A productive and positive supervision relationship is the bedrock of a successful doctoral journey. Supervisors and students are encouraged to enter into conversation at the outset. The respective responsibilities of supervisors and students are outlined in detail in the FMHS Doctoral Guidelines as well as the co-sgined Memorandum of Understanding.

Every doctoral candidate must have one internal, FMHS-affiliated supervisor who has completed a supervision course, and ensures that they are familiar with up-to-date SU and FMHS policies and deadlines. An external main supervisor is allowed as long as an internal co-supervisor who participates actively in the doctoral journey and is in a position to assure that the candidate works to SU and FMHS policies and deadlines, is formally nominated.

The ideal number of supervisors depends on the supervision model. As a rule of thumb, two supervisors per student are ideal for lone-standing studies, whereas the allocation of up to a maximum of four supervisors per student can work well where several senior researchers are collaborating on a larger project, or where a cohort approach is taken. A proliferation of supervisors is generally not beneficial to a PhD. Over and above the suggested numbers, additional domain experts could perhaps rather be asked for once-off inputs on specific aspects of the study; bearing in mind that the pool of possible reviewers and internal examiners shrinks whenever a colleague becomes directly involved in the conceptualisation or supervision of a PhD study.
 

Prerequisites for PhD Supervision 

1. An internal PhD supervisor must be included in the team.

• Internal supervisors must familiarise themselves with the FMHS Doctoral Guidelines.

• Associates may fulfil this role.

• Emeritus Professors, Postdocs, and current PhD students may not fulfil this role.
   

2. A PhD supervisor should usually hold a doctoral degree. Detailed information about eligibility for PhD supervision (and examination) is available in this document.

3. Along with clinical PhD students, every supervisor of clinical research towards a PhD, is expected to have active Good Clinical Practice (GCP) certification.

4. Finally, all doctoral supervisors in the FMHS are required to attend formal supervision training. The available options include the following:

• CREST Online Training Course for Supervisors of Doctoral Candidates at African Universities: 
  Next to be offered in 2026

• SU Postgraduate Office supervisor traing:
  Please enquire to Ms Cristan Macleod at [email protected] 

• Centre for Higher and Adult Education (CHAE) Postgraduate Supervision course: click here​ 
   

Progress Reporting 

An annual progress report is requested from the supervisors of returning doctoral students in October or early November every year.

Supervisor motivations for a student to exceed the maximum duration of a PhD are required six months before the maximum registration period is reached. These motivation letters are scrutinised by the CPR, Faculty Board and Senate. They are requested together with the annual progress report by October each year, for every PhD student in year 5 or later who has not submitted a dissertation for examination in time for March/April graduation. These motivations are submitted to [email protected] during September each year.

Final supervisor report

Upon completion of the PhD examination process, after a succesful oral, the supervisor submits to the Tygerberg Doctoral Office at [email protected] the final dissertation (signatures removed), a bullet list of changes made, and a final supervisor report, on this template.
 

Supervision Reporting 

Academic environments report the proportional involvement of supervisors of a PhD project on SU databases and to the FMHS Committee for Postgraduate Research (CPR). The percentage contribution of both internal and external supervisors should be indicated at these junctures. The following mechanism should be used to capture the % division of supervision accurately, both for internal and external supervisors: An identity for the external supervisor should be created on SUN-id and in the process, the individual should be connected to the correct department where they are delivering supervision. The person is linked to the relevant student as usual, but the person is identified as “external” and found using their US number (as created in SUN-id). This allows for both an accurate depiction of supervision workload and the correct flow of funds to the environment. (There is no detrimental impact on the subsidy portion allocated to departments.)
 

Possible Joint Degrees 

Joint PhD degrees conducted by SU together with an international partner institution, offer students a rewarding and enriched research journey. Supervisors who regularly collaborate with colleagues at a specific institution abroad, may want to explore the possibility of initiating a joint degree. (Joint degrees are not possible on a student-by-student basis and are negotiated at the institutional level.) The success of a joint PhD is strongly influenced by a successful pre-existing working relationship between the co-supervisors at the two partner institutions.
 

A supervisor who has a constructive relationship with a supervisor at one of SU's joint degree partners, can consider recruiting students to do a joint degree between SU and any of the universities listed above. The details, including the fee agreement and examination process, of each joint degree are structured by the institutional-level agreement. More information on SU joint degrees may be found at this link.