The SARChI Chairs initiative was established in 2006 by the then Department of Science and Technology (now Department of Science and Innovation) under the custodianship of the National Research Foundation (NRF).

The programme was “designed to attract and retain excellence in research and innovation at South African public universities…”, and have a strong focus on the production of “high quality postgraduate students and research and innovation outputs”.

This initiative targets researchers with an established track record and regarded as experts in their respective fields. Since the launch of the initiative, the NRF has awarded more than 200 SARChI Chairs located at the majority of South Africa’s public universities.

More about SARChI Chairs

Launched in 1992, the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme, which involves over 850 institutions in 117 countries, promotes international inter-university cooperation and networking to enhance institutional capacities through knowledge sharing and collaborative work.

The programme supports the establishment of UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks in key priority areas related to UNESCO’s fields of competence – i.e. in education, the natural and social sciences, culture and communication.

More about UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs

In South Africa, the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) are entities of the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). The SETAs establish Research Chairs in various industries for rigorous and systematic inquiry and analysis, including the reporting, sharing, publishing and disseminating of research.

Research may be empirical or theoretical, quantitative or qualitative, applied or basic. It may involve the critique of policy; analyses of regularly compiled datasets; explanations of trends; observations; case studies; research investigations; or meta-reviews etc.

Rigorous evaluation studies of educational and training programmes or interventions, including cost-benefit analyses and impact studies, fall under the research umbrella, as do high level analyses of statistics. Research includes: Evaluations; Sector Skills Plans (SSPs); Tracer studies; Research carried out by Research Chairs and Research Partners; Statistical analysis and User satisfaction surveys.

Annual reports; Training reports; Research carried out by interns, Doctoral (PhD) and Master’s Students are excluded.

More about Post-School Education and Training (PSET) that is currently taking place or planned to be undertaken in the 2021/22 – 2023/24 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) period by the DHET.