Head of the Urban Futures Centre at the Durban University of Technology, Professor Monique Marks, has retained her B2 National Research Foundation (NRF) rating.
Marks is an internationally recognised academic, rated by her peers across the world for her outstanding research.
Her work focuses on improving the quality of life of the most marginal in society through engaged research, and developing robust models for intervention to resolve tricky urban challenges.
Explaining what the B2 NRF rating means to her, Marks said the B rating reconfirmed her commitment to research and to academia.
Marks explained that a B2 rating lasts for a five years, and emphasised the need for academics to have an NRF rating as a researcher.
“I am very relieved to have retained my B2 rating. It is always a worry that your rating can go down. This is particularly a concern when you hold a lot of administrative and management responsibilities as I do as the head of the Urban Futures Centre.
“I appreciate that my peers across the world appreciate my research work. I also feel this rating benefits the UFC. A B rating is highly regarded and brings credibility to me as an individual researcher and to the UFC as an entity. I am also thankful to the DUT community for their ongoing support and positive feedback. I never feel any academic jealousy at DUT, which is a huge relief.
“The vice-chancellor and the deputy vice-chancellors were very quick to congratulate me, and this is hugely significant to me. The same is true of my executive dean, and other members of the executive at DUT. I know that I am valued as an academic member of staff at this university,” she said.
As the leader of many successful community projects, especially the Bellhaven Harm Reduction Centre (BHRC), Marks spoke about her research and the impact it had.
“I am very relieved that my international and national colleagues still rate me as having substantive international recognition. I am aware of how difficult it is to achieve a B rating,” Marks said upon receiving the news.
Marks is involved in research projects that cover several fields of interest. They include public health, public safety, urban governance and urban design. In addition, she is conducting research on university language policy for the purposes of developing a draft language policy for DUT.
Professor Sibusiso Moyo, the deputy vice-chancellor of research, innovation and engagement at DUT, said that as part of the institution’s Envision 2030 Sustainability perspective, having NRF-rated researchers was one of the ways DUT could create a sustainable research and innovation enterprise, with the capacity to contribute to the doctoral skills training and mentoring of the next generation scholars.
Congratulating Marks on her achievement, Moyo said: “Our objective is to ensure we have optimised organisational capabilities with the ability to align and leverage DUT’s resources to realise our stated goals and objectives in the research and innovation blueprint. Congratulations once again to Prof Monique Marks on this achievement!”
IOL