National Plan targets versus sector realities — Dr Nomakwezi Mzilikazi highlights provocative tensions

At the recent Enabling Quality Postgraduate Education (EQPE) colloquium, Dr Nomakwezi “Kwezi” Mzilikazi, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Strategic Partnerships at Rhodes University, told delegates that she used to hold the view “there is no reason why one shouldn’t finish their masters in two years, and no reason why they shouldn’t finish their PhD in three years.”

That was after she continued studying after her first degree and carried on until she graduated with her PhD 10 years later.  Having started at the University of the Transkei (now Walter Sisulu University), she changed institutions after her honours in zoology, for the University of Natal (now University of KwaZulu-Natal).

However, 20 years of working in higher education had seen her change her tune. After holding positions such as Director of the South African PhD Project at the National Research Foundation (NRF) before becoming the NRF’s Director for Strategy, Planning and Partnerships, later becoming Director of Research Support and Management at Nelson Mandela University, she had modified her perspective.

Underlining the role of higher education as a powerful tool for social mobility and cultivating a critical and engaged citizenry, Dr Mzilikazi said postgraduate education, “if done correctly,” can train citizens to do sound research, generate new knowledge, or refine existing knowledge and apply it innovatively. 

“We like to think that the experience of going through a master’s and a doctoral degree entrenches this deep culture of inquisitiveness in our graduates, which can have spin-offs for people open to debate, are free to explore new ideas and are not threatened by difference.” 

She said this creates tolerant, socially just graduates with “a better understanding of the world, of humanity, socioeconomic, as well as the socioecological challenges facing us at the moment.”

She said master’s and PhD graduates usually find jobs as captains of industry.  “They are highly competent technical leaders.  Because of their skills base, they become managers of complex systems, community builders, and thought leaders.”

According to Dr Mzilikazi, the African Union’s Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want, features a “really bold, ambitious plan to produce 10 000 PhD graduates per annum within the next 10 years. … How are we going to prepare for that? Can we deliver on that, and how should we prepare to deliver on this continental plan?” 

Nationally, she said South Africa’s ambition to become a knowledge-driven economy is articulated in the National Development Plan (NDP) 2030, through these three critical indicators

• 25% of student enrollments to be postgrads – presently about 16%, a number that has not changed in about a decade;
• To produce 5000 PhDs per annum, now at about 3 690 but at 1 420 in 2010;
• 75% of academics to have PhDs – 48.8% do now.

She commended the progression of the NRF’s former South African PhD Project, launched in the 2000s, to what is now known as the Advancing Early Career Researchers and Scholars (AECRS) programme, and its mentoring coordination programme, Thuso Connect. The AECRS, implemented within USAf by the CoP PGES, is being supported by the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation.

While lamenting the abolition of annual conferences on PhD education, she praised the passion evident at all universities to grow postgraduate education, citing the example of Rhodes University’s Institutional Development Plan 2023 – 2028. Noting that all universities’ strategic plans showed similar goals, Dr Mzilikazi reiterated the importance of collaborating across the system, “to achieve the things that matter to all of us.” 

With the NDP 2030 goal 48 months away, Dr Mzilikazi drew the audience’s attention to some current enrollment trends.  She said: 

• The NDP target for higher education enrolment is about 1.6 million in 2030, yet postgraduate enrollments are not growing. There is also a disproportionate number of black students entering postgraduate education, when viewed against their numbers in the general population.
• In light of increased academic collaboration and cross-border student mobility on the African continent and beyond, the question of equivalence needs to be addressed with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) because South Africa is the only nation on the continent that offers an honours degree. 
• Recognising that one-third of PhD enrollments and graduates in South African higher education are from the rest of the continent, South Africa must be acknowledged as the continent’s hub for doctoral training.

Regarding the commonly-voiced concern that students take too long to complete their postgraduate degrees, Dr Mzilikazi said: “I want to marry the efficiency argument with the support argument.  If we provide effective support to students and prepare ourselves, our institutions and our supervisors appropriately, we can turn around the completion times towards higher attrition rates. Many students who start their master’s and doctoral degrees do not complete them. About 51% of all students who start a PhD do not complete it. That’s huge wastage within the sector,” she said.

Regarding the recently published CHE doctoral review, she argued that this issue had been around for a long time. “So, what are some of our institutional behaviours that stop us from implementing that which we agree, in theory, is good and will take us forward?”

She pointed at the new challenges confronting the sector regarding interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, stating that many examiners lacked the requisite competencies and knowledge to examine transdisciplinary work. “What are we to do about this?”

Dr Mzilikaxi also mentioned the tensions in collaborative arrangements, saying the existing recognition structures reward the individual, not collaboration.  She said she expected a sector truly intentional about collaboration and cohorts, team, and committee supervision to deal decisively with this issue. “You can’t on the one hand say you want to do this, and on the other hand, reward something different.”

Finally, she pointed to institutions traditionally celebrating the highly personalised A and B ratings in academics and research chairs. “How do we allocate resources, reward, and shift attitudes from highly personalised spaces? How do we leverage personal excellence for greater, effective and thriving institutional ecosystems, so that when the individual who holds the research chair leaves, the whole thing doesn’t fall flat?” she said.

Dr Mzilikazi bemoaned the lack of a comprehensive framework for funding postgraduate education in South Africa. “The NRF can only fund about 10% of all students enrolled. What about the other 90% enrolled on postgraduate studies? … What will happen now that we’ve got all of these geopolitical tensions?” 

She mentioned the recent demand of the European Union (EU) for South Africa’s universities to declare that they were not collaborating with Russian researchers on EU-funded projects.  “How do you sit with that, as part of BRICS [the interstate association of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa]?” Even though the EU’s demand at that time seemed to be targeted at the project level, Mzilikazi said she foresaw the sector receiving similar demands regarding all EU-funded projects. 

Referring similarly to all US-funded streams, she asked: “What are the implications for postgraduate education as grant funding is drastically cut?” She said the sector must worry because it cannot speak,  on the one hand, about the expansion of postgraduate numbers, yet not touch on a corresponding increase in funding provision. 

Gillian Anstey is a contract writer for Universities South Africa.