Research Success and Structured
support: Managing early career
academics in Higher Education.
Dr Hilary Geber
Centre for Learning, Teaching and Development
University of the Witwatersrand,
Private Bag 3, WITS, 2050, South Africa
Tel: +27 11 717-1485 Fax: +27 11 717-1489
E-mail: geberh@cltd.wits.ac.za
Fighting for Harmony - students, society and the academy in tune
EAIR Forum Vilnius 2009, Vilnius, Lithuania, 23-26 August 2009
University of the Witwatersrand
Strategic Goal - 2020 target
Increase the number of academic staff
holding PhDs from the current 48% to
70%.
322 without PhDs to be qualified in the
next 12 years
Publication rate – increase to 1.5 pa.
Increased support & management of
research
Doctoral graduation rates in South Africa
 Ranking: UP, UNISA, UCT,US, WITS, UKZN, UFS, UJ, NWU,
RU.
 Total graduates 1990 - 2004 = 11250
 Wits:
1990-1992
1993-1995
1996-1998
1999-2001
2002-2004
Total
228
231
199
206
243
1107
 National shortage of PhDs in the system. 6-7
years to reach 1500 pa
Source: Mouton, 2007
Characteristics of prolific researchers
Robust self esteem, resilience and
persistence
Good time and stress management skills
Realistic perception of workload
Prolifics engage in consistent, persistent
daily writing, in small bite-sized chunks
Prolific writers are networked and have a
community of engaged, interested
writers/readers and fellow scholars
Characteristics of prolific researchers
Prolifics have had significant mentors.
Prolifics tend to be in stable partnerships /
relationships / marriages.
Men and older / more senior academics
tend to be more prolific than women, and
younger academics.
Attend international conferences early in
career
‘Structured support for Research Success’
Programme
Launched 2007
3 Professional coaches trained in 2006-7
10 Academics selected according to
criteria
substantial progress towards completion of
higher degree, with completion within 18
months from the beginning of programme.
Initial survey
Participants paired with coaches
‘Structured support for Research
Success’ Programme
 Hard Skills
Research Writing Skills
Voice & Presentation Skills
Effective Speed Reading
Time & Stress Management
IT tools: MindManager; Virtual training; Visual
Thesaurus
How to write NRF funding proposals
 Soft skills
Coaching (12 sessions offered)
Participants
3 obtained PhD before Research Support
programme
1 registered for PhD during Research
Support programme
4 Registered for MSc in Health Sciences
2 Dropouts
Purpose of the study
Structured written surveys & in-depth
interviews
Does a structured programme help early
career academics achieve their research
goals?
What aspects of the structured programme
are most beneficial?
Hard Skills
offered by programme
Research Writing Skills
 All attended
Voice & Presentation Skills
 All attended
Effective Speed Reading
 5 attended
Time & Stress Management
 7 attended
IT tools: Mindmanager; Virtual training; Visual Thesaurus
– 3 obtained these
How to write NRF funding proposals
1 attended
Findings
 Differing expectations of the programme –
career development; publications; and personal
development
 The effectiveness of goal setting within the
programme
 The effectiveness of the core courses offered
by the programme
 The effectiveness of coaching during the
programme
 The tangible outcomes of the programme
Career development expectations
 ‘To obtain skills in research writing and guidance
in managing my time and tasks effectively. I also
wanted to learn strategies to become an
effective an independent researcher.’
 ‘I hoped that through the course I would be able
to get a better understanding of how to do good
research. I wanted to equip myself with the tools
that I could use in my research. I specifically
wanted to get a grasp of how to improve my
writing skills.’
Expectations about establishing a
publication record
 Expected to write a number of papers,
have some systematic follow-up on
progress, and tracking of their own writing
deadlines.
‘I was registered for an M.Sc, and having
trouble getting going, not getting lot of
feedback from my 2 supervisors. I was
hoping the programme would help.’
Personal development expectations
to work on strengthening personal
attributes which they felt they needed to
develop for being more effective
researchers.
Goal setting within the programme
 ‘Especially for someone like me who is
just starting out in an academic career, it is
too easy to get bogged down with
teaching, with the result that research and
writing papers tends to fall by the wayside
if there aren’t structures in place to draw
one’s attention and focus back to these
areas periodically.’
Setting specific goals for the year
Career development
Publication
Personal development
The effectiveness of the core courses
Research Writing
Participants fall into three groups –
 those who experience an immediate
transformation and who begin to write and
produce writing prolifically;
 others are enabled to get through the writing of
articles and academic work in a more enjoyable
way but do not become prolific writers;
 others simply do not change enough to change
their old habits or attitudes and do not become
productive writers (Badenhorst, 2008).
Research Writing
 The course revolutionised the way academics
write, how they think about writing and how they
view themselves as writers.
 It provides many explicit explanations of what
happens in the writing processs and techniques.
 It empowers participants to take charge of their
writing.
 It deconstructs some of the mystery about
writing.
 This does not replace research methodology
courses
The effectiveness of the core courses
Voice & Presentation Skills
public speaking at conference
presentations and in classrooms
Foreign academics and second language
English speakers find it quite difficult to
make themselves understood
The effectiveness of the core courses
Effective Speed Reading
& Time & Stress Management
Helpful in dealing with reading load for
research, literature reviews, reports.
Provided simple but effective ways to
avoid time wasting and more efficient
ways of managing time.
Coaching programme criteria
 There is no transgression on the domain of the
supervisor.
 The coaches limit their input to providing
personal support to participants to achieve their
higher degree / research goals.
 Participants and coaches enter into a contract
explicitly defining objectives.
Coaching programme criteria
 The participants take personal responsibility for
achieving the agreed objectives in co-active
coaching
 Each contract constitutes a ‘coaching
programme’ of 12 coaching sessions face-toface.
 Coaching is a completely confidential process.
No information about any participant is supplied
to any party by a coach.
Coaching offered by programme
Goal setting with coaches
3 PhDs: 5 to 12 sessions
1 PhD candidate & 4 M Sc candidates : 12
& several additional sessions
Need much more support in managing research
outputs & academic discourse
The effectiveness of coaching
Coaching helped with interactions with
colleagues, departmental heads, and
students.
Coaches who are familiar with the Higher
Education discourse are able to weave the
strands of the core courses together
Coaches were instrumental in helping
participants achieve their goals and
keeping them on track.
Tangible outputs from the structured
support for research success programme
 Papers accepted for publication
International - 2(WM)
National - 1(IF); 7(A, WM)
 Papers under review - 3(I, WF); 1(WM)
2
8
4
 Conference presentations
National - 1 (CM)
International - 2 (I, AF); 2 (A, CM)
1
4
 Conference presentation prizeInternational - 1 (IF)
1
Tangible outputs from the structured
support for research success programme
 NRF Rating - 1 (WM)
1
 Grant funding
NRF funding – National - 1 (IF) 1 (WM)
Grant funding – International - 3 (WM)
 MSc completed - 1(AF)
 Promotion - 1(IF); 2(C, WM)
2
3
1
3
Overall evaluation of the programme
The structured support for research success
programme has shown that:
 a wide variety of support programmes essential
 and coaching even for a rather limited period of
less than a year has a dramatic effect
 gets young researchers into a position where
they perform well and view themselves as
successful and independent researchers.
 enables supervisors & managers to track
research outputs more consistently