Collaborative Motivation for Sustainable Learning and Successful Completion of Doctoral Studies: A Case of Daystar University Lecturers in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

Just like the rest of the world, the demand for doctoral studies in Kenya is on the rise (Gudo, Olel & Oanda, 2011).  The desire to acquire knowledge and skills to prospect for better opportunities, increase social status and most importantly for lecturers in Kenyan universities, to secure their current jobs in their teaching careers are the driving forces behind this trend (Gudo, et al, 2011; Nganga, 2013).  The Commission for University Education (CUE) in Kenya requires all university lecturers to have PhD (CUE, 2014). As a result of this, there has been an upsurge of doctoral enrolment in Kenyan universities, especially from among university lecturers without doctoral degrees, who have hurriedly registered to beat the August 2018 deadline set by CUE. The CUE (2014) harmonized university guidelines ratio for theses supervision is 1:3 for doctorate supervision and 1:5 for masters supervision. However, in practice supervisors have more students than recommended, thus, operating above the recommended threshold. As a result, supervisors are overburdened, a practice that could compromise the quality of teaching and supervision while students are not able to move with anticipated speed. This could lead to student de-motivation, however motivated they may have been at the time of enrolment. This study sought to establish the role of collaborative motivation as a strategy of enhancing sustainable learning, supervision and successful completion of doctoral degrees. This study used descriptive survey design. The sample comprised of Daystar University lecturers enrolled for doctoral studies at the time of fieldwork. Census sampling technique was used to select the respondents. Semi- structured questionnaires were used for data collection. Obtained data was organized, analyzed and interpreted to make deductions. Results of the study pointed out the importance of collaborative motivation in the pursuance of doctoral degrees and suggest better practices that could be adopted to enhance collaborative motivation critical for sustainable learning and successful completion of doctoral degrees.