4 research outputs found
The changing racial profile of academic staff at South African higher education institutions (HEIs), 2005–2013
South Africa has undergone transformation since the end of apartheid governance in 1994. Legislatively enforced, this transformation has permeated most sectors of society, including higher education. Questions remain, however, about the extent to which transformation has occurred in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in general, and across the academic staff body in HEIs in particular. In this study, we examine the transformation of academic staff profiles at HEIs throughout the country. Initially, we graph the racial profile of academics across multiple positions (junior lecturer to professor) from 2005 to 2013. We then use correlational analysis to identify which characteristics of universities in South Africa can be used to explain the racial inequities evident in South African HEIs. Our results indicate that world university ranking; percentage black African staff; percentage black African student body; and whether the university is 'historically disadvantaged', all influence the racial profile of the academic staff body to varying degrees. The size of the overall staff and study body does not appear to influence the racial profile of universities' staff component. We conclude that transformation of the academic staff body of HEIs in South Africa is indeed occurring, albeit slowly. Rather than seeing this as a negative, we argue that the pace of 'academic' transformation in the country needs to be interpreted within the framework of academic governance.http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/raer202018-03-30Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorolog
Exploring South Africa's southern frontier : a 20-year vision for polar research through the South African National Antarctic Programme
Antarctica, the sub-Antarctic islands and surrounding Southern Ocean are regarded as one of the planet’s
last remaining wildernesses, ‘insulated from threat by [their] remoteness and protection under the Antarctic
Treaty System’. Antarctica encompasses some of the coldest, windiest and driest habitats on earth. Within
the Southern Ocean, sub-Antarctic islands are found between the Sub-Antarctic Front to the north and the
Polar Front to the south. Lying in a transition zone between warmer subtropical and cooler Antarctic waters,
these islands are important sentinels from which to study climate change. A growing body of evidence
now suggests that climatically driven changes in the latitudinal boundaries of these two fronts define the
islands’ short- and long-term atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns. Consequently, sub-Antarctic
islands and their associated terrestrial and marine ecosystems offer ideal natural laboratories for studying
ecosystem response to change. For example, a recent study indicates that the shift in the geographical
position of the oceanic fronts has disrupted inshore marine ecosystems, with a possible impact on top
predators. Importantly, biotic responses are variable as indicated by different population trends of these top
predators. When studied collectively, these variations in species’ demographic patterns point to complex
spatial and temporal changes within the broader sub-Antarctic ecosystem, and invite further examination of
the interplay between extrinsic and intrinsic drivers.http://www.sajs.co.zaam2017GeneticsMammal Research InstituteZoology and Entomolog