A scoping review of the changing landscape of doctoral education

ABSTRACT

A scoping review to identify models of doctoral supervision as described in the literature (2000 and 2021) was conducted using Arksey and O’Malley’s six-step framework. Four bibliographic databases generated 2102 potential studies. Further screening identified 81 articles for inclusion. The findings highlight that despite differences in terminology, an international move towards more collaborative and structured approaches is identifiable. Benefits detailed in the literature include: better throughput, the mitigation of loneliness and power issues implicated in one-on-one approaches, and the possibility for a stronger research foundation and interdisciplinary work. Concerns were also noted about increasing managerialism whereby support structures focus on efficiencies rather than quality and growing ties between industry and doctoral education without much critique of possible conflicts.

KEYWORDS:

• Doctorate
• models of supervision
• collaborative approaches
• structured models
• throughput

Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge Dr Rudo Hwami and Mrs Ilse Meyer for their assistance in this project, and the support received for this work from the Stellenbosch University Teaching Fellowship.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.