Search

In an effort to address migration of talent from sub-Saharan Africa, a number of higher education institutions are attempting to strengthen or develop graduate programs in several areas. These institutions see the potential for emerging digital technologies to provide new and exciting opportunities for collaboration with Western institutions. Examples of these institutions include University of Stellenbosch in South Africa and Iowa State University, which collaborated on a needs assessment for collaborative action to build faculty capacity through the development of shared Internet-based courses. This article describes this initiative. (Contains a list of 3 resources.)

In the first quarter of 2013, the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Stellenbosch launched a new academic course, Strategic Technology Analysis (STA), as an elective in its M.Sc. in Engineering Management and M.Eng. Industrial Engineering degrees. STA views technology as a knowledge area in its own right, focuses on the inherent characteristics of technology, and explores its natural order. The purpose was to ascertain whether a course of this nature, which offered the outline for a new academic discipline, would be of benefit to a technology-conversant management programme. The course was well-received. It encouraged a greater awareness of technological positioning i.e., aligning overall corporate strategy with new opportunities across the entire technological frontier. This article describes the background to this initiative, the history of STA, its inherent structure, and its role in professional practice. It then looks ahead at the possible dissemination of this knowledge into different settings where technology-conversant management is taught.