End of term address by the outgoing chairperson of the Stellenbosch University Postdoctoral Society at the Postdoc Research Day 2016, held on the 27th of October 2016 at the Lanzerac Hotel in Stellenbosch.
Members of staff, my fellow postdocs, ladies and gentlemen
It has been my privilege to serve as the chairperson of the Stellenbosch University (SU) Postdoctoral Society (PDS) this year. I didn’t do it alone, thus I would like to acknowlede my fellow members of the Executive Committee: Drs Romina Henriques, Natasha Mothapo, Ethel Phiri and Valby van Schijndel. I think I would be hard-pressed to find more committed, caring, self-sacrificing persons and it was a pleasure working with you.
Given the current turmoil within South African Higher Education, I think it best not to go into specifics of what exactly we did this year, but rather to reflect on the postdoctoral experience as a whole.
Postdoctoral Fellows play a special role in Higher Education. They are highly qualified individuals who primarily do research, but also fulfill various support roles in terms of teaching, student supervision, the running of laboratories and clinical trials. In doing so postdocs received valuable work experience and access to formal research structures while the hosting institution benefits from having access to highly skilled individuals at a fraction of what it would cost if similar qualified permanent or contract employees were to be used.
However, Postdoctoral Fellows are currently at a crossroad. Around 2008 the SA PhD Project was launched to aggressively increase the number of South African PhD graduates from 1200 in 2005 to 6000 by 2025. The natural consequence is that more PhD graduates would have to be absorbed by the Research and Development sectors of the economy. This is already very clear at Stellenbosch University. In 2002 the University hosted only 43 postdoctoral fellows, the majority of which where foreign nationals, while the University is currently hosting 292 postdocs with about half of them South African nationals. That means the postdoctoral cohort size is already greater than one quarter of the C1 personnel corps (teaching/research personnel) at Stellenbosch University and growing at an average yearly increase of 15%, with no signs of slowing down.
Furthermore, the state of the global economy and the current funding crisis in Higher Education only serve to increase the scarceness of academic positions and thus blocks the throughput of postdocs. In a survey by the PDS among SU postdocs more than a quarter of the respondents indicated that their current postdoctoral fellowship is already their second, with some indicating that they have already completed three previous fellowships before coming to Stellenbosch University. There is no real gain for postdocs to be doing more than two fellowships, since postdocs are not students studying towards advanced degrees, but there is real danger that it could become the systematic trapping of young professionals in limbo.
Therefore it is a matter of urgency that formal policies and procedures need to be put in place to define the development goals and outcomes of the Stellenbosch University Postdoctoral Programme and to also formalize the relationships between postdocs, their hosts, and the University.
The Executive Committee can report that there are some positive signs that the University is moving towards formalising these relationships. One in particular is the new SU postdoctoral policy that the University is currently considering for approval. I must acknowledge the Division for Research Development and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Studies, Prof Eugene Cloete, for their effort and hard work that went into this document.
In the revised policy postdoctoral fellows are defined as "…doctoral graduates who are establishing their academic research careers by primarily conducting research but can also undertake other academic activities such as lecturing and co-supervision of postgraduate students, under the supervision of a host at the University."
The revised policy also states that postdoctoral fellows define and make up a separate category of researcher within the context of the University. This paves the way for postdocs to be distinguished from students and academic staff members, which is currently not the case, since postdocs are considered to be part of the student population.
However, the approval of the revised policy is only the first (albeit very important) step in changing a system that is stripping postdocs of their dignity. I do not say this lightly, but this happens in both subtle and not so subtle ways:
- Whenever postdocs are unable to function as financially independent persons, since it could happen that they
- Have to go for months without receiving any stipend payments, or
- Explain to their landlord that their rent will be late since they did not get paid on the date that was agreed upon, or
- Whenever postdocs cannot apply for a loan/credit since they don’t receive a statement of monthly income, and also
- Whenever a postdoc has to ask for a letter that states that they are receiving a regular income (since it is not automatically generated),
- Every time a postdoc needs to explain to someone (mostly university employees) what exactly a postdoctoral fellow is and is subsequently greeted by a blank look since no provision is made for postdocs and as a result postdocs are unceremoniously lumped with the general student population in ways that seriously impact postdoc’s ability to perform,
- Whenever postdocs are unfairly treated and there is no official channel for recourse or remedial action, apart from the grace of our host/HOD/Dean/DVC, and
- Whenever decisions that affect postdocs directly are taken without consulting the fellows themselves.
