On Friday, 14 June 2024, the Durban University of Technology’s (DUT)’s Faculty of Management Sciences (FMS) members of staff were greeted by a beautifully decorated Crane Growers Hall as members of staff gathered for this year’s edition of the 2024 Faculty Research Awards ceremony. The annual event recognises and celebrates outstanding contributions to research, teaching and learning.

Facilitating the event was the Faculty of Management Sciences Dr Andrew Kamwendo, Quality Promotions Officer. Professor J. Baxen, Acting Dean of the DUT Faculty of Arts and Design, delivered the keynote address on behalf of Dr. Azwitevhelwi Nevhutalu, DUT Interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning.

Professor Fulufhelo Netswera, FMS Executive Dean, delivered a comprehensive presentation on the faculty’s achievements in academic research.

“This is an important tradition, a tradition for acknowledging those who are doing well in helping the faculty and the university achieve tremendously in various areas, specifically research and excelling in teaching and learning. We want to congratulate and thank those who continue to do a good job.”

Prof Netswera reflected on his leadership journey as Executive Dean, recalling that the first thing that was done when he joined the faculty in 2020 was to go on a research planning session. According to Prof Netswera, this was done because he believes that a university distinguishes itself from FET colleges or higher learning institutions because of its research culture.

“A university without a research culture, a university without academics who are inquisitive, who are doing exciting and outstanding work, then you got a downsized college of some sort. So we want to distinguish ourselves and be indeed a university. We want individuals here who are continuously researching, engaging and resolving the challenges that we face both as a country but equally as society generally.”

Prof Netswera shared that some of the things done during their 2020 planning session were to identify what they regarded as important targets for the year 2030, looking at medium to long –term.  Amongst those included attainment of 75% of staff with PhDs.  Initially, the faculty had 36% of staff members with doctoral degrees. This percentage later surged to 54% but subsequently dropped to 44% as some staff members left DUT for new career opportunities elsewhere.

“I think that is fundamental for me, when you do not have staff members holding doctoral degrees it means there’s no ongoing research but it equally has implications on many other activities in the faculty. You will not have postgraduate students coming in and being supervised because you don’t have the capacity. You will not have publications coming into the faculty because you generally don’t have staff members who get published. You will not have partnerships outside the department of the faculty because you don’t have scholars who are networking and running around the world engaging with their peers.” said Prof Netswera.

The faculty’s unaudited data reveals that in 2023 FMS produced 257 research outputs. “The production of our PhDs and Master’s is really outstanding. We are producing big numbers in Masters and PhDs, we are producing research outputs, our staff members are mobile, and they are running all over the world. That fascinates me.”

Some of the top winners were:

RESEARCH OUTPUT CATEGORY – Staff  

• Platinum category category:  Dr Mbandlwa, Z (No. of publications – 21 + 4 (book))
• Gold category category:      Prof Lourens, ME (No. of publications – 17)
• Silver category category:   Prof Dorasamy, N (No. of publications – 16)

RESEARCH OUTPUT – Students

• Platinum category:  Dorasamy, J (Number of publications-6)
• Gold category:      Zhou, J (Number of publications-3)
• Silver category:      ZP Cele and MG Khumalo (Number of publications-2 each)

RESEARCH ASSOCIATES

• Gold category:    Prof Rena, R (Number of publications-12)
• Silver category:   Dr Fagbadebo, OM (Number of publications-9)

RESEARCH FELLOWS

• Platinum category: Prof Dluzewska, A (Number of publications-10)
• Gold category:      Dr Giampiccoli, A (Number of publications-9)
• Silver category:     Dr Damiyano, D (Number of publications-6)

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW

• Dr Chukwuma, N (Number of publications-2)

MOST PUBLISHED FEMALE RESEARCHER

• Prof Lourens, ME (Number of publications-17)

RESEARCHER WITH THE HIGHEST UNITS

• Dr  Mbandlwa, Z (Number of publications-21)

RESEARCHER WITH THE HIGHEST CITATIONS IN 2023 – GOOGLE SCHOLAR

• Platinum category:  Prof Dorasamy, N (186 – Google Scholar)
• Gold category:       Prof Lourens, ME    (147 – Google Scholar)
• Silver category:       Prof Rena, R           (126 – Google Scholar) 

MOST PRODUCTIVE ACADEMIC DEPARTMENT

• Gold category:  Public Management and Economics    (96 Publications – 41 Graduations)
• Silver category:  Entrepreneurial Studies and Management (30 Publications – 38 Graduations)

MOST IMPACTFUL ENGAGEMENT PROJECT

• Platinum category:  DUT BankSeta Project
• Gold category:       EmpowerEDpreneurs-Business and Social Leaders Programme
• Silver category:       African Food Festival

TEACHING AND LEARNING EXCELLENCE AWARD

• Dr Martin Kabange

FACULTY EMERGING TEACHING EXCELLENCE AWARD

• Ms Yachel Du Plessis

The awards ceremony also celebrated recent promotions. Honoured for their advancement to Senior Lectureship were Dr Serathi Molokwane (CELT-FMS), Dr Sean Jugmohan (DUT Business School), Dr Zamokuhle Mbandlwa (Department of Public Management and Economics), Dr Nereshnee Govender (Writing Centre), and Dr Nkululeko Zungu (Department of Marketing and Retail Management).

Prof Melanie Lourens, FMS Deputy Dean, Prof Emem Anwana, Senior Lecturer within the Department of Applied Law, and Prof Reshma Sucheran a Senior Lecturer from the Department of Hospitality and Tourism were honoured for achieving their professorship status.

Pictured: Faculty of Management Sciences staff at the awards.

Zandile Mahlobo