Introduction: The title of this book indicates an exploration of intersecting contexts and practices of
institutional research (IR) in South African higher education. Amongst the many definitions of
the concept of IR worldwide (Chirikov 2013; Shreeve 2010), the term is often described as
exploring, understanding and explaining the institution for the institution, but also as having
a broader function (Webber & Calderon 2015:10-11). As this volume highlights different
dimensions of IR related to higher education issues, contexts and practices in South Africa,
this chapter focuses on IR and doctoral education.
I address here three objectives. Firstly, the question of what constitutes a doctoral degree
or ‘doctorateness’ in order to provide some background to doctoral education as an object
of investigation. Since the interrelated sets of factors that influence doctoral education are
also important, I emphasise the contextual, administrative and academic factors related to
doctoral education. Secondly, I probe international research related to doctoral education
in order to provide a backdrop to the role of IR in Southern Africa; and thirdly, I report on
the results of a limited survey on doctoral education in Southern African and suggest possible
future roles for IR and agendas for doctoral education.