Public Administration continually struggles to establish both its focus and locus as a discipline and as a terrain of research engagement. South African academics in Public Administration also have to respond to the demands for the decolonisation of curricula and the Africanisation of universities. The practice of research supervision, in this terrain, is not immune to these struggles or the pressure for change; as evolved practices are often embedded in specific conceptions of scholarship and knowledge. Building on a critique of a dominating individual centred practice in academic supervision, it is proposed that the key to overcoming the historical legacy and moving beyond the ‘Africanisation’ and ‘decolonisation’ discourse is to establish a strategy that builds inclusivity through evidence-based supervision. It is contended that the accepted practices of the individual academic centred approach to research