As required by the Council on Higher Education (CHE), the Quality Management Directorate at CPUT, together with the Faculty Coordinators, have compiled the interviewees’ list ahead of the planned virtual visit from 19 to 22 October.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in CHE conducting this year’s Doctoral Review online and interviews will be conducted through Zoom meetings. The aims of the interviews include the gathering of additional clarity and information on what institutions included in their Institutional Self-Evaluation Report submitted earlier this year.

“The panel will triangulate the interviewee responses, together with their different opinions and views, and draw their own conclusions from the process,” says National Review of Doctoral Qualifications Institutional Coordinator is this at CPUT, Dr Siyanda Makaula. “The identified interviewees are expected to answer truthfully and honestly, and as a result the process is confidential, and anonymity is respected.” 

Interviewees can expect to be asked about their experiences of the processes involved in the doctoral qualifications. “The interviews will be managed by the chairperson of the panel and will not take more than an hour for each group. An invitation will be sent out by the CHE, inviting interviewees to join the panel in Zoom sessions,” adds Makaula. “These questions should be open, concise and clear, not rhetorical or infused with explicit or implied comments of the processes involved.”

He advises that during the interviews the chairperson has the right to intervene should there be any deviation from interview questions and processes, while the CHE observer may also confidentially advise the chairperson on occurrence of deviation, biased behaviour and possible unfairness. He confirms that there will be no audio-recording of interviews as this may compromise the honesty of the interviewees and that they should feel comfortable about voicing their views openly.

As the review process is scheduled for four days, the panel may need clarification on certain matters. “Interviewees will be asked to remain available for panel interviews throughout the site visit,” warns Makaula. “If the panel needs to talk to an interviewee again, they will indicate this to the Quality Management Directorate (QMD) and the interviewee will receive a call from the unit.”

In separate sessions the panel members will interview the university’s senior management, staff members from the Centre for Postgraduate Studies, Research Unit and QMD as well as supervisors, examiners, administrators, students and alumni to verify some of their inputs. He insists that the panel’s lines of enquiry will come out of the Self-evaluation report developed by the University and submits the following guide of the interview sessions as what can be expected:

Interviewees can expect to be invited by the QMD to a briefing session the week before the panel visit, where some more details will be discussed and all questions and queries from the interviewees answered. The CHE will then invite interviewees to their hour-long session during the week of 19-22 October. 

“Immediately following the CHE session, a Teams meeting invitation from the QMD will be waiting for the interviewees of that session,” says Makaula. “This will be for a short, half-hour debriefing session in which open discussion is invited from the interviewees on their experiences of the interviewee session.”

He adds that all thoughts and ideas are welcome during this debriefing session and the QMD will note them for future improvements.

For more information contact Makaula on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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The upcoming virtual site visit by the national review for doctoral qualifications panel will see CPUT providing evidence of acceptable practices and resources available to support the Institutional Self Evaluation Report (ISER), submitted by the University in April.  

The panel, under the authority of the Council on Higher Education (CHE), aims to measure the extent to which institutional strategies, policies, protocols and procedures for postgraduate study meet the Doctoral Qualification Standard for both public and private higher education institutions. The virtual site visit is scheduled for 19 to 22 October.

The ISER was written based on the faculties’ Self Evaluation Reports that were consolidated into one high-level document. It reflected the status of doctoral qualifications in the institution and detailed acceptable practices and facilities available to support doctoral students in achieving their qualifications.

The Manual for National Review of Doctoral Studies (April 2019) provided by CHE indicates what types of evidence each institution needs to produce to substantiate the findings, conclusions and claims of what the institution included in the ISER.

The panel then uses the evidence provided by the University to verify the validity of the claims provided in the ISER, says Dr Siyanda Makaula, the National Review of Doctoral Qualifications Institutional Coordinator at CPUT. The forms of evidence the University needs to have available include policies, procedures, guidelines, evidence of data from Higher Education Management Information Systems, faculty documentation, records of minutes, evidence of virtual tours of facilities, administration of supervision and support provided as well as other relevant information referred to in the ISER.

