College PhD Project Bears Fruit

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For the first time in the history of the College of Law and Management Studies, a remarkable 43 doctoral degrees were conferred upon staff and students during the 2016 Graduation period. This was a resounding success if one considers that 19 and 23 doctoral degrees were awarded in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

The College has been working tirelessly to transform itself in terms of research productivity. Many interventions have been put in place by the College management including the monitoring of the PhD project on a monthly basis.

Amongst the PhD graduates were three College academics from its Pietermaritzburg campus who were awarded doctoral degrees on Monday, 18 April.

Dr Evelyn Derera’s thesis titled: “Women’s economic empowerment and entrepreneurship in Agriculture: A case of Mashonaland West Province in Zimbabwe” earned her a PhD in Entrepreneurship. She worked under the supervision of UKZN academics Dr Maxwell Phiri and Professor Roger O’Neill, both from the School of Management, Information Technology and Governance.

Dr Ntabeni Jere, College Academic Development Co-ordinator, graduated with a PhD in Information Systems and Technology. His study, supervised by Professor Manoj Maharaj, examined “The Role of Information and Communications Technology in improving food security in KwaZulu-Natal”.

“Service quality, student satisfaction and brand equity: A case of select South African Universities” was the title of Dr Sanjay Soni’s thesis which was supervised by Professor Krish Govender. Soni is a Lecturer in the School of Management, Information Technology and Governance.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College, Professor John C Mubangizi is pleased with the results. He commended the College Dean of Research, Professor Marita Carnelley, for her leadership in this area of research.

Hazel Langa