Page 42 - DUT Annual Report 2020

300
250
200
150
100
50 0
45 60
181
2020
65
146 183
2018
2019
Master's
Doctoral
Faculty
No. of Master’s graduates
No. of Doctoral graduates
2017
2018
2019
2020
2017
2018
2019
2020
Accounting and Informatics
12
13
14
18
6
3
Applied Sciences
24
15
23
14
7
10
4
3
Arts and Design
2
12
10
7
5
1
2
Engineering and the Built Environment
13
14
19
38
6
2
8
Health Sciences
57
42
57
51
6
2
7
8
Management Sciences
39
50
60
53
20
36
31
36
TO TAL
147
146
183
181
33
65
45
60
40
DURBAN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY ANNUAL REPORT 2020
Figure 15. Master’s and Doctoral graduates, 2018 – 2020
The graduation rate for Master’s students has been decreasing since 2018, from 16% of enrolled Master’s students to 14% in 2020. The graduation rate for Doctoral students increased from 9% in 2019 to 11% in 2020. Table 3 gives the number of Master’s and Doctoral
graduates by faculty for 2018 – 2020. The highest growth in number of graduates was observed in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, and the faculty with the most Master’s and Doctoral graduates in 2020 was the Faculty of Management Sciences.
Table 3: Postgraduate graduation by faculty (2018 – 2020)
Cohort Studies
Figure 16 shows completion rates for the 2013 – 2018 cohorts of FTEN students registered for a 3-year diploma or degree for minimum time completion (3 years) and minimum time plus 1 year (4 years). Whereas about 50% of students in the 2013 to 2015 cohorts took 4 years to complete their studies, this changed from the 2016 cohort onwards, with more students completing their studies in minimum time plus an additional year.
The rising trend in minimum throughput in 2016 (37%) and 2017 (39%) was reversed in 2018, with only 32% of
students completing in 3 years. While this is a significant decrease in throughput, the decline is partially offset by an improvement in persistence, with dropout rates falling from 34% (2017 cohort) to 28% (2018 cohort). This means that more students are ‘staying in the system’, albeit taking longer to complete their studies (Figure 17). The average minimum time throughput for 3-year qualifications since 2015 is 36%.