Evaluating postgraduate preparation in the South African context Yasmine Dominguez-Whitehead* Wits School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa Little work is being undertaken in South Africa to systematically and inten- tionally prepare undergraduate students to pursue postgraduate studies. This is concerning given the shortage of postgraduate students and the small scale of postgraduate studies. The few programmes and endeavours that exist to pre- pare students for postgraduate studies are not necessarily evaluated to assess their achievements and shortcomings. This paper provides an evaluation of an academic year-long postgraduate preparation programme, and is specifically concerned with examining subsequent postgraduate enrolment and improve- ment of participants’ marks. The study draws on both quantitative and qualita- tive data. The findings indicate that the majority of programme participants proceeded to subsequently enrol in postgraduate studies immediately after completing the programme and that the programme played a role in the pur- suit of postgraduate studies. However, the findings also indicate that overall participants’ marks did not improve after participating in the programme. The study brings to light that, while some achievements are possible, the limits of the programme must also be acknowledged. Keywords: postgraduate preparation; university; South Africa; evaluation Introduction The development and growth of postgraduate education have been identified as a national priority in South Africa. An explicit drive to increase the calibre and number of postgraduate students and graduates is apparent (National Research Foundation 2011). This is an endeavour relevant to the nation’ s drive to foster a new generation of Black researchers and intellectuals (Department of Educa- tion 2001), the development of the country’ s economic and educational profile (Lategan 2008) and the strategic plans of many research-focused universities. For the purposes of this paper, postgraduate studies refer to advanced studies that take place subsequent to the undergraduate degree. In North America, post- graduate studies would be simply referred to as ‘graduate studies’, and would take place after completion of the four-year undergraduate degree. However, in the South African context, the bachelor ’ s degree is commonly three years in duration. Advanced studies that take place after the bachelor’ s degree are classi- fied as postgraduate studies and include honours, masters and doctoral degrees (for a more in-depth review of degree levels at South African universities, see Mouton 2011, 16–17). Despite the explicit drive to grow and develop postgraduate education, the shortage of postgraduate students poses a major challenge (Herman 2011a; *Email: yasmine.dominguez-whitehead@wits.ac.za © 2014 Taylor & Francis Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 2015 Vol. 40, No. 7, 914–927, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2014.957152 Downloaded by [The Library, University of Witwatersrand] at 00:14 29 September 2015