Black researchers with high potential are too often “lured into university administration” in South Africa
Talented Black researchers in South Africa are too often diverted into managerial and racial transformation roles, hampering their pursuit of the coveted ‘A rating’ for research excellence, a study has found.
The study, published on 27 March in the South African Journal of Science, investigates why so few young scientists tipped to become future international leaders in their field fulfil that promise.
The authors, led by Jonathan Jansen from Stellenbosch University, a former president of the Academy of Science of South Africa, conducted in-depth interviews with 36 scientists who in the past had been identified as “promising”.
They came up with seven factors that influence the career trajectories of promising scientists. For Black scientists, however, they found a “common experience” that suggested pressure to lead racial transformation or to take up senior administrative posts in their institutions had negative effects on their research performance.
Common experience
South Africa’s rating system, managed by the National Research Foundation, awards scientists C, B or A ratings, with As being international leaders in their field. Scientists below the age of 35 qualify for either Y ratings or the rarer P ratings, with the latter indicating they are on track to become leaders in their field.
Of the 136 Ps awarded by the NRF between 1983 and 2022, only 20 recipients went on to achieve an A rating. Only seven of the P-rated scientists were Black, two of whom went on to obtain an A rating. While these numbers reflect “inequalities of social and scientific opportunities for Black students and researchers over centuries”, the interviews with current and previous P-rated scientists revealed specific challenges for Black researchers.
One former P-rated Black researcher told the study team that every time they took a new leadership position, their publication record suffered. Another said that he “found himself drawn into deanship” when his university’s engineering faculty was struggling to attract students, and he recounted seeing his research life “just flitting away”.
A third Black former P-rated researcher who had been raised as an anti-apartheid activist said he had felt compelled to lead racial transformation in his subject of physics. “I felt as a South African and as a scientist in South Africa, I had many more responsibilities to lead.”
Strategy needed
The study authors conclude that the underrepresentation of world-leading Black scientists “will continue” unless the pipeline of researchers is strengthened and nurtured.
The most promising researchers identified at an early age need to be placed in highly productive international networks, they say, and incentivised to continue in research rather than being “lured into university administration”.
The authors also call for a “considered strategy” to retain promising Black researchers in high-level research.