Abstract

Supervisors are the cornerstones of successful postgraduate studies. Once registered, a postgraduate student is allocated a supervisor to oversee research and mentor them. Some universities allocate supervisors and mentors separately depending on their capacity. Although postgraduate students need to lead their academic journey, their supervisors are also responsible for their success. The throughput rate for postgraduates focuses on ensuring that students fulfil the requirements of their degrees within the expected time frames. Challenges may arise in the postgraduate student journey, including emotional, psychological, financial and health – and even the loss of interest in their research. The supervisors are expected to help the students to overcome these challenges through various means, including referral to professional services. Some universities may offer incentives to supervisors should their students graduate on time. However, it is not entirely clear what students would want from their supervisors or universities in order to feel supported. This quantitative study surveyed postgraduate students who were studying at South African public universities from 2010 to 2020 in order to determine who played a role in their studies and what kind of support or research capacity development activities helped them to complete their studies. Cooke’s Framework (2005) was applied in the questionnaire to evaluate the development of the students’ research capacity. The findings highlight the reality that supervisors are key to postgraduate support and throughput rates and that activities such as research workshops and dissertation writing sessions are beneficial to postgraduates. The study recommends adopting Cooke’s Framework at public universities so as to evaluate research capacity, replacing the principle of sustainability and continuity with emotional support and conducting needs assessments, ongoing monitoring and yearend evaluations, while ensuring that supervisors are suitably equipped to meet student needs.