually, and there is a need to increase that number to about 5000 by 2030. We, as Walter Sisulu, must play our part by ensuring that when we admit our students, we coach them and give them the necessary support through people with the necessary skills so that we can contribute to producing the required number of doctoral graduates in the country," said Mngeni.

Mngeni stipulated that the directorate for Postgraduate Studies had solicited Seo’s services due to her proven track record of improving postgraduate supervision and changing institutional mindsets.

“We have been tracking Professor Seo's work and wherever she goes, we see a change in mindset and improvements in postgraduate throughput. We wanted our supervisors to gain a different perspective instead of only relying on the way they themselves were supervised," said Mngeni.

To ensure continued supervisory training, Mngeni said that his office planned to broaden access through online webinars so that more supervisors across the institution can benefit from the training.

By Yanga Ziwele