Minister Nzimande calls for university students to play a part in research policy

University students are urged by higher education minister Blade Nzimande, to participate in the department’s Education and Training research that is provided to South African public universities.

Nzimande highlighted that during the year 2004/5, about over R1.1 billion was invested in this sector.

In the year 2022/23, the sector saw an increase of R5.2 billion to the research sector.

“The policy uses research publications in peer-reviewed journals, published peer-reviewed conference proceedings, peer-reviewed books, research Masters and Doctoral graduates as proxy for research activities within universities,” said Nzimande.

“Since the inception of research policy in 2003, the number of units used to calculate all the research outputs as enumerated above – publications, graduates, artifacts and innovations grew from 12 051 in the 2004/5 financial year to 40 847 units in 2022/23 financial year,” added Nzimande.

Nzimande further said that, the policy is aimed at promoting research and knowledge outputs to meet national development needs.

“The purpose of the policy is to encourage research productivity by rewarding quality research output at public higher institutions,” he added.

Nzimande said the department, has been subsidizing research productivity at the universities through this policy.