Comments: Development of an early career academic supervisor in Statistics - a discussion on a guiding rubric

Abstract

The paper gives a comprehensive review of the landscape of academic Statistics against the backdrop of Statistics being in crisis in South Africa, with various challenges being identified within this setting. Challenges include the lack of senior researchers to act as mentors to younger academics in undertaking research supervision thus affecting effective and successful supervision of students; the difficulties in retaining students in postgraduate degrees given their high employability and competitive salaries offered by industry, and the need for consistent assessment of doctoral degrees given that the home faculty and assessment criteria across faculties may differ. Apart from highlighting these challenges, the paper seeks to re-think the present approaches in the supervision process for a doctoral degree in Statistics in South Africa. A novel solution is proposed through the construction and use of a guiding rubric to steer doctoral supervision and a research network in the discipline towards a position of strength.