ADDITIONS TO HEMIS  RULES: 

 

 

              DETERMINING CREDIT VALUES FOR MASTERS AND DOCTORAL COURSES IN TECHNIKONS

 

 

 

1.            FULL-TIME EQUIVALENT MASTERS AND DOCTORAL STUDENTS

 

A full-time (FTE) equivalent masters or doctoral  student total for a course is determined by the formula which applies in the case of all FTE calculations:

 

              FTE student enrolments = credit value for course   x   head count enrolment for course

 

The head count enrolment  for any masters or doctoral  course is the total of students enrolled for that course on the census day determined by the institution.  The credit value of a course is the fraction it constitutes of a standard full-time curriculum.

 

This appendix describes the ways in which credit values are to be determined for masters and doctoral courses at technikons.

 

 

2.            MINIMUM STUDY TIMES

 

A notion which is fundamental to the calculation of any  credit values is that of the minimum study times allocated to a qualification.  In the case of approved qualifications, these study times are determined by the Minister of Education.  Study times are divided into three subsets:

 

·         minimum total time, which is the minimum total of years (to the nearest tenth of a year) of full-time study required for the completion of the qualification;

·         minimum experiential time, which is the minimum number of years (to the nearest tenth of a year) of full-time study needed to complete the experiential learning components of the qualification;

·         minimum formal time, which is minimum total time less minimum experiential time.

 

In the case of masters and doctoral degrees in technikons the approved times are:

 

Degree

Minimum total time  (years)

Minimum experiential time (years)

Minimum formal time (years)

Masters

1

0

1

Doctoral

2

0

2

 

 

3.            DETERMINING CREDIT VALUES FOR TECHNIKON DOCTORAL DEGREES BY THESIS ONLY

 

In the case of a doctoral qualification taken by research only, the degree is not  normally divided into separate courses for which a student has to register.  The degree as a whole  can thus be treated for these purposes as the course for which credit values must be calculated.

 

The  minimum approved formal time determines that the total of credit values assigned to the doctoral degree of any student must not exceed 2, taken over the full  period for which she/he is registered.   It follows that in the case of a doctoral degree which is by research only,  the value of 2 must be divided between the years for which any student can normally be expected to remain  registered. This value of 2 cannot be assigned to a student in each of the  years for which he/she is actually registered.  If  the period of registration is  typically (say) 5 years, then the  credit value of that course must be 2/5 = 0.4.  So if 10 students were registered for doctoral studies in 2001 and if 8 re-registered in 2002, then if  5 years is the typical length of a period of registration, then the  FTE enrolled totals will be:

 

             2001:  10 heads  x 0.4 (credit value) = 4 FTE enrolled students

             2002:  8 x 0.4 = 3.2

 

The way in which “the typical period of registration” referred to above is to be determined is this:

 

The records of all successful doctoral graduates in all fields of study in the technikon over a 3-year period must be analysed.  The credit value for the doctoral degree will then be determined by the following formula:

 

          credit value       =        k        x        (x1 + x2 +x3)

                                                                  (y1 + y2 + y3)

 

              where k = the approved formal time for the degree, x1 – x3  the number of graduates in the 3-year period, and y1 – y3  the total number of years for which they were registered.

 

An example should make clear what is involved in the calculation of the credit value for a research degree for a particular year n.  Suppose that the following information is available for a particular technikon:

 

·         a total of 10 doctoral student  satisfied all the requirements for  their degree at the end of  year n-1, and they had been registered for a total of 47 years;

·         a total of 7 doctoral student  satisfied all the requirements for  their degree at the end of  year n-2, and they had been registered for a total of 33 years;

·         a total of 12 doctoral student  satisfied all the requirements for  their degree at the end of  year n-3, and they had been registered for a total of 67 years.

 

This information, together with the formula above, permits the following calculation to be made of a credit value for year n for doctoral degrees at this technikon:

 

                      formal credit value      =        k        x        (x1 + x2 +x3)

                                                                                     (y1 + y2 + y3)

 

                                               =        2        x        (10 + 7 + 12)

                                                                            (47 + 33+ 67)

 

                                               =                 0.395

 

              If this technikon had (say) a head count enrolled  total of 85 doctoral students in year n, then its FTE  doctoral total would be 85 X 0.395 = 33.575.

 

 

4       DETERMINING CREDIT VALUES FOR TECHNIKON MASTERS DEGREES BY THESIS ONLY

 

In the case of a masters qualification taken by research only, the degree is not  normally divided into separate courses for which a student has to register.  The degree as a whole  can thus be treated for these purposes as the course for which credit values must be calculated.

