WENDY MOTHATA

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed his deep sadness at the death of 19 learners and two adults in a collision between a bakkie and a truck near Pongola in northern KwaZulu-Natal on Friday.

The learners were allegedly transported on a bakkie when their vehicle collided with a truck.

“This is yet another sad moment for our country, following the substantial loss of young lives in an Eastern Cape tavern recently,” said Ramaphosa.

“We cannot afford to lose such precious lives under any conditions. I hope the investigation into the Pongola incident will shed light on the cause of this tragedy and help us take better care of our children into the future.”

KZN Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube has meanwhile called on the courts to deliver justice to the victims of the horror crash.

Dube-Ncube described the incident as “painfully sad.”

“This is one of the most tragic accidents in our province in recent times. What is painfully sad is to learn that this accident has taken the lives of so many of our young people whose future and that of their families is now destroyed,” said Dube-Ncube.

“Sadly, it is becoming clearer by the day that increasingly, human factors are playing a major role in road fatalities in our province which is cause for major concern. We commend the SAPS and the community for working together to facilitate the arrest of the driver of the truck that was involved in this fatal accident who had also fled the scene. We therefore call on the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster to act swiftly and in concert to ensure that justice is delivered for the sake of the victims and
their families.”

Dube-Ncube said that the provincial government will provide all the necessary support to the surviving families to ensure that they are able to bear the impact of the tragedy.

“We also convey our sincere condolences to the families, relatives and friends who have lost their loved ones in this terrible accident. The provincial government will provide all the necessary support to the surviving families to ensure that they are able to bear the impact of this tragedy and when the time comes, to lay the souls of the departed to rest with the appropriate dignity. May their souls rest in peace,” said Dube-Ncube.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) said it was clear that the ANC-led government was failing KZN’s road users.

“The lawlessness and carnage that we are witnessing is proof of this. Yesterday also saw a separate incident involving learners. The only positive is that there were no deaths in this particular instance,” said Francois Rodgers, DA leader in the KZN Legislature.

“Given the growing crisis in our province, the DA expects National Transport Minister, Fikile Mbalula, to intervene and ensure that our roads are safe, properly maintained and that there is increased visible policing.”

Rodgers said the DA will be closely monitoring the outcome of the Pongola crash investigation.

“Both the Minister and his MEC and must be held accountable while the perpetrator must be behind bars sooner rather than later. Justice must be served on behalf of the families,” he said.

INSIDE EDUCATION

IN a collaborative partnership with teacher unions, non-profit organisation (NPO) Tangible Africa has trained over 600 teachers across South Africa in coding skills to implement in the classroom.

The teachers, who were trained between June and September, are now known as Master Trainers, and in turn, will train around 16 000 other teachers in offline coding, the NPO says.

Leva Foundation operations manager Jackson Tshabalala says 500 South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU), 40 National Teachers’ Union (NATU) and 60 Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwysersunie (SAOU) teachers were trained across all nine provinces in less than three months.

The training comes as government is looking to rollout a coding and robotics curriculum in South African schools.

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) believes a coding and robotics curriculum will develop learners’ ability to solve problems, think critically, work collaboratively and creatively, function in a digital and information-driven world, apply digital and ICT skills, and transfer these skills to solve everyday problems.

According to the DBE’s annual performance plan for 2022/2023, the full-scale implementation for Grade R to Grade 3, and Grade 7 is planned for the academic year 2023.

For other grades from 4 to 9, the subjects of robotics and coding will be on the pilot from 2022 to 2023, and full-scale implementation in these grades will be seen between 2024 and 2025.

Achievable coding

“This was a great collaboration between Tangible Africa and the teachers unions. The most rewarding part of the training was demystifying coding to some of the teachers who reported feelings of anxiety, fear and nervousness before the training, but afterwards felt encouraged, ready and excited to start coding at their schools,” says Tshabalala.

The training offered by 12 young facilitators from Tangible Africa, an engagement project of Nelson Mandela University Computing Sciences Department and the Leva Foundation, empowered the teachers to teach coding concepts without computers – by using limited resources, including a smartphone and coding app games (downloadable as TANKS, RANGERS and BOATS).

“This was also an empowering experience for our facilitators, who are mostly graduates from the university. They were able to share their technical skillset in a workshop setting, and for some of our facilitators it was their first time on a plane. The training allowed our facilitators to build up their capacity to offer future Unplugged Coding workshops to other organisations,” says Tshabalala.

