Education in brief

Investing in a future of education

A conference next weekend on tertiary education will provide “an opportunity not to bewail our ­education system but to think ­creatively and ask how the ­challenges can be addressed”, according to St Augustine College.

The private higher-education ­college will host the conference on May 12 at its campus in Victory Park, Johannesburg.

“The Achilles heel of South Africa’s future economic and political prosperity has been our limited high-quality human capital formation,” said the college’s Cheryl Joseph. The conference is titled “Investing in our Common Future: The Virtues of High-Quality Tertiary Education”.

Confirmed speakers so far include Professor Raphael de Kadt, whose address, “Uneducating South Africa”, will consider the legacy of apartheid, and Professor Charles Simkins, who will talk about demographic and socioeconomic factors in education.

St Augustine now offers undergraduate programmes as well as the postgraduate degrees it offered when it opened its doors several years ago.

The college helps its students to “invest in their future by giving them a high-quality education that will open doors for them to meaningful work and rich and meaningful lives”, Joseph said.

For more information about the conference, contact Cheryl Joseph on 011 380 9000, email admin@­staugustine.ac.za or visit ­staugustine.ac.za

A fresh look at old ruins

The South African Archaeological Society will hold a lecture on the future of Zimbabwean archaeology in two weeks’ time.

Paul Hubbard, who studied archaeology at the University of Zimbabwe and at University College London, will deliver the lecture, titled “Standing at a Chasm or at the Crossroads? Whither Zimbabwean Archaeology in the 21st century?”

“Until recently Zimbabwe had one of the most robust and self-­sustaining archaeological ­programmes in Africa, encompassing ground-breaking research, training and education,” said the University of Pretoria’s Lourenco Casamiro Pinto, announcing the ­lecture on behalf of the South African Archaeological Society.

“The socioeconomic and political upheavals from 1997 to 2008 changed the face of archaeological practice in Zimbabwe and its future looks to be dwindling uncertainly,” Pinto said.

But the future of Zimbabwean archaeology might be about to change again. “This talk will cover the history of archaeology over the last century, highlighting how the discipline has survived similar upheavals and was changed by them, usually for the better. Current and future trends will be discussed and ways suggested for archaeology to reinvent itself to contribute to Zimbabwe’s future sociocultural and economic development,” Pinto said.

Hubbard’s lecture will be given on Thursday May 17 at Roedean School, 35 Princess of Wales Terrace, Parktown, Johannesburg.

For more details, contact Lourenco Casamiro Pinto on 012 420 2497
or email [email protected]

Opportunities for science researchers

The Academy of Science of South Africa will facilitate applications by local scholars for postgraduate training and postdoctoral fellowships advertised in Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Pakistan and Malaysia.

The fellowships are run by TWAS, an autonomous international organisation based in Trieste, Italy, that promotes scientific excellence for sustainable development in the South. It was formerly called the Third World Academy of Sciences.

The TWAS fellowship pro­grammes operate under agreements with governments and national organisations in developing countries, offering a number of fellowships to young scientists from developing countries to carry out postgraduate research in developing countries other than their own.

In November last year, the academy discussed with the Brazil Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the TWAS secretariat to accommodate, in principle, a minimum of 10 scholars from South Africa, although the applications still have to go through the existing screening process.

There are 11 fellowship programmes for postgraduate research, implemented in collaboration with organisations that include the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development in Brazil, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in India and the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Kenya.

Mexico, Pakistan and Malaysia are the other participating countries.
To facilitate the intake with the host institutions, the Academy of Science of South Africa would like to ascertain the interest of South African scholars in these fellowships. 

If you are interested in ­applying for a TWAS fellowship, email ­[email protected] by May 15. More information on the TWAS can be found at twas.ictp.it/prog/exchange/fells/fells-pg/pg-gen-info