Worldwide, in Africa and in South Africa, the importance of the doctorate has increased disproportionately in relation to its share of the overall graduate output over the past decade. This heightened attention has not only been concerned with the traditional role of the PhD, namely the provision of future academics; rather, it has focused on the increasingly important role that higher education - and, particularly, high-level skills - is perceived to play in national development and the knowledge economy. This book is unique in the area of research into doctoral studies because it draws on a large number of studies conducted by the Centre of Higher Education Trust (CHET) and the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST), as well as on studies from the rest of Africa and the world. In addition to the historical studies, new quantitative and qualitative research was undertaken to produce the evidence base for the analyses presented in the book. The findings presented in Doctoral Education in South Africa pose anew at least six tough policy questions that the country has struggled with since 1994, and continues to struggle with, if it wishes to gear up the system to meet the target of 5 000 new doctorates a year by 2030. Discourses framed around the single imperatives of growth, efficiency, transformation or quality will not, however, generate the kind of policy discourses required to resolve these tough policy questions effectively. What is needed is a change in approach that accommodates multiple imperatives and allows for these to be addressed simultaneously.

Worldwide, in Africa and in South Africa, the importance of the doctorate has increased disproportionately in relation to its share of the overall graduate output over the past decade. This heightened attention has not only been concerned with the traditional role of the PhD, namely the provision of future academics; rather, it has focused on the increasingly important role that higher education and, particularly, high-level skills is perceived to play in national development and the knowledge economy. This book is unique in the area of research into doctoral studies because it draws on a large number of studies conducted by the Centre of Higher Education Trust (CHET) and the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST), as well as on studies from the rest of Africa and the world. In addition to the historical studies, new quantitative and qualitative research was undertaken to produce the evidence base for the analyses presented in the book. The findings presented in Doctoral Education in South Africa pose anew at least six tough policy questions that the country has struggled with since 1994, and continues to struggle with, if it wishes to gear up the system to meet the target of 5 000 new doctorates a year by 2030. Discourses framed around the single imperatives of growth, efficiency, transformation or quality will not, however, generate the kind of policy discourses required to resolve these tough policy questions effectively. What is needed is a change in approach that accommodates multiple imperatives and allows for these to be addressed simultaneously.

This edited collection is cohesive by a focus on becoming: becoming a doctoral student, becoming a researcher, becoming an academic, and becoming a supervisor. This journey of becoming takes us from pre-enrolment in a doctoral programme, through the many phases of candidature and into the post-doctoral environment. Both advancing theory, and providing very practical examples, this book is of immense value to doctoral students and academics not only in South Africa - for whom it should be a mandatory read - but also for doctoral education researchers, doctoral students and supervisors worldwide, as the themes covered extend well beyond the borders of South Africa.

This book, the second in the projected three-volume Forces and Forms in Doctoral Education Worldwide series sponsored by the Center for Innovation in Graduate Education (CIRGE) at the University of Washington, invites readers to listen in as nearly thirty distinguished scholars and thought leaders confront urgent questions about doctoral education in a globalizing world: • How are research doctoral education and the research PhD degree evolving in different national contexts? • How do researchers in the early stage of their careers assess the value of doctoral education? • What are the challenges of using international demographic data from existing PhD programs to analyze trends in doctoral education? • What can happen when regional issues intersect with the need to evaluate doctoral education and ensure its quality? • Which quality-assurance model has been gaining favor in PhD education, and what challenges does it pose? • What accounts for conflict between national interests and international collaboration in doctoral education? • Is there empirical evidence of globalization’s impact on doctoral education and the labor market for PhD graduates? This follow-up to Toward a Global PhD? (University of Washington Press, 2008), the first volume in the series, includes case studies illustrating global trends in the structure, function, and quality frameworks of doctoral education, and it develops a conceptual framework linking globalization to trends in doctoral education while showing the particular history that has led to the convergence of a number of practices in one or more countries.

Drawing on insights from across Africa, this book investigates the discourses and practices that guide doctoral training today. Higher education is regarded as key for driving development and innovation, creating an informed knowledge base equipped to tackle local and global challenges. For too long external forces defined education in the continent, but now African countries are revitalising higher education, designing doctoral training to fit distinctly African needs and contexts. This book investigates the history, present and future potential of doctoral training on international, regional, national and institutional levels. Bringing together expertise from both research and practice, the book analyses the frameworks and structures of the doctoral phase, and how institutions, supervisors, mentors and young scholars meet the challenges of training in real life. The book covers issues such as access to education, proactive recruitment, funding issues, practitioner expertise, enrolment and drop-out, across a range of countries including South Africa, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Benin, Ghana and Morocco. This book will be a rich resource for higher education administrators and policy makers, as well as researchers and academics with an interest in higher education in Africa.

Universities and nations have long recognized the direct contribution of graduate education to the welfare of the economy by meeting a range of research and employment needs. With the burgeoning of a global economy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the economic outcome of doctoral education reaches far beyond national borders. Many doctoral programs in the United States and throughout the world are looking for opportunities to equip students to work in transnational settings, with scientists and researchers located across the globe. Nations competing within this global economy often have different and not always compatible motives for supporting graduate training. In this volume, graduate education experts explore some of the tensions and potential for cooperation between nations in the realm of doctoral education. The contributors assess graduate education in different systems around the world, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, the Nordic countries, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Many factors motivate the need for a global understanding of doctoral education, including the internationalization of the labor market and global competition, the expansion of opportunities for doctoral education in smaller and developing nations, and a declining interest among international students in pursuing their graduate education in the United States.

Recent decades have seen an explosion in doctoral education worldwide. Increased potential for diverse employment has generated greater interest, with cultural, political and environmental tensions focusing the attention of new creative, responsible scholars. Towards a Global Core Value System in Doctoral Education provides an evaluation of changes and reforms in doctoral education since 2000. Recognising the diversity of academic cultures and institutional systems worldwide, the book advocates for a core value system to overcome inequalities in access to doctoral education and the provision of knowledge. Building on in-depth perspectives of scholars and young researchers from more than 25 countries, the chapters focus on the structures and quality assurance models of doctoral education, supervision, and funding from an institutional and comparative perspective. The book examines capacity building in the era of globalisation, global labour market developments for doctoral graduates, and explores the ethical challenges and political contestations that may manifest in the process of pursuing a PhD. Experts and early career researchers in the Global North and South collaborated in interdisciplinary and intergenerational teams to develop guidelines for doctoral education. They learned from each other about how to act courageously within a complex global context. The resulting recommendations and reflections are an invitation to reflect on the frames and conditions of doctoral education today.