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UCT RESEARCH REPORT 2012
Postgraduate Centre and Funding Office
LINDA VRANAS
Director: Postgraduate
Centre and Funding
Office
The Postgraduate Centre and Funding Office is a service-
provision area accountable to the university’s Postgraduate
Studies Funding Committee, which in turn, reports to the Board
for Graduate Studies, both of which are in the academic cluster
of committees and accountable to Senate.
I
ncreasing the absolute numbers of both local and international postgraduate
students, and improving retention rates, are two of UCT’s primary goals.
Important for the success of these goals and objectives is a strong cohort of
postgraduate students. In order to ensure that the professional sector of the
country and continent is adequately provided for through the emergence of
excellent graduates, broad-based support for these sectors is an imperative.
Similarly, support to postdoctoral researchers is crucial, as these academics-in-
training constitute a very valuable link in the research production chain and relieve
the dwindling numbers of academic staff and researchers in South Africa and on the
continent of Africa. The numbers of postdoctoral researchers that register for up to
five years at UCT have increased steadily since 2002, and the university hopes to
further increase these numbers in the next five years.
Support structures and resource mechanisms that add quality to the lives and
experience of these individuals have been established, and are constantly being
monitored, reviewed, and extended. The office’s work supports the university to
achieve targeted recruitment and, through its policies and practices, encourages
students to complete their degrees and to graduate in the minimum time-frame.
The appointment of the Director of Postgraduate Studies in 2013 will allow an
increased focus on the consolidation and extension of such support structures.
Several strategic partnerships to support the postgraduate sector were continued
and new ones were established in 2012. These include the UCT/CSIR Scholarship
programme, the UCT/SKA Doctoral Scholarships, and master’s bursaries from the
African Institute for Mathematical Sciences. The UCT PhD staff bursaries as well as
opportunities provided through the Worldwide Universities Network initiative will
become operational in 2013. These awards target students in specific areas of study
and are sponsored by the university and external partners.
Trusts, foundations, and individuals provide significant contributions to the support
and development of postdoctoral research fellows and senior students at UCT.
The sponsors of such programmes provide the university with opportunities to
attract the country’s best postdoctoral researchers and students, and enable them
to pursue their research and studies with minimal financial stress. Postdoctoral
research fellows are strongly supported by individual departmental fellowships, the
National Research Foundation, and through generous sponsorship by the Claude
Leon Foundation.