University strategises to lift graduation statistics

Focus on holistic life cycle support for the duration of studies, writes NEELS BLOM

THE University of Johannesburg (UJ) plans to grow its postgraduate cohort to 8,000 by 2020, says Prof Shireen Motala, director of the university’s Postgraduate Centre.

SA’s postgraduate student body increases at a rate of about 1.8% per year, while the master’s degree is about 19%. That is against a target rate of 33% set by the National Plan for Higher Education. For doctorates the rate is 13% against an annual target rate of 20%.

The University of São Paulo in Brazil alone produced 2,244 doctoral graduates in 2010, while South African universities produced a total of 1,423 doctoral graduates in that year. That translates to 48 doctoral graduates per million of the population, compared with SA’s 28 doctoral graduates per million.

Motala says UJ’s strategy is to optimise an enabling environment for postgraduates through research support, a competitive bursary structure, dedicated postgraduate accommodation and providing a physical infrastructure through a research commons. She says the focus is on holistic life cycle support for the duration of postgraduate studies at UJ, with the aim of creating well-rounded and world-class scholars.

UJ’s total number of staff with doctoral qualifications is ahead of targets set by the institution, which has had a positive influence on the ability to supervise more postgraduates.

“But,” says Motala, “qualification alone is not sufficient as the process of supervising a master’s or doctoral candidate requires a further set of skills.

“This is where the Postgraduate Centre comes into play. The research capacity development function of the centre extends further to the academic staff members at UJ, and particularly the supervisory capabilities and capacity of postgraduate supervisors at UJ through a comprehensive focus in capacitation and development.”

The university’s commitment to capacitation is evidenced by the award of a Department of Higher Education and Training research development grant. The postgraduate funding support division of the centre seeks to assist postgraduates in often the largest stumbling block to potential postgrads: funding.

“This crucial part of the support structure acts as a central point to administer and connect the many bursaries, scholarships and funding opportunities to deserving candidates who display sound academic performance and potential, whose future success or potentially vital research may have been cut short due to lack of essential funding,” she says.

She adds that UJ is committed to help produce top quality graduates and postgraduates “who will go on to meet the many challenges and drive forward SA, both nationally and internationally”.

UJ’s number of postgraduate qualifications conferred year on year continues to grow, graduation statistics show. UJ has seen a 3.56% increase growth in postgraduates graduating from 2009 to 2013, with a growth in the total UJ postgraduate student body of 2.08% from 2010 to 2014.

As an institution of higher learning, the university is committed to producing future-fit graduates who study industry relevant qualifications.

“That will see them ready to meet the challenges of the working world and further themselves as professionals in industry. This is evident when one considers the results of the notorious qualifying examination for chartered accountants, as set by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, which confirms UJ as a national leader in teaching and producing candidate chartered accountants,” says Motala.

With a pass rate of 95% in the Initial Test of Competence, UJ is ranked second in SA in terms of pass rate, but its performance in other important areas such as number of successful candidates, transformation and top 10 positions, places it at the forefront of accounting education in this country.

UJ is also the biggest contributor of first-time African black candidate chartered accountants in the country, with its students accounting for 27% of the total successful African black candidates. The university is the only African university accepted into Universitas 21, the leading global network of research-intensive universities which co-operate to foster global citizenship and institutional innovation through research-inspired teaching and learning, student mobility, connecting students and staff, and wider advocacy for internationalisation.

UJ has also been ranked in the top 4% of universities globally (between the top 600650 out of 16,500 universities) under the British Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ranking system for 2013-14 as well as among the top 1% of the universities in the Brics countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and SA), ranking 61st out of the economic bloc’s 6,200 universities.

Under the University Ranking by Academic Performance (Urap) system which ranks only research output, research impact and global research collaboration, UJ is placed among the top 10 universities in Africa.

At a recent campus engagement meeting, UJ Vice-Chancellor Prof Ihron Rensburg noted the university’s investment towards its 2025 vision. Its drive towards Global Excellence and Stature activation will see that “UJ will invest more than R600m in the next seven years in flagship initiatives”.

“We would be making appointments at a new category called Distinguished Professor, across a range of areas, in particular, focusing on flagships in teaching and learning and research to help UJ grow its global reputation. These top distinguished professors will be supported by an increased number of postdoctoral fellows and by distinguished doctoral and master’s fellowships.”

Another innovation is the creation of the post of assistant lecturers. “This, in turn, will see assistant lecturers being appointed to relieve the teaching load in many of the programmes that are in high demand as well as to grow these young scholars into formidable future academics,” says Rensburg.

He acknowledges that while there are challenges in the production of postgraduates to meet SA’s knowledge demands, UJ has committed itself to addressing the many hurdles facing postgraduates, particularly master’s and doctoral candidates.

The Postgraduate Centre became operational in 2010 with the mandate of supporting postgraduates to overcome challenges ranging from financial issues to improving the academic and research literacies of postgraduates. “This is key in producing postgraduates who are upskilled in such a way that the quality of their qualification and learning experience is of a higher standard, resulting in graduates who are confident in both their personal and professional knowledge and abilities,” says Rensburg.