Status and Evolution of Research within South African Technikons: A Critical Analysis
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Status and Evolution of Research within South African Technikons: A Critical Analysis N.A. Ogude, F.G. Netswera and T. Mavundla Technikon SA, Private Bag X6, Florida 1701, Republic of South Africa. E-mail: [email protected]
This article focuses on the redefinition of South Africa’s Colleges for Advanced Technical Education into research organizations in higher learning. It reports results of the first phase of a project into the impact of national policies intended ‘to cultivate the culture of the much-needed applied research’ in higher education and to fill a gap left by universities. National policies were analysed and representatives from national policy-making bodies interviewed. Inconsistencies between the different policy documents, practical problems emerging at the implementation stage and views of the Technikon umbrella organization, on the progress so far made are discussed. Higher Education Policy (2003) 16, 283–299. doi:10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300022 Keywords: research policy; South Africa; technikons; context-related research
Introduction Currently, two forms of research organizations in higher education, universities and technikons, exist in South Africa. Traditionally, Research in these institutions is perceived by wider society and academia in general, as basic in the former and applied in the latter. Of the two, universities that have an established research culture receive the largest portion of research funds and resources from government and other funding agencies. In spite of the large amounts spent on research in universities, they are viewed as unable to address such pressing societal needs as eradicating poverty. Commitment to basic research left a vacuum which technikons as institutions given over to applied research by virtue of their close association with industry, could address. In the early 1990s against this backdrop, the Principals of all 15 technikons in South Africa lobbied strongly for technikons to award undergraduate and postgraduate degrees thus enhancing their research capabilities. The Technikon Act of 1993, conferred degree awarding status on technikons. Since then technikons in South Africa have been engaged in developing a research culture among staff and delivering the much-needed applied research they are ready to do. However, a number of problems, some systemic and external, others macro- and micro-institutional, have hampered their efforts.
N.A. Ogude et al. Status and Evolution of Research in South African Technikons
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At the institutional level, critical components indispensable for research to thrive, particularly infrastructure, funding, teaching loads and staff profiles, although adapting rapidly, remain more suited to teaching than to research. Thus, typical teaching loads in most technikons average 25 contact hours per week (Ogude and Motha, 2001). The lack of research capacity among the staff members, in particular, has been a major obstacle to progress. This article examines national problems, emerging at the implementation stage of legislation intended to
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