SA government urged to champion engineering PhD training

South Africa needs more engineers trained to postgraduate level in order to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving technological landscape—but it will fall to government to lead the charge to train them, a report has found.

The report, published by the Academy of Science of South Africa on 27 March, says South Africa has a shortage of engineers in all fields. The number of postgraduate engineers being trained has increased since 2000 it says, but the rise is insufficient to meet future needs.

South Africa compares poorly with Brazil, Russia, India, China, Germany, South Korea, Malaysia and Mexico in terms of postgraduate engineering enrolments as a proportion of total enrollment, and doctoral completion rates, the report says.