Accounting Doctorates Produced in South Africa 2008-2014

Abstract

Purpose – This paper investigates the production of accounting doctorates in South Africa during the period from 2008 to 2014. The investigation was prompted by calls to qualify more academics at the doctoral level, bearing in mind that postgraduate supervision forms part of an academic’s core teaching responsibilities.

Design/Methodology/Approach – This archival study uses data obtained from the institutional repositories of four research intensive universities in South Africa to construct a profile of the accounting doctoral theses produced during the period from 2008 to 2014.

Findings – The findings indicate an alignment with international trends towards a higher doctoral output in accounting and thus an increasing research orientation in South African university accounting departments; which in turn demands an increase in supervisory capacity. The accounting doctorates analysed in this paper were longer and supervised by more people than the typical commerce faculty doctorate.

Research Limitations/Implications – Not all South African universities were included in the study and therefore some accounting doctorates might have been excluded from it. In addition, accounting education doctorates, possibly supervised in faculties of education, would also be excluded in view of the approach followed in this paper, which was to identify accounting doctorates via departments and commerce faculties.

Originality/Value – This article is the first of its kind to examine the accounting doctorates produced in South Africa since Van der Schyf’s (2008) call for the establishment of a research culture in the accounting departments of South African universities. As such, this article makes an important contribution towards how such a research culture may be enhanced through cultivating doctoral education in this context.

Keywords: accounting academic, doctorate, supervision, PhD by publication

JEL Classification: M40, M49