As this will be the first time a virtual site visit is conducted at CPUT, there was a need to re-think how the evidence will be presented digitally. Previously, panel members would walk about the campus for site tours of CPUT’s facilities.

“This is not possible now and the evidence resources need to be handled differently. This is likely to be the norm in the future,” predicts Makaula, “although at any given time a visit after lockdown by the panel and CHE could still be conducted.”

He confirms that Faculty Coordinators were appointed to compile the extensive evidence required and to make it readily available during the time of the review visit. “An extensive file plan has been produced and this evidence will be collated by the QMD [Quality Management Directorate] and will be made available, digitally, to the panel during the review”.

Evidence to show facilities and specialist laboratories will be filmed and the videos played to the panel during the review. Makaula adds that the Marketing and Communication Department will produce an overview video of CPUT and the research support facilities available to doctoral students as well as PowerPoint presentations of specialist faculty facilities.

“This will also include a snapshot of the resources available to postgraduate students from information supplied by the CPGS (Centre for Post Graduate Studies), Libraries and the Research Directorate. These will include the HDC [Higher Degrees Committee’s] digital system, the library and other resources and systems that are uniquely available to Doctoral students.”

The Research Directorate will provide evidence such as facilities available for the directorate across campuses, logistics and support for staff, writing and publication support, financial support to staff, virtual screen shots of the Research Information Management System, maintenance and upgrade plans, recent news items on doctoral research as well as graduation footage of doctoral graduates.

“CPUT faculties have been given the opportunity to provide images and explanation in the form of PowerPoints to showcase their support for doctoral students,” says Makaula.

“The University is currently responding to requests from the CHE panel for additional evidence they require to evaluate, and triangulate the discussion in the ISER and to establish that the process of developing the ISER was an all-inclusive process resulting in a balanced view of doctoral provisioning at CPUT.”

For further information and updates on the process contact Makaula on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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Dr Siyanda Makaula, the National Review of Doctoral Qualifications Institutional Coordinator at CPUT, is optimistic that the University is ready to welcome Council on Higher Education (CHE) panel members who will be reviewing and ensuring that the institution meets the quality standards in the Doctoral qualifications.

Makaula says the preparations for the CHE National Review for Doctoral Degrees at CPUT are at the final stage. The virtual site visit is scheduled for 19 to 22 October. “CPUT has worked with the CHE National Review Framework and Qualifications Standards that were provided [to institutions] in order to produce the Institutional Self-Evaluation Report,” he explains. 

The electronic evidence will be made available to the CHE panel, this includes institutional PowerPoints on facilities, the 360 tours to different departments and support units, and a CPUT YouTube video.

The link to the CPUT video is https://youtu.be/wcgMo3G_g54  

Makaula reveals that the briefing sessions with different groups of interviewees have taken place and information related to the National Review has been shared with each group. Debriefing sessions have also been planned following the interview sessions with the CHE panel and will be held for all categories of interviewees, these sessions will be coordinated by the Quality Management Directorate (QMD).

He says the QMD appreciates the support that has been offered by various stakeholders and recognises the tremendous effort they have made in providing the evidence requested by the CHE.

CPUT will kick off the national review virtual site visit on Monday, 19 October, starting with a senior management session, this session will provide the high level, institutional strategy for the University and the role intended for the Doctoral project. “The strategic plans and resources provided for doctoral provision will be discussed as will the relevant structures and policies that support the quality of the doctoral programme,” Makaula adds.

The CPUT community is looking forward to a rigorous evaluation by the CHE review panel, as this will provide substantive information on which to base the quality improvement strategy. The National Review of doctoral education in South Africa will benefit CPUT, higher education institutions in general, and provide a robust future for doctoral studies in building our nation.

For further information, contact Dr Siyanda Makaula on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Written by Aphiwe Boyce
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