Higher Learning Reporter

South African research is poised for a boost, thanks to the establishment of an open-access platform for high-quality local scholarly journals.

The Unisa Graduate School of Business Leadership is to recruit more students spread across a larger number of African countries in the next year.

Unisa’s College of Economic and Management Sciences (Cems) has set up a specialised support unit to bolster its expanding research actitivities.

Women remain massively under-represented in leadership positions in higher education. In 2007 only three (and one acting) of South Africa’s 23 vice chancellors were women. In addition, among top managers only 21% of the deputy vice-chancellors and 28% of the deans are women.

The definition of an “ideal employer” is very different for South African graduates compared with their European and North American counterparts, according to a new survey. Conducted by Magnet Communication, the survey reveals that graduates from Europe and the United States select companies such as Apple and Google as their ideal employers even though these companies recruit very few graduates.

A study by researchers at Monash University in Australia has found that gastric banding surgery has a profound effect on one of society’s biggest health issues: diabetes. The four-year study monitored 60 volunteers for two years who underwent weight loss of more than 10% of their body weight.

The European University Association (EUA) has launched a Europe-wide platform to bolster doctoral education. The EUA Council for Doctoral Education (EUA-CDE) will aim to develop and advance doctoral education and research training in Europe. The creation of the council follows a recent report by the association on doctoral education.

The National Research Foundation (NRF) honoured 19 of South Africa’s top researchers at its annual President’s Awards, which were made in three categories: a lifetime achiever award, P-rated research awards and Arated research awards. The lifetime achiever award went to Dr Mamphela Ramphele, former vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town (UCT) and now director of Circle Capital Ventures, a black empowerment company.

Project management skills are so valuable that they can be used in everyday work-life and not just in a specific project. This is the view of Professor Pieter Steyn, principal of Cranefield College, and the first South African to be appointed to the research management board of the International Project Management Association.