SADTU vice-president of education Faseega Solomon says the project by Tangible Africa suited the Teacher Union Collaboration training earmarked for the year since it was themed “skills for a changing world”.

The annual training is a partnership between the major unions in the country and the DBE.

“What stood out from all the other service providers was that these coding concepts could be taught in schools without the necessary infrastructure and gadgets. Teachers will be able to develop skills needed for the 21st century, like problem-solving and collaboration, to empower learners irrespective of the resources they have available at their schools,” says Solomon.

She commends the Tangible Africa facilitators for being well-trained and presenting the training in a fun and interactive manner.

Tangible Africa says many of the Master Trainer teachers are now already implementing the training in their classrooms and receiving requests from other schools for further training. Solomon believes the training will not stop at the earmarked 16 000 teachers, but will reach even more schools to have a multiplying impact.

NATU director Prof Sitwala Imenda says by using the Master Trainer teachers to capacitate other teachers, it also removes the fear they have about these concepts: “When they see their colleagues handling the coding and robotics content, they are motivated. Furthermore, by using this cascading approach, instead of using private entities, we also achieve economies of both scale and skill.”

He continues to say the skills taught will assist learners and teachers not only in the technological world in which we live today, but also in the future. “By exposing educators of NATU to these concepts and principles, we seek to create a critical mass of teacher champions to imbue learners with skills for the future,” says Imenda.

Koos van der Walt, who co-ordinated the training of 60 SAOU teachers in the central region, agrees the coding concepts could be taught in both high resource and low resource schools.

“I haven’t seen teachers enjoy themselves this much during training in a long a time. They were eager to take the concepts back to the classroom and were extremely positive about the training,” says Van der Walt.

Thinking it through

Teachers who received the training were oriented to coding and robotics as a subject and encouraged to understand the thinking processes required from learners.

“Some of these things we are already doing in the classroom, like problem-solving, logic and movement. The training helps to demystify what coding is, and how easy it is to implement in the classroom,” says Hudson Park Primary technology integrator and ICT teacher Kelly Bush.

Bush, from East London, has developed lesson plans based on the TANKS and BOATS apps that formed part of the training.

Tangible Africa notes this work has earned her a provincial nomination for the National Teachers Awards, taking place later this month.

“The lesson plans link with concepts learners are familiar with in the South African environment. Items we use in the lessons are readily available, like egg boxes, chairs or shoes, so that even under-resourced schools can follow the lessons,” says Bush.

Another teacher, Mary Ann Chetty from Astra Primary School in Chatsworth, who participated in the SADTU Master Training, says she was already introducing coding concepts into her classroom and planning to offer extra-curricular games to children at her school in Kwa-Zulu Natal.

“I have a much better understanding of what we can do at our school with coding and robotics. The fact that the games are unplugged helps so much for a school like ours,” says Chetty.

SOURCE| ITWEB

JOHN FISCHETTI

YEAR 12 students around Australia are preparing to sit their final exams. For many young people this is one of the most stressful parts of school, with their future supposedly coming down to one number.

This is an outdated way of finishing school and working out what students do in the next phase of their lives.

Universities and TAFEs are increasingly using other methods – such as interviews or portfolios – to offer places to school leavers. In 2021, more than 25,000 NSW students applied for an early offer through the “schools recommendation scheme”, to lock in a university place before they sit their exams. This is up from 5,447 in 2014, suggesting year 12 exams may not be as necessary as we once thought.

Our research shows you can reliably predict a student’s year 12 results by year 11. This also suggests we don’t need a battery of stressful exams to work out if a student is suited for tertiary education.

This gives us the opportunity to radically rethink how the final years of school are structured.

Our research

Two years ago, we studied more than 10,000 students in the Catholic Education Diocese of Paramatta, NSW. We have repeated the study and our work now includes 20,000 students across 21 exam areas.

We used predictive analytics which links multiple pieces of information about student progression through school.

We used 17 variables including year 9 NAPLAN scores, Higher School Certificate subject choices and year 11 attendance. We also use demographic information, such as how long a student has lived in Australia and a school’s socioeconomic rating.

Across both our studies, we found we could predict year 12 results in year 11, with a 93% accuracy rate.

Our purpose here is not to label students, but to change the focus of school and the efforts of students and teachers.

What can we do differently in schools?

