The Status Quo of Doctoral Education in Universities in Zimbabwe
Globally, the importance of highly qualified human resources (holders of doctoral degrees) in providing the requisite skills for knowledge economies is well acknowledged. Sadly, African universities are reportedly lagging behind in terms of satisfying the required quantity and quality of doctoral graduates (Harle, 2013). This study was aimed at providing empirical evidence on the status of doctoral education in Zimbabwe as well as identifying the reasons for the status quo. Documentary evidence and telephonic interviews were used to collect data from all the 15 (40%) registered universities in Zimbabwe. The interviews involved doctoral students enrolled in local universities as well as in foreign universities, aspiring doctoral candidates and senior academics based in local universities.The findings showed that six out of the 15 universities were offering programmes at doctoral level in 2014 giving a share of 0.2%. The combined doctoral degree enrolment was 150 translating to a share of 0.18% of the total student enrolments. A total of 28 people graduated with doctorates from Zimbabwean universities in 2014. Approximately 565 academics from Zimbabwean universities were pursuing doctoral degrees at universities in the region notably in South Africa and Zambia and yet only one university in Zimbabwe enrolled students from the region. The reasons for this state of affairs included the stringent regulatory environment regarding doctoral study in Zimbabwe, shortage of supervisors due to brain drain, unavailability of doctoral programmes at 60% of the local universities and inadequate funding and resources. The study the study recommends that ZIMCHE and universities should revisit their standards and regulations. In addition, government needs to adequately remunerate university staff and provide funding for research and doctoral studies.
Improving the Qualifications of Academic Staff in a Major Zimbabwean University
The findings from the baseline survey (MoHTE, 2010) revealed high attrition of senior academic staff (doctorate degree holders) from higher education institutions resulting from the economic meltdown faced by Zimbabwe from 2000 to 2009. It is thus imperative for Zimbabwe to train more staff at doctorate level in order to replenish the ones lost to brain drain and improve the quality of teaching, learning and research. The objective of this study was to establish the extent to which universities have fared in their staff development endevours. A quantitative case study approach was used focusing of Great Zimbabwe University (GZU). Documentary evidence and structured questionnaires were used to collect data from Deans of Faculties. The results showed that the academic staff members pursuing doctoral degree studies increased from one in 2009 to 133 in 2015. Eleven of these are studying in five Zimbabwean universities whilst 122 are enrolled with 19 foreign universities in six different countries. The number of academic staff members increased from 197 in 2009 to 293 in 2015. The university registered its first cohort of 19 Doctor of Philosophy students in 2015 of these 5 are members of GZU staff. The study concluded that Great Zimbabwe University was poised for greater heights in improving the quality of their staff. The study recommends similar studies in the other universities in Zimbabwe.
Science Buddies: Advancing Informal Science Education
An innovative nonprofit enables scientists to present inspiring project ideas based on their own research to K–12 students, parents, and teachers. Every year, about 10 million North American kindergarten through high school (K–12) students complete a science project. What part of these science projects is the most difficult? Formulating a hypothesis? Designing an experiment? Analyzing data? The answer: None of the above. Science Buddies (www.sciencebuddies.org)—a nonprofit developer of software, content, and other resources for informal science and engineering education—found that students have the most difficulty selecting a topic and doing background research to inform their work. Meanwhile, scientists and engineers interested in advising and inspiring students often do not have a means to connect with them (see the first figure). To Science Buddies, these difficulties presented an ideal challenge, and we applied a business methodology to address them, viewing our users as customers and our output as products.