MALUNGUZA, Noble (Dr)

Doctoral education is traditionally viewed as a routine process for the replenishment of faculty at universities. Nowadays, doctoral education is increasingly associated with the production of new knowledge, advanced skills for production and maintenance of a high-quality human capital base strongly correlated with economic development. Vision 2030 which is predicated on human capital development envisages a middle-income society for Zimbabwe by 2030, places responsibility for that strategic goal upon local universities. Doctoral training confers unique problem identification and resolution competencies that are generic to PhD holders. Universities have the system and sole responsibility for producing the PhDs, but the continent suffers from a serious shortage of supervisors (and experienced supervisors). Teaming up local supervisors with supervisors from external higher education institutions (HEIs) seems to be one possible way of addressing this deficit. This joint supervisor model combines supervisors from different supervision cultures, fuses with distance tutelage and heavily relies on information, communication technologies (ICT) tools. The doctorate training project is increasingly a learning sphere for both students and supervisors. Educative for students seeking competencies in their fields and experiential for supervisors in the supervision scholarship field. This study explores the effectiveness of the joint supervisor model to alleviate supervisor shortage on the continent by way of investigation into the dynamics, supervision, and doctoral education experiences of two supervision teams at a local university in Zimbabwe. Two supervision teams made up of five supervisors (with one duplicate) and two students were purposely selected for an individual in-depth interview that used open ended questions. Supervisor feedback on various manuscripts was scrutinized to assess the role played by each supervisor. The study used a face-to-face interview with the local supervisor and the two students employed by the same institution. The other three supervisors who are external to the institution and are based in the diaspora were interviewed using skype. The study finds mixed levels of supervisor and student satisfaction with the model. Results from this study add to the evidence-based perspectives compelling for mandatory training in supervisor development programmes, supervision of supervisors and accountability of doctoral supervisors in HEI in Africa. Mandatory training programmes should impact positively in exposing supervisors to the generic processes necessary for effective supervision. The study is robust in that it captures both student and supervisor experiences and perspectives on joint supervision in African universities context where some supervisors may still be inclined to traditional approaches that vest tremendous political power. Overall, this study finds that joint supervision can be an effective panacea to supervision manpower challenges at African HEIs.