About Us

Our Background

The Centre for Higher and Adult Education (CHAE) was established in 1997 under the leadership of the late Prof Chris Kapp as part of the Department of Curriculum Studies in the Faculty of Education at Stellenbosch University. Whilst the CHAE has remained true to its initial focus on teaching and learning in higher and adult education settings, our work has evolved to include a strong focus on postgraduate supervision, doctoral education, and student success in higher education.

As such, we focus on postgraduate studies in the fields of higher and adult education by means of four focused programmes: the PG Diploma in Higher Education, the MPhil in Higher Education, the MPhil in Education and Training for Lifelong Learning, and the PhD programme

We also host a biennial conference on Research in Postgraduate Supervision, where a network of scholars from across the globe gathers to discuss cutting edge research in this field. Our short courses aim at building capacity within the broader areas of postgraduate supervision and scholarly practice.

Our research focuses on key areas of higher and adult education, including:

Postgraduate supervisionArea 1

Doctoral educationArea 2

Student successArea 3

CreativityArea 4

Workplace learningArea 5

DialogueArea 6

Community-based adult learningArea 7

Disability and adult learningArea 8

Leadership, management and governanceArea 9

Vocational EducationArea 10

Curriculum DevelopmentArea 11

Postgraduate Studies

PG DIP IN HIGHER EDUCATION: TEACHING AND LEARNING.

The Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education is offered in collaboration with two other universities, and provides academics a space to critically engage with teaching and learning issues and develop their research skills to interrogate their practice.

MPHIL IN HIGHER EDUCATION STUDIES

The MPhil in Higher Education studies offers participants the opportunity to engage with current thinking about higher education issues, and develop their research skills in investigating such issues.

MPHIL IN LIFELONG LEARNING

The MPhil in Lifelong Learning offers participants the opportunity to engage with current thinking about adult education issues, and develop their research skills in investigating such issues.

PhD

In the Postgraduate Studies section, please change the PhD summary text to: We offer a PhD by research or by publication, and our current students are focusing on a range of topics related to Higher Education and Lifelong Learning. These include, but are not limited to, Creativity, Leadership, Curriculum Development, Workplace Learning and Educational Technology.