Student-supervisor interaction in graduate studies in public universities in Kenya

Abstract

Student-supervisor interaction is an important aspect in graduate studies supervision. This is because when something goes wrong with the interaction process, many aspects of the graduate student's life affects completion time. The purpose of this study was to examine at student-supervisor interaction in graduate studies in public universities in Kenya. The study sought to:evaluate supervisory styles used in student- supervisor interaction, assess the characteristics of student-supervisor interaction, establish the experiences of student-supervisor interaction and to examine practices that would improve student-supervisor interaction in graduate studies. The study was guided by functionalist theory of education, interpersonal theory and Socialization theory. The study adopted descriptive survey research design which enabled the researcher to explore and describe student-supervisor interaction. The target population in this study were 310 participants comprising of 60 supervisors and 250 supervisees from the school of education. The study used stratified sampling to sample universities, simple random sampling to sample graduate students and heads of departments, while purposive sampling was used to sample the supervisors and Deans. The study employed the use of questionnaires and interview schedules to collect data for the study. Data were presented using frequency tables. The study used a Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of at least 0.7 as the threshold of reliability. The study findings indicated that the ‘colleague in training’ style was widely used as revealed by 128(53.3%) of the graduate students and 29(52.7%) of the supervisors. Further, 28(50.9%) of the supervisors and 112(46.7%)of the graduate students agreed that professionalism and respect was exercised. Also, 42(76.4%) of the supervisors and 144(60%) of the graduate students held that the universities could deal with challenges facing student-supervisor interaction at a greater extent.The findings also revealed that the universities should strictly adhere to rules and regulations governing graduate supervision process 128(53.3%) of the graduate students and 39(70.9%) of the supervisors agreed. Further, qualitative results from deans and heads of Departments on supervisory styles indicated that colleagues in training was mainly preferred style used in graduate studies. Deans and heads of departments reported that rules and regulations in graduate studies should be adhered to.The study concluded that supervisors were allocated more graduate students than the rules and regulations allowed affecting graduate students thesis completion time. Policies guiding graduate student-supervisor interaction should be revised to meet up-to-date challenges facing student-supervisor interaction.The universities should provide seminars, workshops and trainings to both supervisors and graduate students to enhance student-supervisor interaction. The findings of the study will be useful for the university managements in understanding the student-supervisor interaction in graduate studies. The findings will also provide information to interested researchers in related topics in graduate studies.