Astronomers of South Africa have succeeded in obtaining US$175 000 from the Ford Foundation for the National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme (NASSP), most of which is earmarked for student bursaries and travel grants. NASSP is an outcome of the NRF's strategic planning for astronomy and space science - it is a national postgraduate training programme designed to increase the number of black students in this field, increase African interaction and provide a worldclass training course.
NASSP will initially be hosted at the University of Cape Town where two programmes will begin in February 2003: an Honours and the taught part of a Master's in astrophysics and space science. Lectures will be given by staff in the NASSP consortium and will cover most areas of modern astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology. In addition to lecture courses, students will be expected to take a substantial practical component, which will involve several field trips to some of southern Africa's space science research facilities. The include the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO) and the High Energy Stereoscopic System (HESS).
Student graduating from this programme will be both equipped to do research at the cutting edge of astrophysics and have the broad science skills needed in any modern technological society.
NASSP is a remarkable collaboration between scientists from, at present, 13 institutions: the Universities of the Free State, Natal, Zululand, the Northwest and Cape Town, Rhodes University, Potchefstroom University, the University of South Africa, the SAAO, HartRAO, the Hermanus Magnetic Observatory, and iThemba LABS.