faculty of business dean’s report

PROF SAHEED BAYAT

Research in the faculty remains part of its core business, and is recognised as such by all role players, from the office of the dean through to firstyear students. The importance of research is stressed at all levels, as it is believed that applied research is a major driver of organisational and social change.

The point of departure for all research executed in the faculty revolves around making a contribution to/having an impact on the lives of people in the broader community. Non-focused research, i.e., research for the sake of research, is not acceptable within faculty context – improvement of the quality of lives of individuals and communities is the ethos of research in the faculty.

The merging of research activities between the two campuses has been very successful. A good working relationship exists between staff, and a real sense of unity and synergy has been the result. Taking the size and extent of the faculty into account, it is understandable that there is no one particular focal area of research, but rather a wide array of interests which continue to emerge. As a result of this expansion, pressure is placed on staff members to become more involved in research, especially in the area of postgraduate supervision. This is considered to be a problem, but also a developmental opportunity for academics, in the sense that CPUT needs to enhance and protect its presence on the South African tertiary academic landscape.

The postgraduate student component continues to expand, and at present 147 master’s and 21 doctoral students are registered for their theses, while a further 100 are registered for subjects at postgraduate level. At the April 2007 graduation ceremonies, master’s degrees were awarded to 15 students, while 2 doctoral degrees were conferred.

This represents 26 percent of all postgraduate degrees conferred by CPUT.

Particular research areas which continue to excite are the work done by the bio-kinetics researchers in the Sports Management programme, among which is an international liaison project which evaluates the load-bearing head capacity of black women – a project which satisfies the demands of the research ethos, as alluded to earlier.

Further, the Centre for Tourism Research is continuing to deliver important input in the run-up to the 2010 World Cup. The Department of Public Management, under the auspices of Dr Naas Ferreira, manages its research activities on a proactive basis, with regular workshops, targeted outputs and another textbook which is due to be published during the course of 2007.

Further developments in research are awaited with anticipation.

Funding Received From Industry

University Research Funding

CENTRE FOR TOURISM RESEARCH IN AFRICA (CETRA)

Prof Douglas Turco of De Sales University, USA, visited South Africa from 31 July – 13 August 2006 as part of the NRF sport tourism project. He served as technical advisor on the project and provided data analysis input and student support.

A paper co-authored by Dr Kamilla Swart received the best paper award at the Valencia Summit.

NRF Thuthuka niche area funding was received for “Management and impacts of sport tourism events: a comparative analysis of selected events in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape”. The researchers were Dr Kamilla Swart and Prof Urmilla Bob of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Contract research totalling R2m for 2006 – 2008 was funded by Cape Town Routes Unlimited.

Participating institutions on this project, which encompasses visitor tracking, delegate tracking, event evaluations, economic impact analysis and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) mapping, are CPUT, Stellenbosch University, the University of the Western Cape, and African Equations. The project is managed by Dr Kamilla Swart.