Fellowship aims to boost representation of females in academia
WITS researcher Ayanda Magida is the first of her generation to attend university and through the tertiary education’s new initiative, she will be able to take her studies even further.
The Joburg university’s Female Academic Leaders Fellowship (Falf), which was officially launched this week, aims to alter the gender and racial profile of leaders in academia.
Now Magida, along with 29 other African and coloured women from a range of disciplines and faculties, has been selected to receive a fellowship which includes a collective value of about R8 million from various donors.
The faculty and researcher in the Chair in Digital Business and PHD candidate at Wits Business School told The Saturday Star this week that she was thrilled to be part of “such a life-changing initiative”.
“It seeks to empower young and upcoming female academics to grow, develop and upward mobility in academia. As a first-generation academic in my family, this fellowship will enable me to buy the necessary time to complete my PHD and work towards an NRF (National Research Foundation) rating.”
Magida, whose research interest focuses on the social and economic impact of digitalisation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, also believes the fellowship will empower her and the other recipients with the leadership skills needed in academia, while enabling them to continue working in academia.
“It will also allow me to conduct more research that will inform policies and potentially influence decisionmaking for the benefit of the country.”
Falf is the brainchild of Wits Chancellor and leading businesswoman Dr Judy Dlamini and was created as a way to improve representation of women of colour in the academic world.
“The proportion of women graduates in South Africa has increased over the past 20 years, making up 60% of graduates at junior and honours level; at Master’s level the proportion has increased to 44.6% and at Doctorate level to 58.2% enrolment,” she said.
“In spite of these positive changes, women in leadership within institutions of higher learning are still under-represented in South Africa, and African and coloured women barely feature in leadership.”
Dlamini said according to their research, not all women in South Africa were missing from leadership positions and this fellowship aimed to include those who were.
“White and Indian women are doing better than their national demographic proportion, however, South African-african and coloured women do not have a seat at the table yet.
“That is the area that Falf seeks to address, assisted by the Wits executive.”
Magida, who also made the Mail and Guardian list of young South Africans in the education category in 2019, shared Dlamini’s sentiments and described the fellowship as an emancipation tool in helping young black and female academics achieve their fullest potential.
“There is a lack of representation of women in academia, especially black women, and they are also underrepresented, especially in senior positions such as associate and full professor levels.
“There is a need to have an intentional diversity and inclusion agenda and to create an enabling environment for upcoming early career academics so they can establish themselves and grow into the different tracks.”