When the Walter Sisulu University (WSU) opened five years ago in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape it had fewer than 50 postgraduate students, almost no National Research Foundation-rated researchers and very little research output.
But it now enjoys a burgeoning feeling of vitality, with eight rated researchers and more than a thousand postgrad students. What is more, the institution is hosting its third international research conference in Mthatha from August 18 to 20.
The multidisciplinary conference, “Consolidating research, innovation and technology platforms for a knowledge-based economy”, is about “using research to unlock the future of meaningful socioeconomic development”, says Professor Larry Obi, the WSU’s deputy vice-chancellor for academic affairs and research.
The annual conference builds on previous ones, in 2008 and 2009, which aimed to establish WSU as an important contributor to South African research, especially research that focuses on underprivileged rural areas. The university has thus turned the disadvantage of its marginal location into its greatest strength.
International researchers from as far afield as Japan and Nigeria will jet into the heart of the rural Eastern Cape, where they will join local researchers in presenting 226 papers during the two-and-a-half days.
Major themes include HIV/Aids (the subject of a dedicated session), harnessing indigenous knowledge systems (like traditional medicine), enhancing teaching and learning in secondary and tertiary institutions, overcoming technological challenges to rural development, addressing gender inequality, and assessing the impact of the 2010 World Cup on the everyday lives of South Africans.
The majority of papers lean in the direction of medical themes, which fits neatly with WSU’s decision to host the conference at the Health Resources Centre at the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital. The teaching hospital is affiliated to the university.
The WSU chancellor, Dr Brigalia Bam, says: “Social issues and ills can be more informed through research — It is through highlighting the reality of the real world that we can begin to assess facts and seek solutions.”
“Research was not a cardinal mandate of technikons,” says Obi, alluding to the merger of two technikons and the former University of Transkei to create WSU in 2005. “But research is a way of enhancing the university’s other core functions — teaching and learning on the one hand, and community development on the other,” he says.
Obi expects the conference to entrench a research culture at the university: “It will create a platform for us to network and collaborate with international and national researchers.” What is more, WSU will continue a trend it set last year by publishing a peer-reviewed edition of articles emanating from the conference to enhance further the research outputs of its academic staff and students.
Obi believes the conference will make a difference in another important way: “It’s about time that we started marketing historically black towns, and not just the Cape Towns and Johannesburgs,” he says. Conference delegates willl find themselves “in this beautiful city of Mthatha, in the homeland of Nelson Mandela”, he says.