This study is a critical analysis of Public Administration doctorates in South Africa between 1994 and 2007. The methodology utilised was that of a content analysis of completed Public Administration doctoral abstracts (116 in total). A 10 percent sample of completed theses was also examined. Four main analytical variables were used namely the focus of the field, the research purpose of the thesis, type of methodology used and whether the doctorate contributed significantly to new knowledge. The variable of focus showed that doctorates focus primarily on practice at the expense of theory. The analysis of the variable of purpose showed the overwhelming majority of doctoral research to be conceptual in nature which indicates that the main aim of the research is to identify and conceptualise the research problem under investigation. This type of research is primarily descriptive in nature and is not generally viewed as original research