EAST-SPARK Resources
Welcome to the EAST-SPARK project’s comprehensive resources designed to help facilitators of supervision training and final future doctoral supervisors to improve the quality of doctoral supervision. These resources have been developed by international experts to provide valuable guidance, tools and insights for those embarking on the journey of doctoral supervision. Where we have not developed the resources ourselves as part of the EAST-SPARK project, we acknowledge the sources.
Whether you are a prospective doctoral supervisor looking to hone your supervision skills or a supervisor tasked with delivering training, our resources offer practical strategies, best practice and customisable materials to support your professional development and contribute to the advancement of doctoral education in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. You are invited to explore our diverse range of resources!
At our first in-person meeting in Naivasha, Kenya, in February 2025, we worked through the individual training modules that make up the training for supervisors in detail and are now ready to test the training with supervisors in pilot training courses in nine different locations in Kenya,, Uganda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Malawi. After this test phase the material will be refined and made available here.
All modules are structured in such a way that they consist of a presentation, a script on how the respective module is conducted, handouts for the training participants if applicable, and a further reading list for those who want to delve deeper into the topic.
In a next step, pilot training sessions will take place at the various home inistutions of the project partners, in which we want to collect valuable feedback from participants and, depending on this, adapt and, if necessary, expand the modules accordingly.
In module one, we will deal with the global context of doctoral education, with a focus on the reform processes of recent years, particularly in Europe, and how these reforms can also be translated into the African context. We will also discuss why it is particularly important for sub-Saharan Africa to invest in doctoral education. And last but not least, we will conclude the module by looking at local legal requirements and internal regulations.
Module two is about recruiting and selecting doctoral students and, if applicable, their allocation. We want to show our participants the options available to make their programmes attractive. It is important to be able to identify suitable candidates from a pool of talent. We will also emphasise the importance of the fit between the doctoral student and the supervisor as an important basis for good working relationships.
Module three deals with the question of how supervisors can best support their doctoral students in developing a good dissertation project. It is about narrowing down the scientific topic, i.e. from the topic or possible research interest to the actual research question, how to find the right author, how to structure the expose and how to design a feasible plan.
In module four, we deal with the different roles and responsibilities of doctoral supervisors. The central question is how we, as supervisors, can best clarify mutual expectations in a transparent way and how we can thus achieve a professional working relationship. Making the implicit explicit is at the centre.
Module five is dedicated to the topic of internationalisation in doctoral education. Here, we want to show training participants opportunities for implementing internationalisation measures in their context, ultimately also to expand their own network and that of their doctoral students.
Module six is about how to keep the research on track, to provide professional feedback and to monitor the students‘ progress. Once the doctoral project is underway, it is important to stay on top of it as a supervisor, to provide regular feedback and sufficient guidance throughout the process. It is also important to recognise early warning signs and to react quickly.
Module seven is dedicated to the topic of publishing. As supervisors, we should not assume that our students already have the necessary skills in academic writing and publishing. Accordingly, an important task here is to support the supervised doctoral students. On the one hand, this involves laying the foundation for academic writing, including an understanding of the publication process, how to select suitable journals and how to avoid potential predator journals. It also seems important to us that sufficient understanding of quality assurance, in particular of the peer review process, is present and conveyed.
Module eight is dedicated to professional development and career preparation. We discuss the skills that students ideally acquire during their doctoral journey and build a bridge to the time after the doctorate, when students make their way to scientific independence.
Module nine focuses on the final phase of the doctorate, i.e. the topic of submission and defence. We want to work with the training participants on the roles and tasks that supervisors in particular have in this last phase of the doctorate, and how students can best be prepared for it in order to ultimately achieve a great result.
The last module, module ten, is about reflecting on one’s own supervisory practice. The participants in a training session are invited to reflect on their own practice on the basis of what they have learned and discussed in the training and to derive suitable actions for themselves.
This presentation was created jointly by Fredrick Nyamwala, Caroline Ayuya Muaka, Caroline Kimathi, Stephen Ojiambo Wandera, Emmanuel Mutungi, Alinane Linda Nyondo-Mipando, Fanuel Aaron Lampiao, Tukae Atiyo Mbegalo, Brighton Emmanuel Maburutse, Angela Meyer and Lucas Zinner in the framework of the EAST SPARK project. The content has been inspired by the authors‘ own experience, the academic literature and various training courses in which the authors have had the opportunity to participate. In this regard, the authors would like to express their special thanks to CREST at Stellenbosch University and CARTA.
It is intended to be shared under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Everyone is welcome to use, adapt, or distribute this content, provided that it is done under the same condition and proper credit is given to the authors. This work has been made possible through the support of the OEAD,