Events
News
Featured News
SOUTH AFRICA: Decline in PhD numbers a major problem
South Africa's inability to produce enough doctoral graduates to build the 'knowledge economy' it aspires to, or simply to replace the existing cohort of academics in the higher education system, is a challenge widely acknowledged by government departments, their agencies and universities. But fixing the problem is a lot harder.
According to Professor Johann Mouton, director of the University of Stellenbosch's Centre for Research on Science and Technology (CREST) which has conducted a five-part study on the PhD, part of the solution lies in making more money available to doctoral students to enable them to pursue their studies full-time. Currently about 80% of South African doctoral students are part-time and generally take far longer to complete their degrees than their European or American counterparts. But the situation also calls for clearing a string of blockages to postgraduate study in an educational pipeline that goes back to high school level, and probably even beyond. "Our problem really starts with the low number of matric [school leaving examination] exemptions, and too few good passes in maths and science," said Mouton.
| read more
Internship Programme
The Internship Programme is an initiative of the Department of Public Works - Kwazulu Natal, that it is a means to address the scarce skills shortage in the Engineering, Quantity Surveying, and Architecture fields. The Department is currently experiencing a shortage of Professionals in the Engineering, Quantity Surveying, and Architecture fields, therefore, most of the Projects from client departments need to be outsourced to private consulting firms through the Supply Chain Management processes. In order to address this gap, the Internship Progr(50KB)
Bursary Programme
The Department of Public Works is inviting students who would like to apply for bursaries. South Africa is facing a shortage in professionals in the Built Environment. Students are encouraged to apply for :
- Mechanical Engineering
- Civil Engineering
- Electrical Engineering
- Quantity Surveying
- Architecture
- Construction Project Management
- Property Valuation