Faculty of Education
Prof JD Jansen, Dean
Telephone number: 012 420 3513
Fax number: 012 420 4215
E-mail address: jdjansen@postino.up.ac.za
Preface by the Dean
In 2003 the Faculty of Education firmly established itself as one of the premier facilities for education research, capacity development, and productivity in Southern Africa. The consistent growth in the volume and quality of research outputs, and the international recognition of the Faculty and its members through various awards and citations, bear testimony to a vibrant and intelligent research community.
Research achievements of the Faculty of Education is illustrated by the consistent growth in audited research output measured at 23,4% compared to 2002, and the global recognition of the Faculty’s research journal Perspectives in Education through the award of multiple international accreditations including the ISSI, SSCI, CISE, IBSS, Elsevier and EBSCO, as well as by various research and scholarly awards (see section on Achievements and Prizes elsewhere in this volume).
Contract research funds in the Faculty of Education has increased by 46,6 % across the five established research centers, thereby generating a pool of additional resources to support client-focused consultation, staff development and research opportunities for students. The establishment of a Business Centre and Manager has not only improved contractual capacity in the Faculty, it has also strengthened the relationship between center-generated resources and the supervising academic departments.
The original base of clients and sponsors of research in the Faculty of Education continues to expand, now including, amongst others, the national and provincial governments, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency, the World Bank, the Norwegian Council for Higher Education and the Norwegian Centre for International University Cooperation, UNESCO and its agencies, and the Southern Africa Netherlands Partnership in Alternative Development (SANPAD).
Central to the research strategy of the Faculty of Education has been its attempts to build a strong and high-quality postgraduate student community. In addition to a highly selective admissions process, the Faculty now offers an intensive support and development programme for masters and doctoral students—a programme that recently received special mention in an audit of the Council on Higher Education (CHE) as exemplary. The best of student research and achievement is showcased in the Annual Postgraduate Research Indaba, a highly regarded event inside and outside of the University of Pretoria. This intensive support of postgraduate students, including a dedicated Post-Graduate Research Centre, has led to record numbers of doctoral students obtaining the highest university degree (20 new doctors in 2003). Recognising the value of a research foundation among students, there is now also a dedicated programme introduced in the undergraduate curriculum to encourage research thinking and application in real classroom contexts.
It is this firm and unwavering commitment to outstanding research and world-class scholarship that has enabled the Faculty of Education to record such achievements. It will continue to build on these accomplishments in the next five years.
Prof J D Jansen
Dean
|
