Divisions:
KFD
The NASSP directly addresses a number of national strategic drivers, most particularly those associated with raising the research and postgraduate profile of South African institutions, and transformation in the physical sciences. Its aim is to produce scientists with broad-based skills useful in industry as well as for research in astronomy, astrophysics and space science. Thus graduates of the programme will be highly competitive for rewarding employment in industry as well as for research in other areas. With this in mind the emphasis of the programme is to train talented young South Africans of various backgrounds:
- in research at the cutting edge of Astrophysics and Space Science;
- in general problem solving based on scientific methods;
- in numerical calculations and processing of large data sets;
- using computational techniques;
- in operating, maintaining, perhaps also designing and manufacturing new research equipment at the SAAO and the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO);
- in writing up the research results in scientific papers and publishing them in international journals of repute;
- in presenting the research results in seminars and colloquia at research institutions, as well as national and international conferences;
- in working in a vibrant research team.
Programme structure
NASSP is run as a 2.5 year programme leading to a Bachelor of Science with Honours after one year and a Masters (MSc) degree after further 18 months. The Honours year deals with students who graduated from a three year degree with no significant astrophysics or space science component and provides a broad overview of the subject.
Students entering the masters degree spend the first semester at the host institution (UCT) completing a coursework component consisting of six to eight modules taught by members of the NASSP consortium. During this time the students are registered as occasional students and are not committed to stay at UCT for the duration of their degree. The idea is that during this initial period they are exposed to a wide range of topics and potential research supervisors and are therefore much more capable of making an informed decision of what research path to take after the coursework is completed. The research component of the degree can be done under the supervision of a scientist from the NASSP consortium and students are registered for an MSc at that institution. Students can also be co-supervised by scientists from the National Facilities (SAAO, HartRAO, and HMO).
(Reference: NASSP Report on activities, 2003-2008)