We are already seeing the beginnings of new ways of “doing school” in Australia. Some schools are changing their focus from year 12 exams to students doing internships, creating portfolios of work, doing TAFE or university certificates, or doing an overseas exchange.

In British Columbia, Canada, final school assessments include a project that connects “real-world” applications of the curriculum for each student.

In Estonia, now among the world leaders in education, traditional “knowledge and understanding” approaches have been replaced with a strong emphasis on critical thinking, problem-solving, entrepreneurship, digital skills and citizenship. These are all qualities that fit with both employers’ needs and measures of success in the adult world.

Students undertake a cross-disciplinary creative project to graduate from the equivalent of year 10 – an example might be studying the impact of music on managing the onset of dementia in older people. They then do a research project before finishing high school.

Year 12 exams are outdated

High school as we’ve known it has been dominated by high stakes, high-pressure exams that have outlived their usefulness. If we can reliably predict the results, we don’t need the tests.

We know young people’s mental health is already poor, and has suffered further during COVID.

We should be looking for ways to improve, rather than exacerbate this. We also know universities are increasingly open to other ways of admitting students.

There is an enormous opportunity here to reallocate resources and create a modern, meaningful school experience that excites young people. It can encourage them to seek career-building activities, study overseas, learn languages or follow passion projects – not just study for stressful exams that tell us what we already know.

The research for this piece is a continuation of the work initiated by Dr Raju Veranasi for his 2021 Phd at the University of Newcastle.

THE CONVERSATION

THE latest PwC Vice-Chancellor Survey for 2022 showed that universities are rapidly transforming to become more digitally aligned – making a big shift to virtual schooling- but access remains the biggest hurdle.

The survey questioned vice-chancellors and deputy vice-chancellors from 26 of South Africa’s universities. PwC also conducted benchmarking analysis across public universities based on their 2021 audited annual financial statements.

PwC found that during the pandemic, many universities were forced to accelerate their digital learning deployments faster than expected.

Despite this, due to the rate of acceleration to digital platforms, many learners had challenges with accessibility, inclusion and engagement, said PwC.

“We were reminded that the digital equity gap in Africa unfortunately persists. Moreover, the initial reaction to virtual learning has left students divided on whether they prefer physical classes to online learning.”

According to another PwC report, the Voice of the Student Survey, almost half of all students (49%) prefer virtual learning, 38% prefer hybrid learning formats, and 13% prefer in-person classes.

Only 13% of students indicated a preference for in-person classes, with most preferring either a hybrid or online medium for teaching and learning.

South Africa is not alone in this phenomenon, higher education institutions across the globe have been forced – over the past two years – to take a closer look at many different aspects of their operations, including how technology is disrupting their traditional business models.

According to a Global Market Insights report, the number of students taking online courses has expanded rapidly, with the e-learning market capping $250 billion in revenue in 2020.

By 2027, this is expected to surge to a compound annual growth rate of 21%, said PwC. Vice-chancellors, in response to the group’s survey, added that the higher education industry is significantly behind the corporate world when it comes to digitalisation.

Many respondents believed that in-person learning should be the preferred method – university stakeholders remain positive about the shift towards virtual classrooms as complementary.

PwC expects even more students to prefer virtual learning, especially when virtual learning experiences improve, advances in digitisation are made, and access to technology becomes more affordable.

STAFF REPORTER

AT the start of April 2022, the Department of Social Development handed over the responsibility of early childhood development to the Department of Basic Education, paving the way for earlier schooling in South Africa.

Two years of early childhood development (ECD) is set to become compulsory for all children before they enter the formal school system in grade 1.

Since taking over ECD from the social development department, the Department of Basic Education said that it has identified “a multitude of challenges” in the early childhood development sector – systemic challenges, access challenges, and challenges in the quality of learning.

The main systemic challenges entail the historic underfunding of the sector, it said, including a lack of infrastructure support to ECD centres, an overly burdensome regulatory framework, the lack of a management information system, the lack of a quality assurance system and under-qualified practitioners.

“The challenge with access is that only 58% of 3-year-olds and 75% of 4-year-olds are currently accessing early learning opportunities. Ideally, we would like all 4-year-olds to be able to access early learning opportunities,” the department said.

The department said it is prioritising the systemic challenges by creating an enabling environment, adding that work is ongoing in addressing the regulatory challenges through the Second Children’s Amendment Bill and the review of the Norms and Standards for ECD registration.

