Dear Research Participant

As part of the Enabling Quality Postgraduate Education (EQPE) project we are conducting a survey to establish a baseline of current practices in postgraduate education across South Africa, to get an understanding of how institutions approach recruitment & selection, supervision, support for postgraduate students, and examination. We invite supervisors at all South African universities and HEIs to participate in the survey.

This research project has ethical approval under Rhodes University (ethical clearance number 2025-8358-9578). Permission to circulate the survey to staff at UKZN has been granted by the UKZN gatekeeper. All parts of the study will be conducted according to internationally accepted ethical principles.

We would be most grateful if you could take 15-20 minutes to complete our online questionnaire, based on your experience as a postgraduate supervisor. Questionnaire responses are anonymous and will not capture names of institutions.

You can access the questionnaire here: https://forms.gle/yUW9MSzXujqTukxMA

Kindly note that the survey will be closed on 5 December 2025, therefore we would highly appreciate your responses before this date.

Upon completing the questionnaire, respondents will be invited to sign up for a follow-up interview (via separate link) if they wish to provide more detail on their survey responses or if they would like to share interesting or alternative practices. Interview data will be anonymised and if you elect to participate in an interview you will be fully informed of the data management process prior to undertaking the interview.

This study will contribute to a greater understanding of postgraduate practices within South African universities and will result in sharing of information about effective practices – towards improvements in the quality of postgraduate education on a national level. The research results of this project will be published in the form of a report which will be shared with all EQPE participants, DVCs: Research, Directors of Postgraduate Studies, and Faculty Deans in all universities as well as other interested parties.

Your participation in the study will be greatly appreciated.

By agreeing to complete the questionnaire, you declare that you fully understand and accept the information that has been shared with you.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Lynette Louw
Commerce Deputy Dean: Research and Innovation, Rhodes University
Commerce Stream Coordinator for the Enabling Quality Postgraduate Education Project
Email: l.louw@ru.ac.za