University of Namibia's Recent (2007-2018) Doctoral Models in a Knowledge-Economy

Abstract or Introduction

This study had a purpose to understand the University of Namibia (UNAM)’s Doctoral Models and their performance in the recent past – 2012 to present. The method used was a simple desktop literature review on doctoral studies, the Namibian economy, state of higher education in the country, UNAM’s Policies and Practices on Doctoral studies, and performance of UNAM’s doctoral programs. It was found that the university is conformant to most international and national docterateness standards. As such there cannot be much doubt in terms of the quality of doctoral degrees that UNAM produces. However, limited doctoral supervisor’s capacity, over dependent on PhD by research mode – ignoring many other approaches, and the linkage of university financing formula to enrolment figures than to graduate figures – a disincentive to potential supervisors, are critically compromising the university performance with regard to numbers of PhD outputs. The effect is evident in poor fairing of the University on research, patents and industrial designs – a clear warning that the university fall far too shot of being a significant player in the aspiration of Namibian becoming a knowledge economy. Therefore, the study strongly recommends a change in the University financing formula by government (to take into account institutional outputs), investing more training and development for supervisory capacity, as well as more public investment into the production of intellectual property to enable the university to compete with its peers locally, regionally and internationally. Future empirical tracer study research need to narrow on the role PhD graduates play in a knowledge economy