Postgraduate Diploma in Transdisciplinary Health and Development Studies

Purpose

The purpose of the qualification is to provide learners with critical and analytical skills and knowledge in order to deal with challenges facing health care and development. This qualification suggests that there are various ways in which health and welfare are understood, shaped and experienced which require an analytical scope that takes in a range of structural, interpersonal, and subjective modalities. Learners will be trained to critically analyse the effects on the South African communities where they are implemented of the state and non-state development and health interventions. The learner is required to complete a research project as part of studies on community experiences in clinics and hospitals, in order to develop an understanding of what strategic interventions have been initiated and their successes and failures. A qualified learner will be able to:

• Complete all the required readings, write and post weekly responses, and to participate actively in discussions.
• Prepare for interviews and discussions on health and development matters.
• Apply quantitative techniques, including the interpretation of the ensuing results based on a socio-economic dataset.
• Design a comprehensive research assignment and a survey based on a literature study and complete a research essay based on literature study and field work.

Rationale

The Postgraduate Diploma in Transdisciplinary Health and Development Studies is designed to provide learners with professional knowledge and skills to deal with challenges facing health care and development in the county.

The central concerns of the South African National Development Plan (NDP) such as work, education, health and rural development, are issues that are profoundly shaped by social, political and economic processes. For example, the NDP's ambition to broaden access to Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) for HIV, train community specialists and health workers, implement national health insurance, and promote "active lifestyles and balanced diets" is premised on particular ideas of how the state should operate in relation to its citizens, and entails a profound reorganisation of social life. Similarly, rural development and land reform are profoundly social and political concerns that seek to stabilise a range of relationships and processes in the pursuit of social justice. The ways in which health and development are tightly bound together in the South African context requires a set of critical tools for thinking through their mutual imbrications.

This qualification is developed in partnership with a variety of research institutes and implementing organisations in the Western Cape and beyond and will provide unique opportunities for learners to be exposed to the practical realities of delivering services in a variety of settings and communities.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

RPL applications will also be assessed based on University's policy framework for the Assessment and Recognition of Prior Learning, including:

• Work experience: Placement in a public sector or private sector, non-governmental organisation (NGO) work environment.
• Curriculum Vitae (CV): An extensive CV that includes which growth and learning over time is shown in the responsibilities associated with successive practical experiences.
• At least two references: Confidential reports from two referees are required on the applicant's work and experience.
• Written assessment of prior learning: A written open book test in which the basic underlying skills are tested.

RPL can be used to grant access to the qualification, to award advanced standing to a student and to award credits towards modules in the qualification based on relevant prior formal and non-formal learning.

Entry Requirements

The minimum entry requirement for access to the qualification

• A Bachelors' Degree, at NQF Level 7.

Or

• Comparable qualification at NQF Level 7.

This qualification consists of compulsory and elective modules at NQF Level 8, totalling 120 Credits.

Compulsory Modules, 60 Credits

• Critical social theory for transdisciplinary research in health and development, 30 Credits.
• History, politics and ethics of health and development in Africa, 30 Credits.

Elective Modules, 60 Credits (choose four)

• Survey methodology, 15 Credits.
• Quantitative data analysis with SPSS, 15 Credits.
• Ethnographic research methods, 15 Credits.
• Qualitative interviewing methods and analysis, 15 Credits.
• Capita selecta (methods), 15 Credits.
• Gender, youth and childhood, 15 Credits.
• Gender, race and health in modern African history, 15 Credits.
• Community development, 15 Credits.
• Governance and citizenship, 15 Credits.
• Capita selecta (topics), 15 Credits.

1. Complete all required readings, write and post weekly responses and participate actively in discussions.
2. Prepare for interviews and discussions on health and development matters.
3. Apply quantitative techniques, including the interpretation of the ensuing results based on a socio-economic dataset.
4. Design a comprehensive research assignment and a survey based on a literature study and complete a research essay based on literature study and field work.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit level outcome 1

• A broad range of social theory concerned with health and development is read and understood.
• Intersections of health and development, and the challenge of bringing together applied engagements with political, ethical and critical perspectives are critically analysed.
• Theoretical frameworks on research interests are applied.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit level outcome 2

• General interview strategies are understood and applied.
• Inhibitors and facilitators of communication in interview situations are understood and identified.
• Different techniques of interviewing, including structured interviewing, semi-structured interviewing, focus groups and unstructured interviewing are applied in time.
• Interview ethics are identified, understood and applied.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit level outcome 3

• Principles of basic quantitative data analysis are applied.
• A quantitative database is created and managed.
• Basic quantitative data analysis is done.
• Statistical procedures suitable for the purpose are determined.
• Appropriate tables and graphs to visually present data are created.
• Quantitative results are interpreted and presented in a form appropriate for research reports.

Associated Assessment Criteria for Exit level outcome 4

• The logic and process of conducting surveys is explained and basic survey is undertaken.
• Basic questionnaires and various types of probability samples are designed and evaluated.
• Implications of questionnaire design for analysis are understood.
• Critical surveys undertaken by others are evaluated.
• The nature of ethnographic research as a set of approaches to the qualitative study of people, their interactions, social structures and systems of meaning is understood.
• A variety of qualitative research methods and techniques are identified and used.
• Current debates concerning some of the core concepts fundamental to the understanding of ethnographic research are followed.
• Ethnographic research project is started.
• Ethnographic texts are analysed in terms of methodology and its linkages to theory and analysis.
• Appropriate research methods in specific research settings are decided upon and aligned with a research problem.

Integrated Assessment

More than one assessment is required per module. Assessments will include class tests, short assignments during tutorials, class participation, longer written assignments based on case studies prior to or after the contact week of a particular module. Learners will be required to read assigned texts before each class session. The assessment activities during the contact week are structured to inform the development of the larger assignment. Assessment also includes practical research projects, especially in the longer assignments (depends on the aims and nature of a particular module). For some modules activities will be completed.

Assessment of experiential learning (within the Service Learning component of the optional elective - Community Development) is integrated with the overall module assessments, and is linked to a brief research assignment. The service-learning component is in line with institutional practice and policy.

Consistent with the University's policy, the qualification coordinator will ensure that the outcomes of the qualification are achieved; that appropriate assessment criteria and methods are used; that integrated assessment takes place; and that learner feedback on modules and the qualification as a whole is followed up. The Department will ensure that assessment standards are upheld and that lecturers have sufficient and appropriate training and/or experience.