Professor Sibusiso Moyo, Director for Research and Postgraduate Support at DUT and current Vice-President for Research Management on SARIMA (Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association) recently completed her Master’s degree in Tertiary Education Management with First Class Honours at the University of Melbourne.

Prof Moyo has a PhD in Mathematics.

The DUTLINK’s Sinegugu Ndlovu interviewed Prof Moyo on her latest achievement and this is what she had to say.

Sinegugu: Tell us about your Master’s degree in Tertiary Education Management and how you ended up pursuing it?

Prof Moyo: I was privileged to be a DUT participant on the Research, Higher Education Development and Innovation (RHEDI) ) leadership program that was formed through the partnership of the then South African based educational trust SANTRUST and the University of Melbourne’s LH Martin Institute for Tertiary Education Leadership and Management and Lund University in Sweden. The aim of the program was to provide personal and professional development to an exclusive cohort of senior staff from African and South East Asian countries. The first part of the course started with the completion of the Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Education Management (GC-TEM). This comprised a formal study taught by LH Martin Institute and awarded by the University of Melbourne. The GC-TEM successfully completed in November 2014 comprised of the core foundation subject on Tertiary Education Policy and Management and two elective modules on Leading and Managing Research and Institutional Research in Tertiary Education. These were taught in intensive mode through week long residential schools in Durban and Malaysia including online lectures, individual assessments and a major group assignment.

I was then selected and invited as part of a cohort to pursue the Master’s in Tertiary Education Management which included three additional modules on Institutional Governance in Tertiary Education, Managing International Tertiary Education and the Cornerstone Module (Project).  My final project took the form of a position paper research performance and evaluation issues concerning the South African higher education landscape.

Sinegugu: What’s your take on transformation in SA’s higher education sector?

Prof Moyo: Current issues on the transformation of the higher education system within South Africa provide an opportunity for the sector, in partnership with government, to innovate and look at different or a combination of models of delivering quality education which will have an impact on the economic and social fronts. This is becoming more relevant as the demand for higher education increases and sustainable models for funding higher education become a challenge.

Sinegugu: How has your Master’s degree benefited you?

Prof Moyo: Apart from the from the exposure I have had on managing tertiary education systems both from a strategic and policy level, my network pool of colleagues and leaders across the African continent has been a bonus. I have also learnt a lot from the different country case studies that one can generally use to benchmark and compare institutional support systems in Africa, Asia and globally. Both the experience and network pool provide a huge resource for DUT and have already began to inform our research agenda as we try to continue building our capacity as a university in enhancing our research thrusts and managing the limited competing resources to support our postgraduate students. It also essentially means that as researchers, we always have to look outside the university for external funding to support projects and postgraduate scholarships.

On a personal level my experience as a student of Melbourne University is probably one of the best student experiences I have had – especially on the Master’s programme. Suddenly I had a wealth of exposure to the latest publications through the vast library resources and access to online materials which supported my learning and research projects within a click of a button. The lecturers were also the best in their field. It was also a great honour to be amongst the first three Master’s graduates from the RHEDI initiative that include Ms Angela Thokozile Didiza (National Assembly, South Africa) and Professor Jairos Kangira (Namibia).

Sinegugu: Is there anything you’d like to add?

Prof Moyo: I thank DUT’s visionary leadership of both professors Bawa and Gwele for giving me the opportunity, space and trust to pursue this programme.  My appreciation also goes to the Research and Postgraduate staff who always had to put up with tasks and requests sent outside “normal working hours”.

Pictured: Professor Sibusiso Moyo during her graduation for her Master’s in Tertiary Education Management degree.