Alumni success

The Machimanas husband-andwife team agree on one thing: their UP qualifications set them apart from other graduates. Dr Nondumiso Machimana received her PhD in Curriculum and Instructional Design and Development (CIDD) from the Department of Humanities in 2021. The title of her thesis was: Language-learning strategies of English second-language learners participating in peer tutoring.

Dr Eugene Machimana has been with UP for over a decade and in 2018 he joined the Department for Education Innovation, Unit for Community Engagement, as a Senior Education Consultant: Community Engagement, where he currently works. In 2017, he obtained his PhD: Learning Support, Guidance and Counselling from the Department of Educational Psychology at University of Pretoria (UP). The title of his thesis was Retrospective experiences of a rural school partnership: informing global citizenship as a higher education agenda.

At the time of registering at UP they were both working as professionals in their respective fields, but UP served to enhance their vision and broadened their scope in terms of making an impact in the global village. “Our study supervisors were excellent, exposing us to the wealth of knowledge and great networks that enrich our workplaces. Our workplaces are benefitting from our studies, which were not academic exercises, but life-changing journeys,” they said. The Machimanas are both active alumni contributing towards the development of their alma mater. “It is our hearts’ desire to see many of our youth being influenced to choose UP as a university of choice and eventually graduate there,” they said.

Dr Eugene Machimana and his wife, Dr Nondumiso Machimana, both chose UP for their studies because the institution is making major contributions by producing new knowledge and also driving transformation for changing social conditions.

Author: Xolani Mathibela

When University of Pretoria (UP) master’s student Dr Michael Barnes submitted his thesis for external examination, he got the surprise of his life when it was subsequently converted into a PhD.

“When most people have a thesis converted, it is done way before submission of a master’s,” he

Dr Thando Ndarana (left), supervisor of Dr Michael Barnes, says two papers written by Dr Barnes have closed a knowledge gap in the field. informed. “Whereas I submitted a master’s and it ended up being more than that. It came out of the blue and I was caught completely off-guard.”

The Cape Town-born meteorologist, who recently graduated with a PhD, works as a research scientist at the South African Weather Service’s Marine Research Unit, where he is involved in the development of numerical models and associated forecast products and services.

His master’s-turned-PhD dissertation focused on atmospheric dynamics. “I studied the dynamics of uppertropospheric weather systems called cut-off lows,” Dr Barnes explained. “The study analysed the properties of these weather systems that extend all the way to the surface compared to those that do not.”

He was supervised by Dr Thando Ndarana, BSc Meteorology Programme Coordinator and Senior Lecturer, and co-supervised by Professor Willem Landman, Programme Coordinator in the Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.

“By the time Michael submitted his MSc dissertation for examination, he had already published his first paper based on his research in Atmospheric Research, which is a very reputable, high-impact journal,” Dr Ndarana said. “He had also submitted a second article to Climate Dynamics, an equally reputable journal of the atmospheric sciences. Both these papers closed a knowledge gap in the literature. Based on the depth and breadth of the work that was submitted, an international examiner from Oxford University suggested that an upgrade be considered.

To quote him, ‘This thesis is, by any measure, a truly outstanding and exceptional piece of work’.”

Author: Mecayla Maseka