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Bridging The Gap Between Abstract And Community Engagement

Bridging The Gap Between Abstract And Community Engagement

Local and international researchers gathered at the Durban University of Technology Hotel School (Ritson Campus) for the opening of the Second Durban University of Technology Interdisciplinary Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Conference yesterday.

The conference is an annual event coordinated by the DUT Postgraduate Association intended at bringing researchers and postgraduate students together to exchange ideas on various academic disciplines and also reflect on the nature of academic work and research.

Professor Tennyson Mgutshini, University of South Africa, delivered the opening address which was centred on the topic, Enhancing Multidisciplinary Research in Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Emerging Researchers. In his address he stressed the need for researchers to come up with innovative ways of doing research that will relate research to everyday life.

Prof Mgutshini said researchers needed to realise that any aspirations to research something with potential to change lives needed to be placed at wanting to formulate clever solutions to the complex problems of daily life. He said researchers needed to find a link between academic research and community engagement in order for their research to be relevant.

“Society is in need of ways of dealing with the complexities of life we find ourselves in. We also know that life is more complicated than how universities make it seem and so we continuously need to work on ways to bridge the gap between abstract university research and research for life,” he said.
Prof Mgutshini also advised the researchers on the importance to merge their academic thinking with entrepreneurial skills. “Researchers need to think about how to make use of their research as potential for business,” he said.

The conference will be held at DUT until Thursday, 15 June 2017, and various speakers with extensive experience will be delivering lectures on different topics and there will also be research presentations from emerging researchers across various disciplines.

Pictured: Prof Moyo and Prof Adam with keynote speaker, Prof Mgutshini.

Bongani Gema

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