The Postgraduate Experience
Date: October, 01, 2012 09:00 Age: 317 days
Ms Frances Koya-Vaka’uta, spoke on the postgraduate experience as a liminal space in the Talanga: The School of Education Seminar Series on the 26th September 2012. A liminal space is a threshold to a comfortable space or the post-liminal status. Time is often needed to reach some level of comfort. It is space in between levels. For example, there are curriculum gaps between each levels of education. As postgraduate students, it is important to build self-esteem, confidence and be in control to reach that comfortable postgraduate space. Working towards a postgraduate qualification should be more than just trying to get a piece of paper, but more so about being grounded. Working towards comfortable spaces should also mean that postgraduate support should be high on the agenda. In terms of supervision, in a study she did on postgraduate students of the USP School of Education, 82 per cent of them said they sought assistance from peers more than they do from their supervisors. It shows the importance of peer assistance but also the need for the continual strengthening of supervisor-candidate relationships. Ms Koya Vaka’uta found that students do not prefer email communication. Therefore, regular contacts with the supervisor are essential. Furthermore, supervisors should also mentor students to present in conferences and importantly listen to them. A postgraduate lounge is also needed where students can talk and discuss informally. This is so as postgraduate students find difficulty in various areas including the critique of articles, interpretation of data and reporting, and proposal writing.