 

The  minimum approved formal time determines that the total of credit values assigned to the masters courses of any student must not exceed 1, taken over the full  period for which she/he is registered.   It follows that, as in the case of a masters degree which is by research only,  this value of 1 must be divided between the years for which any student can normally be expected to remain  registered,  and cannot be assigned to the student in each of the years for which he/she is registered.  If  the period of registration is  typically (say) 3 years, then the  credit value of that course must be 1/3 = 0.33.

 

The formula used in paragraph 3 for the calculation of credit values for doctoral degrees must be applied here, except that k, in the case of masters degrees in technikons, will always = 1. Technikons may choose these ways of applying the formula to masters enrolments and graduates:

 

·         If their annual numbers of masters  graduates are low (say, below 50), then they can calculate a single institutional credit value for all masters degrees.

·         If their annual numbers of masters  graduates are reasonably high, then these graduates  can be placed into separate sets (eg by CESM category or groupings of CESM categories) and separate credit values can be calculated for each set.

 

Suppose that a technikon decides to use the current funding formula’s categories and that it as a result divides its masters graduates into a natural sciences set and a humanities set.   Suppose  also that the following information is available for this particular technikon:

 

Natural sciences students

·         a total of 40 research masters students  satisfied all the requirements for  their degree at the end of  year n-1, and they had been registered for a total of 147 years;

·         a total of 55 research masters students  satisfied all the requirements for  their degree at the end of  year n-2, and they had been registered for a total of 153 years;

·         a total of 35 research masters students  satisfied all the requirements for  their degree at the end of  year n-3, and they had been registered for a total of 100 years.

 

 Humanities students

·         a total of 20 research masters students  satisfied all the requirements for  their degree at the end of  year n-1, and they had been registered for a total of 70 years;

·         a total of 25 research masters students  satisfied all the requirements for  their degree at the end of  year n-2, and they had been registered for a total of  95 years;

·         a total of 15 research masters students  satisfied all the requirements for  their degree at the end of  year n-3, and they had been registered for a total of 50 years.

 

This information, together with the formula in paragraph 3 above, permits the following calculations to be made of credit values for masters degrees at this technikon:

 

 

                      natural sciences             =     1        x        (40 + 55 + 35)

                                                                                     (147 + 153+ 100)

 

                                                         =        0.325

 

 

                      human sciences                    =       1        x        (20 + 25 + 15)

                                                                                               (70 + 95+ 50)

 

                                                         =        0.278

 

 

If this technikon had in year n head count enrolments of (say) 220 research masters  students in the natural sciences category and 120 in the humanities category, it would have had the following FTE totals of masters students in year n:

 

                        Natural sciences:  220 x 0.325 =  71.5 FTE enrolments

                        Humanities:          120 x 0.278 =  33.36 FTE enrolments

 

 

5          DETERMINING CREDIT VALUES FOR TECHNIKON MASTERS DEGREES BY THESIS AND COURSE WORK

 

In the case of masters degrees of this kind, students are normally registered for separate courses which constitute the course work and research components.  Credit values have as a consequence to be calculated for each separate course rather than just  for the degree as a whole.

 

The key principle used earlier applies again:  the total of credit values assigned to the masters research and to the masters  courses of any student must not exceed 1.  This implies that a fraction of  the credit value must be assigned to the course work component and a further fraction to the thesis component and that the sum of these two fractions must = 1.

 

The fraction that is assigned to the coursework component must be subdivided into credit values for each of the individual  courses included in this component.  Suppose that a masters degree in a technikon assigns  60% of its final result to the course work component and 40% to the thesis component.  Suppose also that the course work component is divided into 4 equally weighted courses.  The credit values of each of these courses will then be 0.60/4 = 0.15. 

 

A credit value for the research component  must be determined in the way described  for research masters in the paragraph above. Suppose that the overall total of  graduates completing this masters degree was  90 for years n-1, n-2 and n-3.  Suppose also that these 90 graduates were registered for a total of 270 years for the research component.  The credit value for the research component of this degree would then be:  0.4 (the weighting of the research component)  x  90/270 =  0.133.

 

Suppose that this technikon has a head count total of 80 students enrolled for the masters by thesis and course work.  Suppose too that they are not all registered for all components in year n. The calculation of an FTE enrolled student total for this technikon  could proceed in the way set out in the table below:

 

 

Head count enrolment in year n

Credit value in year n

FTE enrolment in year n

Course A

65

0.15

9.75

Course B

70

0.15

10.50

Course C

44

0.15

6.60

Course D

68

0.15

10.20

Research thesis

45

0.133

5.99

TOTAL

43.04

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 January 2003

 

Tech M+D credit values