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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Janet Chepchirchir Ronoh, John Chang’ach, Josephine Musamas
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DOI:10.17265/2161-623X/2025.05.006
Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya
Despite a high demand for a workforce with high levels of research knowledge, skills, and attitude, research has revealed that delay in the completion of a doctoral degree and high attrition rates is still a common experience in many universities today. Studies have shown that stagnation mainly occurs at the dissertation stage of the study, and consequently, stakeholders are now focusing on efforts to understand experiences with an aim of improving completion rates. This study sought to understand the supervision experiences of supervisors and doctoral candidates at the dissertation stage. The study was guided by the objective: to explore supervision experiences of doctoral students and supervisors during the dissertation phase of a doctoral study. The study used Tinto’s doctoral persistence theory and Weidman et al.’s graduate socialization framework as a lens to understand participants’ experiences. The study employed a qualitative approach, and a purposive sampling strategy was used to select 55 doctoral students and 32 supervisors from four universities. Qualitative data were gathered using a semi-structured questionnaire for students and supervisors and a focus group discussion for supervisors. Qualitative data were coded and analyzed thematically according to Tesch’s method of qualitative analysis. The study established that: Effective student-supervisor collaboration has not been achieved; there are still gaps in communication and feedback between doctoral students and supervisors. Power dynamics between students and supervisors and inadequate supervisor proficiency are still a common experience. Doctoral students showed concerns on weak research back-ground and limited research skills. Experiences of loneliness, inadequate support from advisors, peers and family featured strongly in the findings. The study recommends: prioritization of supervisor capacity building, institutional cultivation of virtues of academic integrity among doctoral students, and implementation of structured research activities such as seminars, conferences, and workshops. The study also advocates for students’ guidance on coping strategies that will enable doctoral students strike a balance between research and life experiences. Facilitation of supervision should be enhanced; supervisors should be offered better remuneration and moderation of their workload. Universities should also strengthen student-supervisor collaborations by fostering a formal structure of communication and feedback between students and supervisors.
dissertation, doctoral studies, completion, experiences, supervision
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