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

The authors are commended for highlighting a South African university system problem that has grown steadily over recent years. Much has been written about the dearth of academic statistical expertise in South Africa. In her Presidential address at the 2010 South African Statistical Association conference (see [1]), Ms Yoko Chhana, highlighted two reasons why statistical capacity building was severely restricted in South Africa. Retaining statisticians in academia was highlighted as a key concern, a point which lends support to the crux of this paper. The shortage of experienced staff to mentor and train the next generation of academic statisticians is a result of poor retention policies which therefore impacts on the development of early career supervision skills.