Thuso Resources

Who we are

Thuso Resources is a national platform of help (thuso) resources for emerging researchers, developed and hosted by Universities South Africa (USAf). In the interest of collaboratively building strengths, South African universities are voluntarily sharing already developed instruments, resources, and training offerings on this platform, for the benefit of SA’s cohort of emerging academics and researchers.

A study commissioned by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) was undertaken by CREST and the focus was building a cadre of emerging scholars for Higher Education in South Africa. The report is open and available on the DSI website. The project that was established to roll out the findings is the Advancing Early Career Researchers and Scholars (AECRS) project. AECRS identified four ways to implement the findings.

  1. Establish a community of practice on postgraduate supervision and training. You can visit the CoP PGES webpage, Community of Practice for Postgraduate Education and Scholarship (CoP PGES)
  2. Create a resources toolbox – Thuso Resources.
  3. Support the mentoring of emerging academics – Thuso Connect.
  4. Evaluation and monitoring of support to emerging academics.

Thuso Resources is the resource toolbox and is a platform that allows institutions the opportunity to share their skills, experience and resources and in so doing support the emerging academics of South Africa. Thuso Resources includes information on the following:

  • academic skills, which include a focus on research integrity and ethics, data analysis, designing research protocols, proposal writing and writing grant proposals;
  • publishing, selecting where and how to publish, promoting the research post-publication, advice on predatory journals, and open access;
  • funding, such as fellowships, scholarships, and research grants;
  • professional development (career planning and support in an academic setting);
  • skillful teaching;
  • understanding administration, policy, and processes in HE;
  • supervisory resources (guiding research, managing research groups); and
  • event opportunities for networking.

Thuso Resources is a resource toolbox for emerging academics from South Africa’s 26 universities. If you have completed your postgraduate level degree (Masters or Doctorate) and are lecturing or a researcher on the academic path at one of the public universities, we recommend you consider registration.

Introduction to Thuso Resources and Thuso Connect

Thuso Resources is one of four capacity building programmes aimed at supporting early career academics.

Community of Practice for Postgraduate Education and Scholarship

The Community of Practice for Postgraduate Education and Scholarship (CoP PGES) provides a community of scholarship and practice that supports the national higher education sector in postgraduate teaching and learning, training and support for supervisors, and enables collegial interaction between peers.

Thuso Connect
Thuso Connect is a national online mentoring platform for South African researchers.
Early career academics seeking guidance and wanting to make progress in their careers can register and search for a suitable mentor to advise them.
We invite established, experienced academics and researchers to register as mentors, and share their wisdom and guidance.

Sign up today!
Become part of Thuso Resources

Join Thuso Resources by signing up and receiving updates and new resource information.