Responding in a written parliamentary Q&A this week, basic education minister Angie Motshekga said that the department is also addressing access issues by provisioning grade R infrastructure for schools.

This is already being funded through the Education Infrastructure Grant and the Equitable share portion by provinces, she said.

She said the department is working to ensure that there are enough grade R classrooms to accommodate the shift, with these classrooms being procured through four main routes:

New standalone grade R classrooms;New or replacement schools provided with grade R classrooms;Ordinary classrooms converted into grade R; andMobile classrooms used as grade R classrooms.

Explaining the importance of the shift of compulsory grade R to parliament, the department noted that more South African children are expected to begin reading earlier, with higher standards of reading expected to be introduced in the earlier primary school grades.

The move is also expected to provide better monitoring systems, including systems to gauge the school readiness of children when they enter grade 1.

The department said that it also plans to provide further support to Foundation Phase (Grade R – Grade 3) teachers, including Individualised coaching and Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) tools. It has also pledged to strengthen school-level Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) to advance teacher capacity.

The compulsory schooling change is included in the draft Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) bill. The bill is currently sitting in National Assembly. Public comment for the bill closed on 15 August 2022.

In addition to the compulsory grade R, the bill makes a raft of proposals, including:

Compulsory attendance: Stricter punishments will be introduced for parents who fail to ensure their children attend school, including jail time and/or a fine of up to 12 months.Absenteeism: The bill states that teachers, principals and school governing bodies must take responsibility and accountability for learners that are within their school community by ascertaining the whereabouts of a learner who is absent from school for a period of more than three days without a valid reason.Corporal punishment: Corporal punishment is abolished and no person may inflict or impose corporal punishment to a learner at a school, during a school activity, or in a hostel accommodating learners of a school.Initiation practices: The bill prohibits initiation practices in a hostel accommodating learners, and during a school activity.Governing body disclosures: Members of a school governing body, like other public officials, will be required tp disclose on an annual basis their financial interests and the financial interests of their spouse, partner and immediate family members.Homeschooling: The bill introduces further clarity around home-schooling, including that South African learners may be educated at home only if they are registered for such education.Business with the state: The bill will prohibit educators from conducting business with the state or from being a director of a public or private company conducting business with the state, and creates an offence should an educator contravene the abovementioned provision.

SOURCE: BUSINESS TECH

KELLY E. MATTHEWS, JASON M. LODGE and MELISSA JOHNSTONE

EACH year tens of thousands of higher education students complete the Student Experience Survey. It’s seen as a litmus test of student engagement, satisfaction and educational quality. But do the ways in which institutions and governments try to understand student experiences still add up?

The pandemic has transformed enrolment patterns and the ways in which students interact with their institutions and the courses they offer. We suggest the data from the 2021 survey released today no longer adequately capture students’ experience of study. The current version of the survey was designed for a time when modes of study were more clearly defined than they have become since COVID-19 emerged.

The student survey is part of the Australian Quality Indicators of Learning and Teaching (QILT) suite of measures for higher education. The 2021 report shows ratings are more positive compared to 2020 for younger and internal (classroom-based) students. According to the report, this “can likely be attributed to some return to on-campus learning and also a change in the expectations and experience of students”.

But how are “internal” students engaging in their studies? Does learning look the same today compared to 2019, and should it?

New forms of flexibility in student mode of study have to be matched with new forms of support to enable students to make smart choices. The mode of study categorised as internal for the survey now includes so much variation that it no longer serves a useful function for reporting and analysis purposes.

Why QILT results matter

Individual higher education providers might use results to:

set key performance indicators – for example, “by 2030, we will be in the top 3 universities for learner engagement”market themselves – “we are the top Australian university for teaching quality”undertake evidence-informed planning – “develop sense-of-belonging roadmap to increase scores”.

Student survey data are also used in research that informs policymakers. Drawing on many years of survey results, social scientists analyse datasets to answer big, high-level questions.

It’s more than a matter of comparing universities and providers. Questions of equity and access are investigated. For example, how are rural and regional students engaging in higher education?

These data are used in research with other national datasets. For example, reports from the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education at Curtin University demonstrate the importance of such data.

COVID has changed how we study

The pandemic shone a light on issues of student equity as mode of study shifted (as a recent review showed). Mode of attendance is defined as:

internal: classroom-basedexternal: online, correspondence, and electronic-based (the language used for data-collection purposes shows how outdated it is)multimodal: mix of internal and external.

