A CPUT staffer is going to Ireland next year after being awarded a full doctoral scholarship.
Aifani Tahulela, a Research Assistant in the Faculty of Business and Management Sciences, has been selected by the AESOP Project to undertake PhD studies in Global Human Development at University College Dublin.
Tahulela went through a rigorous selection process and got the nod from a group of international experts from the consortium’s member institutions in Europe and South Africa.
This is a joint programme and will require of her to spend half of the three years required to obtain a PhD in Dublin and the other at CPUT.
“I am so excited, as I have been dreaming of completing my PhD as a joint programme with an international university and nothing else,” says the tenacious Tahulela.
“My research will focus on sustainable resource management and is linked to Millennium Development Goal 12 which aims to eradicate poverty and improve waste management.”
She hopes to use the knowledge and skills she will gain from her studies to fulfil her long-term dream of establishing the continent’s first waste management centre that will train people to recycle waste and make money from it.
She adds that her PhD studies will lead to collaborative work between the two universities that may open opportunities for CPUT students and staff.
“I want to show my postgraduate students that beyond these mountains there are opportunities.”
She thanks Beryl Liebetrau, the faculty’s Internationalisation Officer, for identifying the opportunity and supporting her with applying for the scholarship, as well as Prof Harry Ballard for his outstanding supervision of her Master’s degree in Public Management, which she completed earlier this year.
Written by Kwanele Butana
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