Abstract
The Department of Science and Technology's (DST's) 10-year Global Change Grand Challenge programme requires platforms to 'attract young researchers to the region and retain them by exciting their interest in aspects of global change; while developing their capacity and professional skills in the relevant fields of investigation'. In addition, in July 2014, President Zuma officially launched Operation Phakisa and announced that a key target of this Oceans Economy initiative would be 'for the Department of Higher Education and Training to drive alignment between theoretical and workplace learning'. SEAmester - South Africa's recently established Class Afloat - achieves just that. SEAmester introduces marine science as an applied and cross-disciplinary field to students who have shown an affinity for core science disciplines. It identifies with government's National Development Plan on education, training and innovation - critical to South Africa's long-term development and investment in this sector. SEAmester has a long-term vision aimed at building capacity within the marine sciences by coordinating and fostering cross-disciplinary research projects and achieving this goal through a highly innovative programme. The strength of SEAmester is that postgraduate students combine theoretical classroom learning with the application of this knowledge through ship-based, and more importantly, hands-on research. The state-of-the-art research vessel, SA Agulhas II, provides an ideal teaching and research platform for this programme; its size, comfort and shipboard facilities allow large groups of students and lecturers to productively interact over a period of 10 days.
Highlights
Marine science is a highly competitive environment
The need to improve the cohort of South African postgraduates, who would be recognised both nationally and internationally for their scientific excellence, is crucial
Through the engagement of students with real-life experiences such as SEAmester, universities supporting marine science postgraduate degree programmes can attract a sustainable throughput of numerically proficient students
Summary
Marine science is a highly competitive environment. The need to improve the cohort of South African postgraduates, who would be recognised both nationally and internationally for their scientific excellence, is crucial. Through the engagement of students with real-life experiences such as SEAmester, universities supporting marine science postgraduate degree programmes can attract a sustainable throughput of numerically proficient students.
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