In 2019, about 75% of Australian higher education students were enrolled as internal students. Multimodal studies accounted for roughly 14%.

Even at that time, it could have been argued that the lines between internal (classroom-based) and external (online) were already becoming blurred. Lecture recordings, learning management systems, flipped classrooms, endless debates about the “lecture”, and growth in digital technologies not only broadened access to knowledge but also enabled a mix of online and in-class interaction.

The use of existing technologies was a key reason the higher education sector could pivot online in a week when the pandemic hit in early 2020. Imagine if the pandemic had happened in 2005 instead of 2020? Higher education institutions would have simply shut down without these technologies.

Now we have had two years’ experience of online learning and new modes of study. Examples include attendance via Zoom rooms, live online, hi-flex (making class meetings and materials available so students can access them online or in person), swapping from on-campus to online due to lockdowns, students moving between internal and external study on a week-by-week basis. Does the either-or categorisation of modes of attendance – internal or external – still make sense?

5 problems with categorising attendance this way

We have identified at least five problems with the current survey categorisation of modes of attendance:

1. categorising attendance as purely one or other mode, rather than a combination of modes, stifles research and analysis of important national datasets

2. the existing categorisations stifle innovation, limiting institutions from creating distinctive blends of modes of teaching and learning

3. it perpetuates an outdated, either/or mindset that permeates discussion in the sector

4. it masks important implications of differences between new and established modes of attendance, including:

hidden workloads for staff, leading to questions of burnout and mental healthunclear expectations for students, which hinders decision-making and effective study approacheshidden costs and unclear planning processes for differing modes of studylack of clarity about blurred modes of study being offered, which can restrict access to higher education and create obstacles to success for equity students.

5. the sector is missing opportunities to gather relevant mass-scale data on modes of attendance to guide policy and practice.

Sector needs to agree on a new model

The crude categorisation of modes of study is hindering evidence-based decision-making. Across the sector, institutions are scrambling to sort out how best to maintain the flexibility many students now demand while ensuring students meet expected learning outcomes. And institutions need to do so in ways that are sustainable and healthy for staff.

As the chaos of the pandemic hopefully subsides, the higher education sector would benefit from a sector-wide process of developing an agreed way of describing the full range of modes of attendance. A framework is needed that enables shared understanding of all these modes. This will enable institutions to better plan, resource, innovate and engage students and staff.

Such a framework could then inform ongoing national data collection, such as QILT, so social scientists and educational researchers can, in turn, better guide policy and practice.

THE CONVERSATION

EARLIER in 2022, South Africa’s Council on Higher Education (CHE), which is responsible for the quality assurance of higher education qualifications, published a comprehensive review of doctoral education in South Africa.

The review was the culmination of a meticulous and elaborate process that started in 2017 when South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF), which provides financial support to doctoral degree programmes, invited the CHE to undertake a review of doctoral education in South African higher education institutions to ensure that they meet national quality standards.

Increasing PhD graduates

To understand the NRF’s concern, one needs to go back to 2011, when South Africa launched its National Development Plan (NDP) aiming at eliminating poverty and reducing inequality by 2030.

For the NDP to achieve its objectives, it set out a series of goals for improving education and training and increasing research and innovation capacity over the next 20 years. Two of those goals relate directly to doctoral education.

First, the NDP proposed to increase university student enrolment from 950,000 in 2010 to 1.62 million in 2030, a 70% increase. This would invariably require additional academics, including those holding PhDs. In 2010, the proportion of PhD-qualified academic staff in universities was only 34%, which the NDP proposed to increase to 75% by 2030.

Secondly, noting that South Africa produced only 28 PhD graduates per million population per year, a figure considered very low by international standards, the NDP set the target of 100 by 2030. This would result in an increase in PhD graduate output per year from 1,421 in 2010 to 5,000 in 2030.

By 2017, the figures had already increased significantly. The number of PhD graduates per million of population had increased to 54; the number of doctoral graduates produced per year had more than doubled to 3,057; and the proportion of academics having a PhD had reached 46%. While the numbers were increasing, there was little information about the quality of the graduates.

Another factor that, no doubt, prompted the review was the diverse higher education landscape in South Africa, partly because of the colonial past, and partly resulting from the institutional mergers that took place at the beginning of the 21st century which aimed to redress post-apartheid legacies, but which invariably created greater diversity.

This resulted in 36 public higher education institutions being merged into initially 21, and currently 26 universities. Some of these universities are classified as traditional, others as comprehensive and yet others as universities of technology.

