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This paper explores some of the recent developments and transformations in Africa's higher education.

It employs an extensive review of literature based on some dominant thematic areas characterizing the main trends and developments in Africa's higher education.

The paper mainly highlights the impacts of academic partnerships on these transformations, with a focus on research, postgraduate training, mobility and some new intra-African initiatives. Following the unprecedented effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, digitalization comes out as an important turning point for Africa's higher education, which should be exploited for more opportunities. The paper calls for collaborative efforts to address the challenges facing Africa's higher education for the repositioning of Africa as a meaningful player in the unfolding global knowledge society.

The outcomes could be useful to researchers focused on international education, policymakers and higher education leaders and international development partners working on higher education in Africa. It could also be useful for structuring future collaborations between Africa and other regions of the world.

The paper calls for enhanced and mutually beneficial collaborations and disruption of the imbalances that have characterised North–South collaborations. It proposes some possible approaches and alternatives that could be used for redress.

The paper is original and relies on some of the new developments in Africa, including the impacts of COVID-19 and digitalization on the future of higher education collaborations with Africa.

The purpose of this study is to explore and highlight the issues and challenges teachers face while supervising thesis and projects in distance/online learning mode.

This is a cross-sectional qualitative study. Grounded theory approach using Gioia methodology has been applied. Semi-structured interviews of 16 research supervisors have been conducted to explore the issues and challenges faced by the supervisors in guiding research students. Purposive sampling is used to select the subjects for data collection.

Results of the study reveal that the time constraints, official restrictions, irregular contacts and technology are the main issues faced by supervisors. Whereas student–supervisor interaction, diversity, perceptions, virtual communities and academic collaboration are the biggest challenges for the supervisors in distance learning. Lastly, it is found that students' attitude and supervisors' mindset are the key success factors in distance research supervision.

Findings of this paper will help institutions particularly in Asia, to strategically review their research programs to make these programs more effective. Effectiveness will encompass two things, timely completion and novel research. If these two things are addressed efficiently, comparison of distance learning with conventional learning will be more favorable for distance learning.

This study will be helpful for the top management of distance/online learning institutes to better equip their teachers and students to complete their research endeavors accordingly. This is an empirical research based on primary data collected from the research supervisors currently supervising thesis/projects at Virtual University of Pakistan.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the method of field work supervision in BSW and MSW programmes offered through open and distance learning (ODL) at the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). The key argument of the paper will focus on the fact that despite various challenges, field work supervision through ODL provides lot of scope and flexibility to students, generating a cadre of trained social work professionals.

The paper adopts a case study approach in presenting the various methods employed for field work supervision by the University. This section will highlight the achievements in terms of developing indigenous theory course and the best practices adopted by IGNOU to train social work professionals through adequate and timely supervision in the ODL mode.

Field work supervision in the ODL mode poses many challenges, especially when compared to that in the conventional universities. Some of these include irregular meeting of supervisor and student, inability of students to meet supervisor due to several reasons like remote location, poor economic background, lack of leave for working professionals, etc.

There is a need for developing a mechanism to regularly orient field work supervisors in supervising students in the ODL mode. It is recommended that regular field work practicum workshops be conducted for supervisors and students. Viva for field work could be made mandatory at different regional centres. Field work supervision could be enhanced through the use of technology, namely, Skype, e-mail, WhatsApp, etc.

The paper describes the various nuances of field work supervision through ODL system. It is an original work and is of great value in understanding the challenges and difficulties encountered by learners and academic counsellors throughout the process of supervision. The paper highlights important recommendations by the stakeholders themselves in mitigating the challenges faced during field work supervision through ODL.

This paper aims to explore the support experiences of 381 PhD students within the humanities and social sciences from three research-intensive universities in Denmark (n = 145) and Finland (n = 236). The study investigates the cross-cultural variation in the researcher community support and supervisory support experiences, factors associated with their support experienced and the perceived support fit.

The study used a mixed methods design, both quantitative analyses and qualitative analyses (open-ended descriptions) were used.

The results showed that students in both Danish and Finnish programs emphasized researcher community support over supervisory support. The Danish students, however, reported slightly higher levels of researcher community support and experienced lower levels of friction than their Finnish counter partners. The results also indicated that the only form of support in which the students expressed more matched support than mismatched support was informational support.

The results imply investing in a stronger integration of PhD students into the research community is beneficial for the students’ progress. Building network-based and collaborative learning activities that enhance both instrumental and emotional support and a collective form of supervision could be further developed. The possibility of Phd student integration in the scholarly community is likely to lead to more efficient use of finacial and intellectual resources in academia and society more broadly.

This study offer a unique contribution on doctoral students’ academic and socialization experiences in terms of explicationg the sources of support, support forms and support fit among Danish and Finnish doctoral students. Both invariants and socio-culturally embedded aspects of support experience among the students were detected.

How frequently may be advisable for a supervisor to meet a PhD student? Are PhD students more satisfied if supervised by someone of the same gender, nationality or with common research interests? Thus far, we lack quantitative evidence regarding similar crucial aspects of managing PhD supervision. The goal of this study is hence to investigate what factors affect Ph.D. students' satisfaction about the professional and personal relationships with their supervisors.

