A number of South Africa’s postgraduate students are studying part time and have a lower completion rate as compared to their international counterparts.

Prof Refilwe Phaswana-Mafuya, the North-West University’s (NWU’s) deputy vice-chancellor for research and innovation, invited Prof Dr Supa Pengpid, renowned public health scientist and professor at Mahidol University in Thailand, to further explore this issue.

Prof Dr Pengpid visited the campus in Potchefstroom on 3 August 2018 and presented a lecture on “The Fast & Furious: Tips & tricks for acceleration of postgraduate student completion rates”, the eighth public lecture in the NWU Research and Innovation Seminar Series.

According to Prof Phaswana-Mafuya, this lecture also addressed the second goal of the NWU’s unitary strategy – namely to intensify research and innovation through increased publication outputs and delivery of postgraduate students.  

Skills that postgraduates need

Prof Dr Pengpid said that universities need to ensure that they produce postgraduates who can not only be employed locally, but are also attractive to the international market. She said that, apart from the theoretical and experiential learning that postgraduates obtain during their studies, there are also other essential skills that they need to master before they graduate.

“Students need to develop and learn great communication, critical thinking and problem solving skills, be information and technology literate, know their self-direction and be globally aware,” said Prof Dr Pengpid.

According to Prof Dr Pengpid students also need to be culturally sensitive and must be able to communicate, interact and work with people from other countries and cultures.

Postgraduates also need to keep up with the ever-changing digital environment and hone their information and technology skills. They have to be able to deliberately divide t their attention and learn how to multitask.

How to accelerate postgraduate completion

While most postgraduates take approximately three years to complete their qualification, Prof Dr Pengpid’s said that the students at Mahidol University complete their studies within a year. She added that the responsibility of students completing their studies lies with both the student and the university.

According to Prof Dr Pengpid, universities also need take into account other important factors if they want to accelerate their postgraduate completion rate.

”Synergy between staff and students are very important. Staff members need to have research niche areas where they can focus their research and from which students can also learn. Lecturers and students need to find a balance between work and study, and need sufficient time to focus on their research. Finally, the quality of the student that gets accepted to the university is very important, as this also has an impact on the completion rate of the student,” she said.

In closing, Prof Phaswana-Mafuya announced that Prof Dr Pengpid and her colleague, Prof Dr Karl Peltzer also from Mahidol University, have been appointed as extraordinary professors at the NWU.

 Prof Dr Pengpid (left) and Prof Phaswana-Mafuya at the recent public lecture.