Science and development: growth, expansion and role of university systems in emerging economies

This project investigated the development and operation of science systems in middle-income countries. It is enquiry led, concerned with how these countries can catch up with countries at the knowledge frontier, and examines how this process requires the expansion beyond an enclave of elite scientists separated from the local community. In the South African context, this expansion involves the opening of the predominately white system to other races in the post-apartheid era, enabling the inclusion of large stocks of under-utilised human capital. This is a challenge which spans the breadth of the university system. The analysis is situated in social sciences generally, drawing on economics, sociology education, among others, to analyse how a system evolves and advances generally, and how and where blacks (un)successfully enter the system and move through it.
The goal of this project was to examine the science and higher education system in South Africa to understand how it functions and its role in economic growth, and how it expands beyond an “elite” institution. This is an ambitious task which has many aspects. Of particular interest, however, is the way in which the formerly white system of academic science is being opened to the non-white population. The project approaches the issue in two ways. Theoretically, it builds a simple model to focus attention on the interactions among the factors underlying the racial changes in the population of academic scientists. Empirically, it employs a unique dataset which permits us to do a very detailed study of the process of inclusion and integration of previously excluded groups.