Open spaces: The new frontier for academic writers

  • P. Moodley Durban University of Technology

Abstract

In the face of the ‘fees must fall’ campaign and severe budgetary constraints for South African universities, funding has become a challenge. To this end, institutional management bodies look to academics to fill the gaping void of reduced budgets through increased research output. This has sparked the need for institutions to provide support in the form of writing retreats for academics. The current study offers a critical examination of the experiences of academics on writing retreats, as well as the barriers they encountered once the retreat was over. Data was collected via qualitative in-depth interviews (n=3). Content analysis was carried out on the data which revealed barriers to publication such as the need for additional support and time constraints. On this basis, this study recommends a model for Publication Improvement which is proposed to address the barriers academics encountered.

Author Biography

P. Moodley, Durban University of Technology

Dr Padhma Moodley is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Marketing and Retail at the Durban University of Technology.  She is currently the program manager for the Diploma in Management Sciences – Marketing. Her experience in lecturing spans over 10 years and her focus areas lies in the field of Higher Education, Social Media, Communication and Research Methodology.

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Published
2017-04-23
How to Cite
Moodley, P. 2017. “Open Spaces: The New Frontier for Academic Writers”. South African Journal of Higher Education 31 (2), 108-23. https://doi.org/10.20853/31-2-1342.
Section
Special Section