ICT`s role in supporting and advancing all types of development in SA has been proclaimed from many platforms and cannot be disputed. ICT can, and will, continue to play an important role in helping to solve many problems in SA.
However, for ICT to play this pivotal role, ICT research is essential and SA must become a player on an international level. Without a strong ICT research capacity in this country, we will never be able to leverage ICT`s full potential.
Having been both a player and stakeholder in the area of ICT research for the last 35 years, I am worried about the status of ICT research in SA. Although there are pockets of good ICT research in SA, it is fragmented and disjointed, and lacks strategic focus and emphasis.
If this present state continues without the necessary attention and intervention, we will never grow into a significant international player in this field, which would be to the detriment of the country.
The problems
From personal experience, based on many years as supervisor for Masters and PhD students, the dire shortage of good full-time postgraduate students is the biggest concern as far as ICT research in academic institutions is concerned.
I am always struggling to convince students with good academic records and the potential to become good ICT researchers to continue as full-time students and start research programmes in ICT for a Masters or PhD degree.
The bottom line is that it is difficult to get these students. It is not that these potential research students do not exist in SA - they do! The Academy for IT at the University of Johannesburg will this year deliver nearly 200 final third-year IT students. However, they are employed by the ICT industry immediately after graduation and do not continue for a fourth-year honours degree.
The demand for a good ICT student with a three-year degree is still high in this country and internationally, and students receive good job offers. They are immediately snapped up by the industry, and therefore actually `robbed` of the unique opportunity to become ICT researchers, because the majority will never come back again to develop an ICT research capability.
Although some do return on a part-time basis for their additional fourth-year term, few eventually go on into a Masters or PhD programme, from where they are given the opportunity to develop into proper ICT researchers.
While all role players agree we need ICT researchers, few of them, including the ICT industry and government, give students the real opportunity to become researchers - they are too urgently needed to do the job!
Students who do want to continue on a full-time basis with a fourth-year Honours degree or further often struggle to support themselves financially. Too often, a fourth-year student with tremendous potential cannot even get an all-inclusive bursary to support him/herself, and must decide between a good job with a reasonable salary, or doing a fourth or fifth year and getting by on a small percentage of what a salary would have provided.
A full-time Masters student, having already completed four years of study in ICT and recognised as being a desirable expert in ICT, should consider him/herself lucky to obtain a bursary worth about R20 000 a year. In most cases, they will probably also still have to take on extra work as assistants, or do ad hoc work to survive. This struggle for survival should be compared to getting a job immediately with a starting salary of R180 000 per annum. Not much of a comparison!
To put it bluntly: as far as developing a good ICT research capacity in SA, we are eating our own seed!
We should create an environment where students could be compensated financially at a salary equal to that paid by the industry.
Prof Basie von Solms, head of department, Academy for Information Technology, University of Johannesburg
Instead, we should create an environment where such students could carry on with a full-time Honours, Masters and PhD research programme, and compensate them financially at a salary equal to that paid by the industry.
If the South African government and ICT industry are really serious about creating an internationally competitive ICT research capacity in SA, then this problem should be addressed as a priority.
Possible solution
Step one: Create a number (at least 40) of substantial grants for Masters and doctorate students in ICT. These grants should be at least R110 000 per year for Masters and R160 000 for PhD students (Masters students maximum of two years, PhD students maximum of four years).
Step two: In cooperation with relevant academics, government agencies, industry and other stakeholders, define a number of ICT-related research projects that are important to SA.
Divide the 40 grants between the identified projects (minimum of four grants per project) and add substantial funds for running costs, travel and - most importantly - a project leader salary improvement, for a four-year period. It is envisaged that the cost per project may be in excess of R1 million.
Step three: Request applications from local tertiary institutions to bid for these research projects, including indications of the availability and commitment of Masters and PhD students to receive the grants, and of experienced supervisors to lead these projects.
Step four: After evaluation, assign the projects to the successful bidders. For every project, create an oversight committee, consisting of relevant stakeholders, to oversee and guide the project over the next four years.
Step five: Evaluate after four years.
If eight good projects are started every year, there can be no doubt that the success will be an order of magnitude better than we have at the moment, and SA will directly benefit from the completed projects. Furthermore, the ICT research capacity in SA would have been increased significantly.
Any new model should, of course, not replace but rather be complementary to existing systems.
Plan of action
I challenge the three major players in ICT research in SA - academics, the ICT industry and government - to get together and create a strategic and sustainable plan to significantly increase the ICT research capacity in SA.
A forum needs to be created between these three players, with senior representatives from the ICT industry and government. Before the middle of 2006 we must have such a strategic coordinated plan - for the benefit of SA!
I will personally take responsibility for the academic research environment. I also have two or three senior players from the ICT industry and government in mind, and will approach them, to either become involved themselves, or advise on suitable representatives.
Watch this space!
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