South African National Survey of Research and Experimental Development 2017/18: key sector results and trends: higher education sector R&D at a glance. Fact sheet 19

Abstract

South Africa???s Higher Education (HE) sector plays a pivotal role in the national system of innovation-both as a performer of research (whether basic, applied, or experimental development), but also as a capacity builder of researchers from South Africa and abroad. This fact sheet shows that in 2017/18, one third of South Africa???s annual R&D spending, about R13 billion, took place within the HE sector, with nearly two thirds of spending geared towards the natural sciences, technology, and engineering. It also highlights that, in 2017/18, women made up just below half of all researchers in HE, and that just one third of post-doctoral fellows were South African citizens.