While the majority of them are recognised – several of them internationally – for delivering quality doctoral programmes, some were suspected of having limited capacity to do so as a result of their historical past.

The review process

The first step in the review process was establishing a quality standard specifically for doctoral degrees. The CHE is reputed for having excellent quality assurance mechanisms for accrediting both institutions and their programmes, but the latter are mainly at undergraduate level. Because of the nature of doctoral programmes, their assessment requires a completely different approach.

Accordingly, in 2017, the CHE appointed a group of academic experts with experience in supervision and assessment of doctoral studies to draft a specific standard for doctoral degrees.

The outcome was the Qualification Standard for Doctoral Degrees, published in November 2018.

It specifies standards for the whole process of doctoral studies, from entry to institutional processes to the acquisition of graduate attributes at exit. It is, perhaps, one of the first such specific standards to appear in Africa.

The next step was an assessment by the CHE of all doctoral qualifications in South Africa. In 2019, doctoral degrees were being offered by 23 of the 26 public universities and five of the private higher education institutions.

In accordance with the usual quality assurance process, these 28 institutions were first invited to submit their self-evaluation reports using the standards specified in the Qualification Standard for Doctoral Degrees for evaluation by the CHE during 2020.

Each of these reports was then reviewed by a review panel appointed by the CHE. The resulting 28 review panel reports, together with the 28 self-evaluation reports, were then examined in depth by a team of five senior academics appointed by the CHE with a view to producing a National Review of South African Doctoral Qualifications, which is the document that was finally published in March 2022.

National review report

The national review report on doctoral education is a remarkably rich document. Its objective was not to assess the quality of the various doctoral programmes – that would be done by the CHE on the basis of the respective review panel reports – but rather to take a holistic view of the entire landscape of doctoral education in South Africa.

Without referring to any specific programme or institution, the report clinically examines the whole process of doctoral studies in the 28 institutions, covering issues related to admission of students, their supervision, assessment, graduation rate, funding, and so on.

The last three sections (nine to 11) of the report are particularly illuminating. Section 9 highlights examples of good practice; Section 10 exposes areas of significant concern that need to be redressed; and Section 11 makes recommendations to both institutions and the higher education sector.

What clearly emerges from the report is that, although South Africa has a relatively small higher education sector, there are significant variations in the policies and procedures relevant to doctoral studies among the various institutions, be they in admission of students, their supervision or examination, or in the institutional administrative structures dealing with doctoral studies.

Without identifying them, the report does mention that there are institutions whose doctoral qualifications currently do not meet the Qualification Standard for Doctoral Degrees.

Relevance to other countries in Africa?

While going through the report, one cannot help comparing the South African situation with regard to doctoral education with what prevails in other African countries, especially the anglophone ones which have doctoral studies approaches that are very similar to that in South Africa.

Like South Africa, most of these countries have higher education institutions which are diverse, ranging from some having been set up soon after independence and being well-established, to others having been established barely a decade ago and still undergoing development, to polytechnics which have been upgraded to university status.

Other African countries also face the same two challenges as those in South Africa: having to increase their higher education student enrolment, and hence the proportion of their academic staff having a PhD, and increasing the output of PhDs in appropriate fields in order to boost research and innovation.

Over the past decade, there has been a very significant increase in doctoral enrolment in many African universities, in most cases through initiatives funded by development partners and funding agencies.

But the universities do not necessarily have the capacity to accommodate such increases and the threat to the quality of their doctoral degrees is real.

As pointed out in the South African report, the quality of doctoral education is of critical importance, not only to the national quality assurance agency, but also to the public, the awarding institutions and the students. One could further add to the employers of the doctorates, the whole higher education sector and the development of the country.

Almost all the quality issues addressed in the South African review report are pertinent to other African universities and countries which are currently dealing with the challenge of increasing their doctoral offering.

And yet, none of the quality assurance agencies in these countries has developed a specific quality assurance standard for doctoral degrees and most of them do not have the capacity for developing such a standard.

It should be possible for them to use the South African standard as a framework for developing their own. Similarly, the review report is a very useful document and universities in other African countries should be in a position to use it as a guide to assess the shortcomings and lacunae of their doctoral education and benefit from its numerous and invaluable suggestions and recommendations.

The South African CHE should be commended for having taken on and successfully completed the complex process of assuring quality of doctoral degrees.

