Challenges in postgraduate research : how Doctorates come off the rails

Abstract

Worldwide the completion rate for doctorates ranges from poor to abysmal. The responsibility for this must be shared by candidates, supervisors and the institutions to which they belong. In particular, postgraduate students create a number of problems that cause their studies to derail. While supervisors can change particular supervision protocols to improve doctoral throughput rates, the extent to which postgraduate students themselves take ownership of their research, will ultimately determine their degree of success. This article will discuss some of the problems that frequently occur and present some insights from the supervision experience of the authors. We hope that our contribution will create more light than smoke, and that it will help to improve the postgraduate performance of students as well as supervisors.