SA producing too few PHDs: Pandor

They must make it so that you receive a PhD when you vote ANC.
 
Perhaps people are struggling at tertiary level because the government has failed them in primary and secondary educational levels.....

Fix the foundations.
 
MickeyD said:
Even if she gets the funding, where are the PHD students going to come from? Will she wave a magic wand?
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As mentioned in the article, she wants to provide incentives for students to stay in University until PHD level...
 
Devill said:
If the knowledge is not there no manner of incentives will fix this problem.
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However, even when the knowledge is there, incentives are a definite problem. Salaries are a problem and PhD students are easily 26+. By that time you'd at least want to own a car and move out of your parents' house.

If you're lucky and you obtain both a cluster bursary from your university and an NRF bursary, a PhD student will have a gross salary of R10k monthly (about 8k net. with no benefits like medical aid, etc.). M.Sc. students about R5k a month, IIRC.
 
Devill said:
If the knowledge is not there no manner of incentives will fix this problem.
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Why do people insist along this line. There are plenty of cum laudes who university offer opportunities for further study but they prefer to go and earn real money because the incentive to study is just not that appealing and the minister is proposing to make it appealing for them to rather stay and study.
 
The solution is simple.

Provide incentives to study tertiary, thoroughly train competent primary/secondary school teachers like Picard and pay them bloody well. Educate parents to teach their kids properly and make them study/tuition etc.
 
Bar0n said:
However, even when the knowledge is there, incentives are a definite problem. Salaries are a problem and PhD students are easily 26+. By that time you'd at least want to own a car and move out of your parents' house.

If you're lucky and you obtain both a cluster bursary from your university and an NRF bursary, a PhD student will have a gross salary of R10k monthly (about 8k net. with no benefits like medical aid, etc.). M.Sc. students about R5k a month, IIRC.
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Agreed that a lot of people choose to go the "$" route instead of the academic route.

JStrike said:
Yeah....because our MSc students are lacking in knowledge...
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..... you spelt numbers wrong.

R13... said:
Why do people insist along this line. There are plenty of cum laudes who university offer opportunities for further study but they prefer to go and earn real money because the incentive to study is just not that appealing and the minister is proposing to make it appealing for them to rather stay and study.
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I doubt somehow that there are (6000-1800) 4200 PhD candidates just upping and leaving for the cash every year.
 
Shaun108 said:
The solution is simple.

Provide incentives to study tertiary, thoroughly train competent primary/secondary school teachers like Picard and pay them bloody well. Educate parents to teach their kids properly and make them study/tuition etc.
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100% with you on this.
 
Devill said:
Agreed that a lot of people choose to go the "$" route instead of the academic route.



..... you spelt numbers wrong.



I doubt somehow that there are (6000-1800) 4200 PhD candidates just upping and leaving for the cash every year.
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No, but there are huge amounts of great graduates that leave after their Bachelors to go into the private sector.
And then again with people that complete their Masters
 
nand said:
Why is this a problem? We need people to actually do things as well.
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No one is saying we shouldn't have people leave for the private sector. Just that the ratio is wrong
 
nand said:
Why is this a problem? We need people to actually do things as well.
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Why have smart people invent round wheels? We could be making 10 million square wheels a day.
 
Bar0n said:
Why have smart people invent round wheels? We could be making 10 million square wheels a day.
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How about we get people to invent round wheels(academics), and others to build it?

Re. JSStrike's: Thanks, I thought it was degrading non-academics.
 
JStrike said:
No, but there are huge amounts of great graduates that leave after their Bachelors to go into the private sector.
And then again with people that complete their Masters
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I agree that funds are needed so that academic route is more enticing, but I am sure if we were to draw the stats, that SA scored under the lowest % of people that have access to tertiary education.

R13... said:
True, but why not start by picking the low hanging fruit?
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Same reason as you do not build a house from the roof down :p
 
Devill said:
Same reason as you do not build a house from the roof down :p
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I know you're joking but for those who don't get it, it's like building around existing foundations not from the roof. Brown fields project for the engineers on the board as opposed to green fields.
 
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