Relieving Financial Constraints of Doing Postgraduate Research in Africa

Private and public universities all canvas to enroll learners targeting community as a source of students. The parents' and learners' choice to join universities is guided by knowledge available on social media as universities are web-ranked depending on evaluation criteria of best performance. Research and publication is one of the three core activities that identify a university from other tertiary institutions after secondary education. The financial constraints in financing research for Masters and PhD students remain a drawback in implementing quality assurance policy in African universities. The major criteria used while evaluating best performing universities are: teaching, research, citation, industrial income, and international outlook. Research takes equal percentage weight as teaching in universities' web ranking. This chapter explores the possibility of financing research and publications in promoting quality assurance system, a global marketing strategy for universities.

Enhancing the English Language Ability of Postgraduate Research Students

The chapter discusses opinions about grammar as a prescriptive diction in academic writing. It also argues that the problem of personal pronouns can be used to analyze the language used by post-graduate students in low-resource setting and others whether in speech or writing, in non-literally discourse or literature. The chapter analyzes four maxims of good writing: Make your language easy to follow; be clear; be economical; and be effective. To successfully create knowledge, especially at postgraduate level, authors must communicate concisely to present their sense.

Determining Research Design and Data Analysis

Research is the framework for the development of human social and scientific progress. Foundations for improved scientific thinking is often established at the post-graduate level where students undertake independent investigations aimed at exploring a chosen topic within their chosen area of specialization. Irrespective of the discipline, institution, or topic chosen, post-graduate students often adopt specific research framework(s) and processes which involves selecting design(s) and data analysis procedure. This seemingly routine task has been the bane of many post-graduate students. This chapter focuses on research methodology involving the selection of appropriate design that aims to establish the general data collection and analyses procedures, selection of a sample from population, and discussion of findings in line with existing literature or controlled observation. This chapter provides suggestions for improving the research engagement process through the adoption of appropriate research design and selection of statistical tool for data analysis.

Institutional Support and Student-Faculty Interaction for Postgraduate Research Engagement

Quality institutional support and student-faculty interaction are critical to effective research engagement and efficient completion among higher education students. However, the research engagement of many postgraduate students in Uganda is characterised by low completion rates, longer stay on the journey, and high drop-out among others. In this interpretative phenomenological qualitative study using focus group discussions among Master of Education cohorts of 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 and seven key informant interviews among research advisors in Ugandan universities, the author explored gaps in institutional support and student-faculty interaction that negatively affected the students' research engagement. Findings revealed wanting institutional support in resources, operating procedures, organisation and communication, supervision, curricula, and student financing. Student-faculty interaction gaps included supervisor absenteeism and emotional and behavioural dereliction. Strategies to fix the gaps were also solicited. Recommendations for policy and practice were advanced.

Administrative Support for Graduate Education Success in Resource-Poor and Culturally-Challenging Environments

For any university to become successful in producing new knowledge it must invest heavily in graduate education. The developing world has dwindling resources investment in graduate training, yet countries cannot develop without graduate programmes. The challenge is that most postgraduate students do not receive adequate support from programme administration. There are no deliberate efforts to understand the cause of high dropout or delayed completion schedule of most graduate students. Providing tailored administrative and supervision support to graduate units is vital in reducing high attrition rates. This chapter provides key challenges facing graduate education in a resource-poor and culturally challenging environment. It proposes innovative remedies on student engagement, focusing on the need to develop tailor-made programmes to support student success at graduate level. The focus is on preparing, supporting, and enabling graduate students to successfully complete their studies.

Overcoming the Viva Voce Examination Obstacle at Postgraduate Research

Most postgraduate programs have viva voce, or oral examination, or thesis defense as a mandatory form of research assessment. This chapter defines viva voce examination, its importance in the assessment of postgraduate students, the way it should be managed, the challenges it presents to the students as well as the staff, and how to overcome it as an obstacle. The chapter provides a handy tool for the guidance and preparation of students and faculty in low-resource settings in the viva process. The author recommends students be gradually and systematically introduced to viva voce examinations as a formative assessment, rather than suddenly as a terminal assessment.

Vocalizing Qualitative Methodologies in Education Research

This chapter explains the significance of grounded theory and the interpretative paradigm as powerful qualitative methodologies used in data analysis in education research. This chapter defines qualitative methodologies and their history and significance in education research. Authors discuss the science of coding from views advanced by the classical founders of grounded theory like Barney Glaser, Anselm Strauss, Corbin, and Catherine Charmaz. The chapter examines the important elements in content analysis and the interpretative paradigm, and provides practical illustrations on how qualitative methodologies could be used to analyze data in education research.

Pedagogy and Agency in Postgraduate Student Supervision in a Rural South African University

Postgraduate studies in South Africa's higher education and the world have come to occupy an important position not only due to the high level of professional development attached to it but also due to the significance of post-graduate research towards the university's research output. This chapter is based on a combination of informal interviews with supervisors and doctoral students, observing student supervisor interactions as well as personal experiences within the doctoral study trail. The notions of agency and pedagogy related to the complexities surrounding how supervisor-student interactions could shape various forms of agency that may act as enabling or constraining within the doctoral study route are explored. This is particularly with respect to poorly resourced universities, particularly those often referred to as the historically disadvantaged universities (HDUs) in South Africa.

Supervisors' Reflections on Policy and Practice in an African Graduate Setting

The chapter reflects two supervisors' experiences on graduate research from the legal, institutional, and personal perspectives. In addition to a review of several literature, two professors engaged in graduate supervision were interviewed to explore perception of their roles, supervision styles, and whether they adapted these styles to circumstances. Literature documents various supervision models and styles, moving along a continuum from dyadic to relationship development models, and institutions provide minimum benchmarks and best practice guides. Supervision is a personally-intensive knowledge sharing, utilization, and management undertaking between a supervisor and supervisee. The chapter contributes to the scholarship of pedagogy of supervision, an emerging discourse especially in graduate settings in sub Saharan Africa where research is apparently low-resourced.

Obstacles for Students With Disabilities in the Supervision Process at Postgraduate Level in South Africa

The chapter presents the obstacles in supervision for students with disabilities at post-graduate level in South African higher education. Data were collected through scanning South African and international literature available on Google scholar, ProQuest, in books, journal articles, and online resources. Decolonial theory informed understanding of why the obstacles are confronted by the particular students. The findings revealed limited supervision is the main obstacle. The argument for the chapter is that students with disabilities' obstacles in supervision are far deeper than those seen at surface level.