SANCOR Newsletter Issue #172: March 2003
What SANCOR can mean to students
By David Miller
SANCOR Regional Student Representative
The little SANCOR pamphlet littering reception areas across South Africa describes the SANCOR forum as "a consultative, communicative and advisory body that represents institutions and scientists from different provinces and disciplines". A quick glance over the rest of the pamphlet reveals a very thin student section. This disguises the fact that students play an important role within SANCOR. Likewise active student members can benefit greatly from what SANCOR has to offer. Those students already members of SANCOR are likely to perceive it as a source of countless e-mails from "Pavitray Pillay" found without fail every time you check your mailbox. But SANCOR is more than a spam mailing facility and to all students who don’t fully recognize the benefits of being a SANCOR member I implore you to read on.
Not least amongst the benefits offered is access to funding. You don’t have to be a botanist to recognise that money doesn’t grow on trees. But being a student doesn’t necessarily mean that you are condemned to a few years of poverty – through SANCOR you can ensure that your work is not underfunded and you can live in relative comfort.
SANCOR acts as a broker between both national and international funding agencies and researchers. Through the Sea and Coast programmes implemented by SANCOR, a large amount of student funding is provided. SANCOR also regularly advertises project-specific funding for both MSc and PhD degrees. In addition to such postgraduate funding SANCOR also provides awards such as the SANCOR Students Travel award (contact Pavs Pillay for further details).
So your superb, well-funded work has been completed - where to from here? Pieter Grootes of Rhodes University recently produced a preliminary report on the labour market for marine scientists in South Africa. In his report he concluded that employment opportunities for newly trained marine scientists are few in a market that is as competitive as it is inefficient. To make things worse he also concluded that a massive shift has occurred in the skills required of a modern marine scientist. In addition to a good knowledge of marine science, leadership qualities and communication and problem solving skills; modern marine scientists require a good working knowledge of economics and the existing legal framework. Essentially, being a good student with an intimate knowledge of your particular field does not necessarily put you in line for a decent job once you’ve completed your studies. It is important to further develop good general skills that will make you more attractive in the job market. By getting involved in SANCOR initiatives you can do just that.
In his analysis of the Sea and Coast Programme 1, W. Roy Siegfried pointed out that many of South Africa’s internationally recognized researchers are retired or about to do so. The roles they served in South Africa’s marine science research community need to be filled. However, due to government employment policies and negative perceptions of the labour market amongst other reasons, many young marine scientists are emigrating or finding jobs in other fields. It is important for the future of marine science in South Africa that this issue is addressed. But the employment situation is not all doom and gloom. Capacity building is one of the areas where SANCOR are putting in a lot of effort. SANCOR realizes that areas where work is available need to be identified and possible jobs quantified within these areas. It is important that students can know what directions they can head in within the marine sciences. Through work such as this by Pieter Grootes SANCOR are identifying the gaps and quantifying available work. In addition to this SANCOR is currently advertising more jobs than ever through its constantly improving e-mail network.
Finally, as the name implies, SANCOR is a network and first on the list of what SANCOR strives to do is "to provide a forum for interaction, collaboration and communication about marine science, engineering and technology." It is exactly this that makes SANCOR so important to students. It is not uncommon for students to get stuck in a comfort zone within their institution. While this may be the easy way it is counter-productive. Inter-institutional collaboration can enhance communication with other students in your field. You may find that other students are doing very similar work to that which you are undertaking. You may have advice to offer that may help others and likewise you could benefit from the advice of another.
Following a meeting of students at last years Southern African Marine Science Symposium a new communication network for students is being implemented. In addition to the SANCOR regional student representative who is a part of the SANCOR Steering Committee (SSC), a representative from each institution doing any marine research was nominated to facilitate communication between the SSC and individual students. The idea is that working through the institutional reps may be easier and more efficient as certain issues are unique to individual institutions and some could be addressed at that level without necessarily being addressed directly by the SSC. A complete mailing list of marine students is being prepared so soon students will be able to communicate freely with any other marine student in the country.
Another service provided by SANCOR of particular use for actively networking students is the SANCOR students’web page (http://www.botany.uwc.ac.za/sancor/SANCOR%20students/index.htm) - the hub of the South African marine science student network. At present the page is under construction but in the near future this facility should be in full throttle and any and all contributions from students will be welcomed. Ultimately it will contain abstracts of student research as well as student news and views. A list server is planned to provide a support structure for e-mail based discussion between students across the country.
SANCOR also organizes regional workshops every year where students can get together to discuss their work experiences, present preliminary findings and seek advice on problems they have encountered. These workshops also deal with the admin side of preparing a thesis - particularly useful for students preparing their first thesis. The first regional workshop of the year is planned for September in the Western Cape.
SANCOR offers all this and more but in the end it is down to each individual student how much they get out of this network. By attending regional workshops, utilizing the network potential and attending seminars and other such events organized by SANCOR you can come out of your degree with not only a good qualification but as an important part of South Africa’s marine science community as well.
(Students: to have your details added to the SANCOR student mailing list, to find out more about the upcoming regional workshops or for any other information regarding SANCOR contact me at dmiller@botzoo.uct.ac.za)
References
Grootes, P. B. 2002. Report to SANCOR Steering Committee: Preliminary and pilot study findings of the study "The labour market for marine scientists in South Africa".
Siegfried, W. R. 2002. Smell the ozone: an overview of the Sea and Coast Programme 1. SANCOR Newsletter. pg. 2-5.
