College of Business and Economics | Annual Report 2020 31 PosTgraduaTe PorTfolio Factors impacting on our 2020 postgraduate output doubtless included the imperative to transfer all modules at very short notice to online teaching – an immensely timeconsuming endeavour for academic staff. Agility in postgraduate administration and research excellence are some of the key enablers for a competitive business and economic education provider. The CBE is well on schedule on its trajectory to improve higher degrees administration processes. To realise adaptive postgraduate supervision and monitoring endeavours, in 2020 the College Higher Degrees Committee started migrating many of its processes online. The migration is being done as a phased approach and will eventually culminate into increased automation and intelligence in the higher degrees administration processes which is in line with the aspirations of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. On the research front, the CBE intends to intensify the implementation of the 0.5 Research Strategy which will bring about global participation of CBE researchers in knowledge production. Enrolments for both master’s and doctorates grew in 2020 to 833 (2019: 753) and 260 (2019: 230) enrolments, respectively. International enrolments at postgraduate level grew substantially (2019: 1 049; 2020: 1 475). While postgraduate output below master’s grew by 6%, the 2020 postgraduate outputs at both the master’s and doctoral level have dropped considerably, by at least 20%. This is undoubtedly due to the societal, professional, economic, and personal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic since the majority of our students at this level are in full-time employment. Although the picture looks gloomy, there is a glimmer of hope that the situation will change given the agility of the CBE and the cognitive responsiveness to the pandemic. In 2020, the College hosted two Doctoral and Cum Laude Master’s Acknowledgement events for graduates and their families. The annual honours research project, the CBE 2020 Honours Posters Presentations were also concluded online. Although it was successful, staff and students alike commented that the personal and individual interaction of previous years was lost. The best poster was a group entry by JIO Mxinwa and L Masehlele, the first runner-up poster was an individual entry by BP Dlamini and the second runner-up poster was a group entry by V Naicker, A Phillips and E Mathoma. Varenya Naicker Joyce Mxinwa Ashley Phillips Lerato Masehlele Ernest Mathoma Busisiwe Dlamini
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