We focus on the characteristics of the interactions between the student and the supervisor, controlling for other important factors, namely, the supervisor's and student's traits, and the characteristics of the context. We employ survey responses from 971 Ph.D. students at two public, research-oriented and internationally renowned universities in Hong Kong and South Korea.

The results show the importance of meeting the supervisor at least once per week. Students are more satisfied of the relationship with their supervisor when they have similar research interests, whereas a key finding is that similarity in terms of gender or nationality does not matter. We also found remarkable differences between disciplines in the level of satisfaction (up to 30%), and that students are more satisfied when the supervisor is strongly involved in international research, whereas satisfaction is negatively affected by the number of Ph.D. students supervised.

The article's findings suggest that students are not more satisfied of their relationship with their supervisors when they have the same gender or nationality, whereas it is other traits of their interaction, such as the frequency of meetings and the similarity of research interest, which matter.

The risk factors related to the mental health issues of adolescents diagnosed with mild to moderate intellectual difficulties (MMID) are not consistently recognised in South Africa. This paper aims to address the scarcity of literature by examining the risk factors linked to the mental health issues of adolescents with MMID.

Four hundred and fourteen participants were sampled from adolescent learners attending three special educational needs schools in Gauteng, South Africa. The selected sample included 275 male and 139 female participants with a median age of 16.5 years. The three schools represented Grade 8 with 177 learners and Grade 9 with 237 learners. Data were collected through a biographical questionnaire and an Adverse Child Experiences Questionnaire. A quantitative approach was used to identify the risk factors impacting the mental health of adolescents with MMID. The findings were used to propose intervention programmes for the support of adolescents diagnosed with MMID.

The findings suggest that risk factors for mental health difficulties issues among adolescents with MMID include family dysfunction, along with experiences of physical, sexual and verbal abuse as well as emotional and physical neglect. The recommendations stemming from the findings advocate empowering teachers, parents and caregivers to provide support for the mental health of learners with MMID.

The study makes a valuable contribution to reducing the existing gap in the literature regarding risk factors impacting the mental health of adolescents with MMID in South Africa. The study served as a platform for adolescents diagnosed with MMID to articulate their challenges. This cohort is occasionally marginalised and this research acts as an active contribution to research that focuses on their experiences. Their insights are crucial for enhancing intervention programmes and promoting their overall well-being.

This chapter discusses the growing importance of research-related information in the face of increased complexities and competitiveness within higher education environments globally. It provides some reflections on the importance of institutional research cultures to effectively address these challenges, focussing on the African context, and the role of effective research support through institutional structures such as a dedicated research office. The increasingly strategic role of research management has led to the need for a more active and visionary role in the positioning of institutions by supporting decision-making and contributing to the development and visibility of institutional research portfolios. The authors provide their insights into the scope of research-related information, the need for research offices to perform this strategic function, how these information sets can be applied in reports, evidence-based decisions, institutional showcasing, and enhanced research support. The chapter includes aspects to consider when establishing a research-related information management function within institutions.

This study aims to advance the understanding on individual variations in PhD candidates’ personal interest in their doctorate and supervisory and research community support, and several individual and structural attributes potentially having an impact on the profiles.

The authors explored the interrelationship between personal interest – social support profiles, and nationality, gender, research group and study status and the risk of dropping out. A total of 768 PhD candidates from a research-intensive university in Finland responded to a modified version of the cross-cultural doctoral experience survey. Latent profile analysis was used to explore the individual variations in PhD candidates’ interest and support from the supervisor and research community.

Three distinctive PhD interest-social support profiles were detected; the high interest–high support profile (74.4%, n = 570), the high interest–moderate support profile (18.2%, n = 140) and the moderate interest–moderate support profile (7.4%, n = 56). The profiles exhibited high to moderate levels of research, development and instrumental interest. Individuals in the high interest–moderate support and in the moderate interest–moderate support profiles were more prone to consider dropping out from their PhD than in the high interest–high support profile.

The results indicate that by cultivating PhD candidates’ interest and providing sufficient supervisory and the research community offers a means for preventing candidates from discontinuing their doctorate. Hence, building a supportive learning environment that cultivates a PhD candidate’s personal interest is likely to reduce high dropout rates among the candidates.

Reflective practice (RP) is a key skill for developing one’s professional practice. It has, however, not been unanimously prioritised in public health (PH) competency and education frameworks. Reflection activities are often unstructured in higher education. There is also a dearth of literature on the RPs of undergraduate PH students. This study aims to explore in greater depth how RP helps undergraduate PH students explore their own learning in internships.

Reflection prompts were designed using the DEAL model. 124 written reflection entries from 32 students were collected and analysed thematically using a deductive-inductive approach. The conceptual framework of internship learning goals by Ash and Clayton (2009) was used to guide the deductive analysis.

Three themes were identified: initial engagement with reflective learning; gradual integration of reflective learning, and a transformative phase involving professional development, personal growth, civic learning, growth through struggle, being confronted with differences in expectations, and skill acquisition.

This study extends the limited evidence regarding RP in undergraduate non-medical PH education, and contributes toward informing the revision of undergraduate PH programmes, for example, by integrating structured reflection earlier in the curricula, and establishing/supporting mentorship programmes between institutions. The findings call for PH educators to be more intentional in creating opportunities to nurture RP among budding PH professionals.