The Quality of MBA Research Supervision in Zimbabwean Universities

Abstract

The need for universities to fundraise coupled with the high demand for the Master of Business Administration (MBA) qualification has led to high student enrolments that may not be supported by the limited resources. This scenario has brought issues of the quality of supervision, research and MBA graduates to the fore. The study explored the perceptions of MBA students on the quality of research supervision in Zimbabwean universities. Documentary evidence and questionnaires were utilised to collect information from 100 current MBA students and 100 students who graduated with MBA in 2014. The study found that the major challenge cited by students revolved around the fact that supervisors generally lacked time to engage with the students that they were allocated to supervise. Ten out of the 15 registered universities are offering MBA programmes in three different delivery modes namely block release, weekend school and/or evening school as well as through open and distance learning. Four of the universities also offer MBA programmes in two or three cities. In all cases, the same lecturers were involved in teaching and supervising all these students, albeit at different times or places. In some cases, up to 20 MBA students were being supervised by one lecturer who also has to teach students in other cohorts or was engaged in demanding administrative duties. Some of the lecturers were themselves also pursuing doctoral studies and were away from the university too often. The study recommended that in addition to offering incentives for universities should step up their staff development efforts and produce more PhDs in order to improve the supervisory capacity of academic staff members.