The Need For PhDs

Why does South Africa need more PhD graduates?

South Africa is moving from a commodity-based economy to a knowledge economy and a highly skilled workforce is central to a knowledge-based economy.

PhD graduates can contribute to all sectors of the economy beyond the academic and research related areas.

South Africa produces approximately 23 PhD graduates per year per million of the population. This is currently way below the number of doctoral graduates required to support a knowledge-based South African economy.

The higher education sector in South Africa does not have the required numbers of adequately qualified staff – only a third of our instructional, research and technical staff employed at higher education institutions are in possession of PhD qualifications.