The Honours Programme, which started in February 2003, is hosted at the University of Cape Town.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. These include the South African Astronomical Observatory site at Sutherland where the Southern African Large Telescope (the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere) is currently being built and the radio telescope facility at Hartebeesthoek.
This unique new opportunity in Southern Africa aims at producing highly skilled people who will be in demand in fields ranging from aerospace to financial services to telecommunications - all areas where astronomers trained overseas have been successful. Other graduates will join the growing community of African researchers who will use the continent's new, "giant eyes" to explore the Universe - our environment on the grandest possible scale.
Programme Outline
Students are required to take a total of 12 units in order to acquire a breadth of knowledge as well as depth. Each unit corresponds to about 24 lectures and 6 tutorials. The honours programme is made up of three parts.
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A theory component, consisting of the following courses:
Course
Units
Lecturer
1
2
1
Steve Crawford (SAAO)
1
1
2
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A component covering observational and research techniques in:
Course
Units
Lecturer
1
1
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A project and seminar component counting 2 units.
Accommodation
Accommodation for NASSP students has been arranged in leased houses in Rosebank. Special social events will be organised throughout the year to provide an opportunity for students to get better acquainted with the astrophysics community.
Entrance Requirements
Applicants should have, or expect to obtain a good BSc degree in Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy or Engineering.
Administration
The director of the programme is Prof. Peter Dunsby. Administrative problems specific to the programme should be addressed to Mrs Nicky Walker (Department of Maths and Applied Maths, Room 300). Questions regarding individual courses should be addressed to the lecturer concerned.
Fees and financial support
Information on the fees for students from South Africa and SSDC countries (Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe) can be obtained from the NASSP office
Students accepted for the programme may be granted financial assistance from the programme and the NRF not exceeding R71 500.
The following rules apply for the NASSP Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Square Kilometre Array (SKA) scholarships:
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The duration for support is 1 year.
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The maximum value of the scholarship is R71 500. This bursary is paid to the student in two instalments. Payments are made at the beginning of the first and second semester. Payment of the second instalment will be subject to satisfactory performance (i.e 50% overall performance) in the first semester.
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If the student withdraws from the degree at any time, he/she will have to refund NASSP a portion of the bursary. This will be calculated as a fraction of the bursary, equivalent to the number of months remaining until the end of the semester from the time of withdrawal. If the student fails to attend the academic programme for a period of longer than a month without good reason, NASSP reserves the right to terminate the bursary, and deem the student to have withdrawn.
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Financial support from the NRF, DST, SKA and charitable foundations (including the Scarce Skills bursary) cannot exceed R71 500.
Application procedure and deadline
For details on how to apply please click HERE. The deadline for applications is 15th October 2010.