This proposed doctoral training programme aims to develop a cohort of ten academically excellent competent doctoral staff members in the field of Global Health, who are in addition highly interculturally competent and capacitated to advance academic collaboration between South African and US higher education institutions. Universities serve the fundamental purpose of being centres of learning, knowledge generation and application for the common wealth of citizens, and progress of the country. The availability of highly trained sets of individuals, preferably with doctorate degrees, is imperative to achieve these. In the South African context, less than 45% of all academics (research and teaching faculties) hold a doctorate degree. And, as it has been shown, there is a strong correlation between faculties holding doctorate degrees and the extent and impact of research outputs from a given university. The quest to increase the number of academic staff with doctorate degree would be compounded if significant segments of the population, that is blacks and females, are not targeted to identify potential candidates for training towards PhDs. Due to our past history, a process to improve the breadth and depth of doctorate holders in our universities must deliberately and simultaneously address issues of equity and redress.
The University of Venda (Univen) is one of the historically disadvantaged universities in South Africa. The vision and mission of Univen positions the institution to contribute to the transformation process of improving access and equity to quality higher education. Over the past five years, the quantity and quality of research outputs and the number of PhD students trained at Univen have significantly improved, but this is borne by a disproportionately small number of academics. In addition to the low proportion of academics with doctoral degrees, the observed improvement in the research output is not sustainable.
The University of the Free State (UFS), a former bastion of apartheid policies, has made significant progress in converting the institution into a home for many South Africans seeking quality tertiary education. However, there is still much room for improvement in transforming the landscape to the level representing the demographics of society, and to increase the number of teaching or research staff who hold a PhD.
The University of Venda and the University of Virginia (UVa) have over a decade of research and human capital development collaborative efforts. For example, in an endeavour to seek funds to fast track the development of human capital, Univen jointly with UVa obtained two D43 grants from the Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, USA. These grants were aimed at training black South Africans at the doctoral and postdoctoral levels, with mentorship provided by Univen and UVa faculties.