With its experience and expertise, the CHE should now consider assisting other interested African countries and their universities in addressing the challenges of providing quality doctoral education, and this for the benefit of the whole African continent.

This commentary was written by Goolam Mohamedbhai, the former secretary general of the Association of African Universities, former president of the International Association of Universities and former vice-chancellor of the University of Mauritius. He is a former member of the governing council of the United Nations University and is a board member of University World News – Africa.

MORE than 85 per cent of the 28,200 students at Dubai International Academic City and Dubai Knowledge Park are from abroad, a recent study has revealed. The foreign students come from 80 countries, including India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the wider GCC region.

The two educational enclaves – Dubai International Academic City and Dubai Knowledge Park – are home to 27 academic institutions, including regional campuses by globally renowned universities such as University of Birmingham and the University of Manchester – both of which rank in the Top 100 universities in the QS World University rankings.

Dubai’s strategic location within the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia (MENASA) region, paired with its emerging reputation for internationally accredited universities, has helped raised its profile as an attractive destination for higher education and talent development. The emirate even ranked as the best student city in the Middle East in the QS Best Students’ Cities Ranking 2023.

Boosting academic programmes

Universities at Dubai International Academic City and Dubai Knowledge Park are continually evolving their curriculum and courses to meet the current and future job market. This year, Middlesex University is introducing programmes in sectors such as digital media, brand management and cybersecurity to meet industry demands.

Dr Cedwyn Fernandes, pro-vice chancellor of Middlesex University and director of Middlesex University Dubai, said: “We have continued to update our curriculums so that our students learn how to apply the latest industry insights from their fields to real-life scenarios and become 100 per cent employable once they graduate.”

The university has also seen consistent interest for courses in Law, Psychology, Business and Accounting and Finance, as well as creative industries, for which the university has launched dedicated facilities.

More post-graduate programmes

At the University of Birmingham, recruiting has been especially strong for newly added post-graduate programmes in the fields of technology, medicine, and business. Professor David Sadler, University of Birmingham Dubai Provost, said: “The University of Birmingham is extremely proud to have established ourselves here in Dubai. Having recently opened our new campus, we continue to invest in growing our student and staff population to fulfil our long-term vision. We are committed to being part of the continual development of the education landscape in Dubai and the pursuit of quality education and research to support Dubai’s overall strategic ambition for the future.”

Courses in Computer Science, Computer Engineering as well as Communication and Media have witnessed growing interest in 2022-2023. Michael Eberle, head of marketing at University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD), said: “The quality of education is a high priority for UOWD and we hope to achieve this through carefully-curated curricula and academic courses that are designed to build students’ careers in line with market requirements. As the first international university in the UAE, we shoulder the responsibility to offer students top-class education through innovative learning spaces and state-of-the-art labs and equipment at our campus.”

Affordability

To promote affordability and ensure a wider pool of talent can access world-class learning opportunities, universities at both education hubs are providing merit-based scholarships to students. The University of Birmingham, for instance, offers a 40 per cent scholarship, while Middlesex University provides a range of grants and scholarships, such as the academic excellence scholarship which is up to 50 per cent.

University of Birmingham Dubai’s incoming students can choose from a variety of financial support options to cover their whole programme, from foundational and undergraduate to graduate levels. The Dubai campus maintains strong ties with the original campus in the UK, allowing Dubai-based Year Two students to participate in an exchange program at the UK location whilst maintaining their scholarship.

GULFNEWS

STAFF WRITER|

A RECENT study has revealed the differences and similarities between South Africa’s National Senior Certificate (NSC) compared to other countries.

Mafu Rakometsi, the chief executive officer of Umalusi – a council that sets and monitors standards for education in South Africa – said the new report aimed to research the standing of the NSC about similar qualifications from five other jurisdictions.

Addressing the portfolio committee on basic education on Tuesday (13 September), he said that the study compared the NSC to the following five other certificates:

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB DP)Kenyan Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE)New South Wales (NSW) Higher School Certificate (HSC)Zimbabwean Forms 5-6 advanced level (ZIMSEC)Cambridge Assessment International Education (CIE)

Its primary findings were that the NSC has a longer duration and more compulsory subjects when compared to others – the NSC is a three-year certificate (Grade 10 – 12). On top of that, according to Rakometsi, the NSC is the strictest in prescribing what is taught, in what sequence and within exactly what timeframe.