This happens while postdocs consider themselves qualified, professional people who have made a conscious choice to follow an academic career path. I believe the fact that postdocs have actively chosen this career path is a vastly unappreciated fact that also clearly distinguishes postdocs from postgraduate students. In addition to this the majority of postdocs are sourcing their own funding and /or research support. Thus they are actively bringing money into the university research budget, in addition to the funds generated by the publications they produce.
I would like to draw some parallels between the postdoc’s current experience of the Higher Education environment and that of the so-called fallist student protests groups. Skipping over the subtle nuances, public violence, and intimidation of the student protests, I would like to think that both the struggle of the protesting student and that of postdocs is at its core a struggle of perceived outsiders trying to gain access to the “system” and whose efforts are being frustrated by said system due to a perceived lack of understanding.
It is not due to a lack of sympathizers in the system (almost all the people the PDS Executive Committee dealt with were professional, friendly, and very understanding), but there is a complete lack of “systematic alignment”. By systematic alignment I mean an institutional understanding of the injustices perceived by the outsiders coupled with a willingness to change/adapt the system that transcends managerial levels: for it is of no use if individuals in the system understand the outsiders’ problems but in trying to do something about it they are seen to overstep their bounds or meddle in things that are not in their area of reporting and/or responsibility.
Another way of putting it: A lack of systematic alignment can be seen as the result of perceived tension between policies and procedures of an institution, especially when procedures are seen to be in conflict with certain policies, stated goals or values of the institution. In such instances it happens quite often that when employees are confronted with the perceived injustices of the outsiders, they resort to blaming procedures that is said to be not within their control to change.
This results in the classic conundrum of student (or postdoc) leadership: these structures demand immediate action, since their term of office is typically that of one year, while management typically work on time-scales of five years or more and has to consider the long-term strategy and implications of the changes. Management thus has the option to just wait things out and the issue might well blow over as the student leadership graduates and moves on. However, the flip side is that the same issue will most likely crop up every very couple of years if not satisfactory dealt with.
For us, as the PDS Executive Committee, the perceived lack of systematic alignment cannot continue as it frustrates our efforts to make a positive contribution to changing a system that is in spirit against the Statue of this University, The Higher Education Act, existing Labour legislation and the South African Constitution. In fact, all these documents afford postdocs the opportunity to partake in the democratic decision making processes of the University.
I believe Management would be quick to point out that this is exactly what the revised Postdoctoral Policy aims to do and rightly so. I would agree with them a 100%, as this was precisely the main objective of the PDS’s contribution to the process. However, if the policy is implemented and procedures stemming from the policy are designed without formal consultation and feedback mechanisms of all stakeholders in place, I doubt that the full potential of the policy will be realized.
I would like to suggest that Stellenbosch University’s systematic alignment with regards to postdoctoral fellows can be improved by having a unified understanding and unified objective of postdoctoral fellows, across all sectors of the University. To my mind this can be achieved by:
- Establishing a working group, representative of all stakeholders, to consider all aspects of the revised policy as well as the postdoctoral experience at Stellenbosch University with the aim to holistically implement the revised policy. The implementation should preferably be done on the level of the Rectors’s Management Team so that all administrative procedures and support structures could be aligned with goals of the revised policy.
- Establishing a postdoctoral office to provide adequate support to all postdocs on all campuses of the University. Currently a single member of staff, the Co-ordinator: Emerging Researcher Programmes, supports postdocs within the Division for Research Development. However, postdocs are not this person’s sole responsibility since that position also supports junior academic staff.
- Recognizing a representative body for postdocs. Currently the PDS is the only duly constituted postdoctoral body at the University, but the PDS constitution is yet to be recognized by the University, because the University currently lacks the organizational capacity to so.
- Ensuring postdocs gain representation on the decision making structures of the University, in particular the Senate.
- Managing the intake of postdoctoral fellows each year to ensure that it can be supported by the available capacity of the University. Therefore a much more formal process needs to be put in place to ensure postdoc success.
It must be said that this is not the responsibility of the University Management alone. We as the postdocs have to respect the democratic process and fulfill our democratic duty, because there is no such thing as rights without responsibilities. Therefore I encourage you to engage the PDS, to engage your hosts and other faculty to get the message out there and to increase awareness of postdoctoral fellows, so that Stellenbosch University can have the best postdoctoral experience in the country.
As you are all hopefully aware the new Executive Committee will be elected later today. I wish them the best of luck and encourage all of you to support them and actively engage them in order to represent you as best they can.
I thank you for your attention.
Jacobus Diener
PDS Chairperson 2015/2016
