Expectations of the Student-Supervisor Relationship in Doctoral Studies

Postgraduate supervision and particularly the student-supervisor relationship in doctoral studies has recently become a topic of great discussion in the academic arena. The relationship between the student and the supervisor is central to the successful completion of doctoral studies. As such, the focus of this study was to explore the nature of the student-supervisor relationship in the completion of educational doctoral studies in two African universities, namely, Nelson Mandela University in South Africa and Moi University in Kenya. Aqualitative approach was used, located within an interpretivist paradigm and positioned as an intrinsic interpretive case study. Convenient and purposive sampling was utilized to select participants who had recently completed their doctoral studies in education within the last five years. An individual semi-structured interview and drawings were used to generate the data with ten participants, five from each of the two Universities. The data was analysed thematically and the model for interpersonal supervisor behaviour of Mainhard, Roeland, Tarkwijk and Wubbels (2009), was used to make meaning of the findings. The conclusions from the findings were used to generate implications which could be helpful to university management in improving postgraduate supervision and in so doing, promote the success rate of doctoral studies in African universities.