The Knowledge Economy Needs More Doctorates
In Africa and around the world, the importance of the doctorate has risen in inverse proportion to the share of college graduates pursuing PhDs. This situation negatively affects not only the future supply of academics: PhDs, with their high-level skills, play a vital role in national development and the knowledge economy.
Doctoral Education in South Africa 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), over the past decade with support from Carnegie Corporation and the Ford Foundation. In addition, it features analyses of new quantitative and qualitative research on the growth, efficiency, quality, and transformation of doctoral education and supervision across the continent and the world.
Recognizing that Africa needs tens of thousands more PhDs to renew an aging professoriate, staff the rapidly expanding higher education field, boost research, and generate high‐level skills, the book proposes a paradigm shift that will strengthen traditional doctoral education. It presents the possibility of South Africa as a PhD hub for the continent, but also covers the obstacles and tough policy choices involved.
Download the full PDF of Doctoral Education in South Africahere.