“The NSC’s approach of giving guidance on the content and time allocated for each thing appears to be more prescriptive than all other comparator qualifications.”

This approach appears to be motivated by the need to provide uniform student experiences rather than enabling teacher flexibility, said Rakometsi.

The report noted that the NSC had some indication of greater depth and complexity in terms of subject content; however, when it came to mathematics – the report found less emphasis on the topics of mechanics and the use of technology.

The NSC is helicoidal in approach; this makes it unique in that each year the same topic is revisited but in greater depth and complexity, said Rakometsi.

Life Sciences also had less emphasis on mathematical skills in its curricula when compared to other programmes.

The NSC aligns most closely with teaching practices at a standard level; higher-level concepts are less emphasised compared to other programmes. The NSC does, however, have a higher studies standard when compared to the Kenyan certificate, he said.

Rakometsi said that in terms of breadth – ie, the number of knowledge elements in each subject – and depth – the level of deep investigation into concepts – the NSC is appropriate for school-leaving qualifications.

Here’s a breakdown of each subject’s performance under the NSC:

English – is similar to other curricula and is comparable with international standards;Geography – is effectively structured and designed;Mathematics – shows less emphasis on mechanics topics and the use of technology and more emphasis on spatial skills such as interpreting graphs;Life Sciences – South Africa’s is the only curriculum to cover the history of life on earth as one of its topics. The certificate focuses less on mathematical skills in life science compared to other jurisdictions;Physical Science – is unique in that it combines physics and chemistry.

Recommendations

South Africa’s matric certificate could do more to align itself with international standards, Rakometsi said, in terms of the scope for standardisation, the articulation of aims, learning outcomes and the relationship between these, and the key skills that students should be developed.

In terms of mathematics, the international programmes demonstrated a greater emphasis on the development of ICT skills as a learning outcome of mathematics. The NSC could adjust to acknowledge the use of technology in the field.

Rakometsi added that it is worth rethinking the packaging of the subjects chemistry and physics under the umbrella of Physical sciences; he said that the implications of the country’s resource constraints must, however, be taken into account.

BUSINESS TECH

THE Department of Higher Education, Science and Technology has launched an independent investigation into allegations of misconduct and maladministration at the University of South Africa (Unisa).

Unisa is the largest university in South Africa by enrollments, with around 400,000 students from across South Africa, Africa and other parts of the world.

The new probe follows an investigation by a ministerial task team in 2020, which focused on the strategic mandate and purpose of the university within the South African context.

Specifically, the task team examined all contextual and institutional factors that impact the current challenges facing the university and advised on the mandate of the institution and its scope of work as a distance education provider.

It made recommendations on measures required to ensure that Unisa is strategically positioned as an institution with a clear mandate and mission, supported by the necessary structures and capacity for a sustainable future, the department said.

However, the task team, following its analysis, also made a number of conclusions responding to issues relating to the strategic mandate of Unisa – including adverse conclusions which suggest shortcomings, challenges and allegations of circumstances that amount to maladministration, the department said.

The university came under fire earlier this year when representatives of the National Health, Education and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) alleged that salary adjustments paid to selected academics, professionals and administrative staff took place without the approval of the university council, resulting in millions of rands in over-expenditure.

It also faces allegations of abuse of power in suspending workers, launching disciplinary cases and dismissing staff unlawfully, and misusing funds.

Unisa has called the allegations “unfounded and spurious“.

The department has now gazetted the scope of an independent investigation into affairs at Unisa, and has appointed Professor Themba Mosia as an independent assessor to conduct it.

The overall purpose of the new independent investigation is to advise the higher education minister Blade Nzimande on the source and nature of problems and the university and the measures required to restore good governance and management.

The investigation will look at:

The functioning and efficacy of the university’s governance and management structures.The operations of the Office of the Registrar in relation to the management of academic affairs, registration and certification matters and any other matters that the Independent Assessor believes warrant investigation.The state of policies and procedures of the university pertaining to financial management, supply chain management, and procurement; and allegations of financial irregularities.The state of human resource policies and practices of the university, particularly in relation to enhancing organisational efficiency and employment relations at the university.A detailed analysis and report on the circumstances and reasons for the significant number of staff suspensions, disciplinary cases, and dismissals at the university since 2018.The allegations of misconduct and mismanagement against the Vice-Chancellor.Any other matters that, in the opinion of the Assessor, may impact on the effective functioning of the University from the analysis of problems relating to governance and management.