M Mangena: National Research Foundation launch

9 November 2007

Programme director
President and Chief Executive Officer of National Research Foundation (NRF),
Prof Mzamo Mangaliso
Leaders of our National System of Innovation
Distinguished guests, scholars and students
Ladies and gentlemen

Jean Piaget, the Swiss cognitive psychologist, claims that: "The principal
goal of education is to create men and women who are capable of doing new
things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done."

Our National System of Innovation (NSI) is not only one of the country's
major engines for our movement towards the knowledge economy, but it is also
one of the most effective mechanisms for fostering economic growth and
improving the quality of life of our people.

Therefore, the launch of the PhD Project by the National Research Foundation
(NRF), whose primary mission is to increase the strength and diversity of the
higher education and corporate sectors by increasing the numbers and diversity
of appropriately skilled PhD candidates, is an important development for
enhancing the effectiveness of our NSI.

Through this project, we hope to direct and encourage our students to follow
appropriate PhD programmes, as well as provide a network of peer support
through their journey to becoming professors or leading generators of knowledge
and innovation in their respective disciplines.

We are certain that as a more representative workforce, these PhD candidates
will serve as role models for attracting and mentoring black students, in
particular, and improving the preparation of all students for a diverse working
environment.

We are convinced that the PhD project will go a long way towards positioning
South Africa as one of the leaders in quality research in many fields of
inquiry such as the social sciences, humanities, law, natural sciences,
engineering and technology.

Available figures show that annually, South Africa is currently producing 23
PhDs for every million of the population, a figure which falls way below
international standards.

Through this project, we hope to radically change this by encouraging and
directing our students, through various key mechanisms, to follow appropriate
PhD programmes.

We also believe that investing in people is the best way of enhancing our
productive capacities and increasing the competitiveness of South Africa's
researchers in accessing funds from international research funding agencies.
For example, Nordic nations have demonstrably shown that their successes have
largely been attributable to caring human development policies and
programmes.

One of the most critical ways of guaranteeing the success of this project
would be through our ability to sell the advantages of a PhD career path to
graduates, and young and more mature professionals in all disciplines through,
among others, some of the following ways:

* securing and promoting foreign and local study opportunities together with
local and international partners
* offering competitive bursary packages to PhD and post-doctoral candidates in
collaboration with local and international partners
* hosting annual PhD Fairs to expose potential candidates to PhD programmes and
opportunities in this country and abroad
* promoting the professional advantages of obtaining a PhD through exposure to
professional experiences and peer support group mechanisms
* creating opportunities for young South Africans to continue their studies in
local and possibly overseas PhD studies or sandwich programmes
* increasing the pipeline of potential candidates that can qualify for PhD
studies
* creating opportunities for young South Africans to do PhD and post-doctoral
studies abroad
* increasing the pool of potential higher education and private sector
professionals.

I have no doubt that most of us are aware of the pivotal importance of human
capacity development strategies in supporting national strategic priorities,
including our 10 Year Plan for Innovation.

In this Plan, the grand challenge of human capital development lies at the
heart of our efforts to promote and develop key human resources in
collaboration with our industry, higher education institutions and
international partners. Contemporary challenges around issues of energy
security, global change, food security and deadly pandemics surely require the
frontiers of knowledge to be pushed forward in order to produce new and
innovative potential solutions.

The key to the success of this project lies in "partnerships" between the
public and private sectors, and the collective will to increase the number of
doctoral level professionals to enhance our competitiveness in the future.

Such partnerships are critical if we want to alleviate problems associated
with the lack of adequate research infrastructure, and financial resources to
support students and supervisory capacity within the NSI.

Already, the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) and our
centres of excellence are two model projects that are doing fairly well in
training PhD students, and supporting a thriving, efficient and productive
innovation system.
But clearly, this type of innovation system can only be sustained by an
adequate cohort of highly trained, well-supported and motivated scientists and
researchers who produce the new knowledge on which innovation rests. Succinctly
put, "it takes a PhD to grow another PhD"

The South African Research Chairs Initiative is in its first full year of
operation, and is already supporting a total of 59 Masters and PhD students
under the tutelage of the 21 Round One Research Chairs.

This is certainly a good start, and we have a reasonable basis to believe
that we have effectively begun to contribute significantly to the national
effort of producing more high-end skilled people required to support the
development of our economy, our country and its people.

Let me intimate once more that the PhD Project being launched today is
underpinned by our belief that increasing the pace of knowledge production,
together with scientific and technological change, will stimulate sustainable
long-term economic growth, and in the process improve the quality of life of
our citizens.

We say this in particular, because academically speaking, a Ph degree is the
pinnacle of qualifications that support the knowledge economy and stimulate
economic growth. For example,
* Eighty five percent of new jobs are in the knowledge and service work; and
knowledge workers are often self employed and job creators rather than
employees.
* Similarly, in terms of staff credentials, 37 percent of our instructional,
research and technical staff employed at higher education institutions have
PhDs.

Centres of learning do not have the required numbers of adequately qualified
staff. You can therefore understand our common enthusiasm and delight at
finally launching a project of this inclination and magnitude. We fully support
the National Research Foundation (NRF) as the country's key public entity
responsible for supporting the development of human resource capacity. We
believe the institution will live up to our expectations.

However, it must be clearly understood that the role of the NRF is only that
of an enabler or vehicle.

The production of the actual numbers of the PhDs squarely rests on the
shoulders of the students, the recipients of the funding and support, who must
do all it takes to satisfy the conditions for obtaining such
qualifications.

On this road, the department and the NRF are only fellow travellers of whom
you asked the way. We have pointed ahead, ahead of ourselves as well as of
you.

Finally, it is now my singular pleasure to officially launch the PhD Project
of the National Research Foundation.

Through this and similar projects already alluded to, we hope to re-kindle
in our youth the desire for attaining very high and relevant educational
qualifications, and popularise the prestige that goes with being addressed as
doctor or professor. Our national survival depends on our ability to produce
adequate numbers of such professionals.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Science and Technology
9 November 2007
Source: Department of Science and Technology (http://www.dst.gov.za)