DOCTORAL EXAMINER REPORTS: A SCHOLARLY PERSONAL NARRATIVE

Abstract

One mandatory requirement for the completion of a Doctoral study is the submission of a report by an external examiner that must include formative covering three distinct categories, namely, editorial comments, direct instructions and reflective questions. The purpose of this study is to provide a personal scholarly narrative of an external examiner who has assessed 16 doctoral theses over the past 14 years to highlight challenges encountered as well as to identify the average percentages that each distinct category contributed to the reports. A key challenge was determining what structure or format the report should take. An analysis of the reports reveals that direct instructions contributed 56%, followed by editorial comments (24%) and reflective questions (20%). It is recommended to offer a short course to academic staff who have completed their Doctorate to train them in various aspects of post-doctoral responsibilities, including the drafting of an acceptable Doctoral examiner report.