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The role of the academic library in supporting postgraduate students and researchers within the Community and Health Sciences Faculty at the University of the Western Cape
(University of the Western Cape, 2020) Cook, Karen
Research, aimed at strengthening the economy and driving development, with the view to address South Africa’s numerous challenges and/or advance knowledge, generally, exists in abundance. It has highlighted the crucial role played by institutions of higher learning, such as universities, in this regard. In particular, the contribution of academic libraries in supporting the country’s agenda, with regard to its teaching and research goals, has come to the fore. Academic libraries have been portrayed, quite correctly, as the legitimate heart of the university, for majority of scholars rely heavily on their collections and services in their quest to develop new knowledge. However, the role played by these important facilities in supporting postgraduate students and researchers in South Africa is yet to be comprehensively examined. With a view to partly address this existent knowledge gap, this study examines the interaction between the University of the Western Cape’s (UWC’s) library and the institution’s Faculty of Community and Health Sciences’ postgraduate students and researchers. In accomplishing this task, I explore the skill set and competencies required of the subject librarian to best support the research needs of postgraduate students and researchers at UWC’s Faculty of Community and Health Sciences. I also investigate the perceptions and expectations of postgraduate students and researchers vis-à-vis the institution’s library. Additionally, this study explores the innovative measures adopted by UWC’s library in its quest to provide competent and satisfactory services to its postgraduate students and researchers
The structure, distribution and role of education in the Cape Colony, 1849 - 1909
(University of the Western Cape, 2025) Beukes, Rochelle Gloria
The role of human capital as a central factor in economic development has long been established. There are many theories and empirical factors that prove this assumption. More recently, economists and economic historians have investigated the long-term development of human capital and in particular education and how this has influenced countries' performance. Africa has not gone unnoticed with inquiries into its colonial past and how this affected human capital development. While little has been done on informal human capital like skills passed from generation to generation, more focus has been placed on the formal human capital measured through education and schooling. This formal schooling often started with missionary schools and colonial institutions leading to its expansion during the nineteenth century. The Cape Colony was no exception to this. A school was established at the slave lodge for the slaves, but the education they received was very limited. Later the colony too, experienced growth in the mission schools but also had public schools and farm schools. While some research has been done on the missionary stations, there is no systematic analysis of education from various angles. This thesis proposes to examine the education system of the Cape Colony. The focus of the thesis will be on both the demand and supply side factors of education. It will probe aspects like the structure of the schooling system, the types of schools that were present in the colony, scholar enrolment and attendance, the distribution of Private Farm schools, and the outcomes in terms of literacy. Various data sources are used such as Census data and Superintendent General of Education reports. This thesis has shown that through colonialism, education was brought to the Cape, however, it predominantly served its European settlers. The rate of literacy varied sharply between White and Coloured races throughout the nineteenth century. Literacy rates did however increase for all inhabitants of the Cape Colony including the Coloured population. Private Farm schools were also instrumental in bringing schools to the children and expanding the reach of education in the Cape Colony.
An exploration of female educational outcomes in South Africa over the nineteenth century
(Universty of the Western Cape, 2025) Damon, Faith
The study of female education, especially in South Africa during the 19th century, has been an understudied area of historical economic research. This thesis will aim to fill this gap by investigating whether gender parity existed between male and female educational outcomes. Using historical data from the Western Cape Archives Records Service and Cape Colony Census data, the educational outcomes of males and females will be compared and discussed. This thesis highlights the importance of female human capital development for economic growth. During British rule in 19th-century South Africa, Missionary activities proliferated. Mission schools provided education to mainly Indigenous and Coloured communities. The Missionary impact expanded with government aid but also reinforced racial segregation in schooling. In the 19th century, there were significant changes in the labour market, influencing educational access and gendered roles into the 20th century. The regression analysis of the late 19th century highlighted that Coloured females surpassed Coloured males in attendance rates. White males slightly surpassed White females. The analysis studied the impact of average attendance, school order ratios and total teachers on the enrolment of males and females. The early 20th century data analysis showed the same trend (Coloured females surpassing males, while White males surpassed females) for literacy rates. Coloured females surpassed Coloured males in terms of the ability to read, while White males slightly surpassed White females in terms of literacy. These confounding trends indicate a need for further research to understand these unexpected gender dynamics.
A statement on the ongoing genocide in Gaza
(Oxford University Press, 2025) de Almeida, Fernanda Pinto; Aouragh, Miriyam; Chakravartty, Paula
Communication, Culture and Critique has been the leading venue for critical approaches to communication and media studies. This issue marks the first guided by a newly formed Editorial Collective, which seeks to rekindle the politically engaged scholarship epitomized by the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at Birmingham University in the 1970s, then under the leadership of Stuart Hall. As we assume our responsibility to guide this journal and impact our fields, we would be remiss to ignore the glaring epicenter of the prevailing global order's efforts to reproduce itself: the State of Israel's ongoing campaign of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and its gradual expansion into the West Bank. As scholars of communication, media, culture, and technology, we cannot remain silent nor neutral in the face of livestreamed genocidal violence. We invite scholars of conscience to join us in calls for ceasefire and divestment against Israeli apartheid.
Expanding covariant cosmography of the local universe: incorporating the snap and axial symmetry
(Institute of Physics, 2025) Maartens, Roy; Clarkson, Chris; Kalbouneh, Basheer
Studies show that the model-independent, fully non-perturbative covariant cosmographic approach is suitable for analyzing the local Universe (z ≲ 0.1). However, accurately characterizing large and inhomogeneous mass distributions requires the fourth-order term in the redshift expansion of the covariant luminosity distance dL (zn ). We calculate the covariant snap parameter S and its spherical harmonic multipole moments using the matter expansion tensor and the evolution equations for lightray bundles. The fourth-order term adds 36 degrees of freedom, since the highest independent multipole of the snap is the 32-pole (dotriacontapole) (ℓ=5). Including this term helps to de-bias estimations of the covariant deceleration parameter. Given that observations suggest axially symmetric anisotropies in the Hubble diagram for z ≲ 0.1 and theory shows that only a subset of multipoles contributes to the signal, we demonstrate that only 12 degrees of freedom are needed for a model-independent description of the local universe. We use an analytical axisymmetric model of the local Universe, with data that matches the Zwicky Transient Facility survey, in order to provide a numerical example of the amplitude of the snap multipoles and to forecast precision.