College of Business and Economics | Annual Report 2024 63 the University of Johannesburg’s commitment to enhancing South Africa’s national capacity in innovation and digital transformation, while amplifying its global footprint through international conference engagements and partnerships. The Department of Transport and Supply Chain Management, through this Chair, has not only contributed to cutting-edge knowledge production but has also equipped South African professionals with future-fit skills, aligned with the demands of a rapidly transforming world. In a year marked by economic uncertainty and evolving technological frontiers, the Chair’s work in 2024 reaffirmed the University’s role as a driver of societal impact, digital excellence, and globally relevant research, making meaningful strides toward a smarter, more inclusive, and more sustainable transport and logistics ecosystem WAY FORWARD ITLS (Africa) is committed to achieving the following key objectives: Achieving an excellent student experience by continuously improving the quality, relevance, and innovation of our research activities. Strengthening our research streams and groups, ensuring alignment with institutional priorities and global trends while nurturing interdisciplinary collaboration. Increasing research output and postgraduate throughput, with a focus on supporting master’s and doctoral students to complete on time and produce impactful work. Expanding our national and international partnerships to enhance our academic footprint, research collaborations, and mobility opportunities for staff and students. To ensure that these are met, several initiatives have been implemented: Masters and doctoral students: Strengthen the honours research module to ensure that an adequate base is set for masters and doctoral level research. Ensure all external candidates meet the entry requirement of 65% for a research module at honours level. Regular research training sessions during 2025. Several have already been conducted including: (1) proposal writing, and (2) the literature review. Further research workshops to be conducted this year include: (1) a structured approach to literature reviews, including bibliometric analysis, (2) questionnaire design, (3) qualitative data analysis, using Atlas.ti, (4) quantitative data analysis, using SPSS and/or R, and (5) discussions and meaningful conclusions. Referrals to the post graduate research writing center Individual recommendations for RCD postgraduate research workshops Feasibility study: coursework masters degrees Close monitoring of research student progress through departmental HDC: monthly reporting on student progress per supervisor Staff development: Regular training programmes (some in conjunction with postgraduate student training, as specified above) Two writing retreats per annum – the intention is to (1) develop- capacity of staff that are underperforming in research production, and (2) ensure that high producing staff are producing in higher tier journals Personalised interventions for staff with low levels of research output Specific targeting of individuals for co-authored papers with high producing staff Teaching relief for staff to complete studies Staff incentives: Departmental portion of DoHET individual research cost centres as per the UJ guidelines Other: Strong commitment to strengthening the ITLS Africa brand through publication under the ITLS Africa name Brand building through better website, detailing research outputs and linkages to original journal links (DOIs) and strong research profiles detailing research outputs and key research areas.
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