Browsing by Author "Andoh, Harris Francis"

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    The uptake of doctoral thesis research in Ghana
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Andoh, Harris Francis; Mouton, Johann; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: Doctoral studies are a big resource to contribute to knowledge which by extension assists in creating new product development, new professional practice and the development of new technologies. Across selected countries in Africa, the number of PhD holders has increased immensely over the last decade with no sign of it decreasing yet not much of the findings from these researches have been implemented. This study is concerned with the uptake of doctoral research findings in the Environmental and Natural Resource sciences at universities in Ghana. The overarching aim of the study was to determine the uptake of PhD research conducted in Ghana amongst PhD holders in Ghana in the field of ENRS, during and after PhD studies. This is a descriptive study which integrated different methods including content analysis of completed theses, a CV-analysis of the authors, bibliometric studies of publications that ensued from the doctoral theses and finally in-depth interviews with the authors of the theses. Twenty PhD authors were interviewed for the study. The results of the study found that most students who undertook doctoral studies had two main motives why they undertook PhD studies: improving their horizon and employment motives. Their motivation was not to add new knowledge. Interviewees who believed they had produced new knowledge from their studies pushed for the uptake of their findings and recommendations. Interviewees published a reasonable number of journal articles but fewer book chapters and policy briefs. The study found that some interviewees were motivated to publish by their supervisors, others because by the practices and requirement of their university they were required to publish. Interviewees who are in academe and research jobs published because they believed it was a requirement for their evaluation for promotion in their career. However, whilst it is good for supervisors and universities to encourage their PhD students and staff respectively to publish not all these publications were good. We discovered that a significant proportion of the journal articles actually appeared in predatory journals. The results of the interviews did find that research uptake can effectively be optimized through co-operation and collaboration with stakeholders. The major factor that warranted the above was by interviewee working in the same field as he or she did during the PhD and continuous collaboration with institutions that he or she collaborated with during PhD and afterwards. The results discussed in this chapter show amongst others that there is no systematic attempt on the part of researchers to monitor the uptake and citation impact of their research findings. The study concludes that there is little awareness and appreciation of the need for uptake of research findings to policy and practice. There also seems to be the view that researchers must produce new knowledge but not necessarily be the ones that should attempt to optimize the uptake of their findings beyond the expectation of proper communication of results through presentations and publications. The study recommends that Universities should not pay lip service to the importance doctoral education play in their research system. Doctoral education should be well defined including creating appropriate platform and well defined mechanisms for the communicating and possible uptake of their findings. Systems should be put in place in universities and research institutions to engage stakeholders constantly on research findings. Research accountability should be a concern for all universities to ensure possible uptake of research findings and recommendations.