Thanks to funding from the Department of Higher Education & Training (DHET) HELTASA is delighted to offer ten members of staff employed at any South African university the opportunity to participate in a four-year long programme leading to a PhD focusing on teaching and learning in higher education.
Successful applicants, who can be registered at any South African university, will receive supervision like any other doctoral candidate. However, the programme will enhance the guidance provided by supervisors through a four year programme which will:
i) Require candidates to design and execute a study which will address the following overarching research question: ‘How could AD theory and practice reimagine and recontextualise itself to respond to persistent inequality and social injustice in contexts facing challenges?
ii) Provide two one Summer School and one Winter School per year. Each school will offer a week-long series of workshops and seminars focused on providing support for the particular stage of the doctoral journey participants are at.
iii) Support supervisors and doctoral candidates through a supervision course. Candidates will participate in this course as one of the outcomes of doctoral study is that graduates should be able to supervise postgraduate research. Participation of programme participants and their supervisors in the supervision course will benefit their own particular supervisory relationship as well as develop their capacity to supervise others.
iv) Build a community of scholars who will mentor and support participants through the doctoral journey through an online forum as well as in other face-to- face meetings. Although the supervisor-candidate relationship is key to successful completion of a doctoral degree, other support is critical, especially in the ‘down times’ of any research journey. The community will aim to provide a safe space where any question, regardless of how stupid it may seem, and which can be answered by others engaged in a doctoral journey.
v) Provide a personal mentor for all candidates. The mentor will be available to provide support in addition to that offered by the supervisor.
v) Allow candidates to attend an international conference to present on the research in the four years of the duration of the programme.
The programme provides funding for all of these activities (including travel and accommodation costs). Candidates will, however, be expected to pay tuition fees at the university at which they are registered. As all candidates must be employed at a South African university and as most universities offer concessions for registration either at the ‘home’ university or others, this is not envisaged to be a problem.
To be eligible for participation, applicants must be:
i) Employed at a South African university;
ii) Studying for the first time at doctoral level (i.e. they cannot already have a doctoral level qualification in another area;
ii) At the outset of their doctoral journey (i.e. they should not already be registered and under supervision);
iv) Working in permanent positions which offer structural support for AD (e.g. in teaching and learning centres or in positions in faculties which focus on teaching and learning);
v) Available to attend the first Doctoral School which will be held in a venue in South Africa from 30 th September – 4 th October.
Please note that the line managers of successful candidates will be required to sign that they agree that the candidate will be freed up to attend ALL the Doctoral Schools in the programme. Preference will be given to those working in historically disadvantaged institutions. 90% of the places on the programme will be reserved for black South Africans.
Application forms can be downloaded here
The closing date for applications to the programme is 31 May 2019.
Please send applications to: N.Siqwede@ru.ac.za
