Prospective students

Pre-Application

The first thing you must do before applying and determining an appropriate topic is to note the following:

Admission Requirements for the MCom (Economics) Programme

The minimum requirement for admission into the MCom in Economics is 60%. The Department of Economics will only consider applicants who meet the minimum requirement of 60% in the Honours qualification for the Master’s qualification. An appropriate bachelor honours degree, or an appropriate postgraduate diploma, or a 480-credit bachelor's degree with a minimum of 96 credits at NQF level 8 in the field of Economics with an average of at least 60% is required. A student admitted on the strength of a postgraduate diploma or a 480-credit bachelor's degree without a completed module in research methodology may be required to complete such a module at NQF level 8 for NDP before registering for the dissertation.

More details here: Master of Commerce in Economics (Unisa).

If you do not have this minimum requirement, you must consider improving your honours average before contemplating applying. This is in line with the institution’s approved admission requirements.

• Applicants who do not meet the 60% requirement are advised to consider modules for non-degree purposes (NDP) to boost their average. This is not a guarantee of future acceptance.
• Applicants may also consider applying via the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) route if they believe they meet the admission requirements through experience or informal learning. See: RPL for Master's and Doctoral Studies.

Admission Requirements for the PhD Economics Programme

A Master's degree in Economics is required. In addition, applicants must submit:

• A transcript or academic record
• A document describing their intended research
• Students with foreign qualifications (including African countries) must have qualifications evaluated at SAQA.

Admission criteria include:

• Suitability and viability of the intended research
• Adequate supervisory capacity and research expertise in the department
• Alignment with Unisa’s policies on equality and diversity

Full details available here: Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (Unisa).

Areas of supervision

• Supervision capacity in the Department of Economics is limited and we cannot guarantee supervision of the specific topic you may want to study. It is therefore important that you consult and understand the information contained in the Research Focus Area (RFA) document published on the Unisa website between July and August.
• The Department has four RFAs, namely:
  • Development Economics
  • International Economics
  • Monetary and Financial Economics
  • Public Economics
  • Your research topic must be aligned with one of the Department's four RFAs. Proposed topics outside these areas will not be considered.
• The Department of Economics is not well-equipped to supervise studies involving the gathering of primary data using a questionnaire survey and sampling methodology. Such studies may be better placed in Departments such as Sociology or Development Studies found in other Colleges of the University.

Current and previous M&D research

• If there have already been a number of Doctorates or Master’s degrees or research proposals on a similar topic, your application may not be successful. It is therefore VERY important that you consult the list of topics supervised or that are being supervised in the department.
• As you develop your research outline, you also need to read far and wide to ensure you do not duplicate existing studies.

Research outline (required)

• Applicants are required to submit a research outline of 5-10 pages. While a full-blown proposal is certainly not required, clear articulation of one's intended research is a critical part of the application process. The outline must include the following sections:
  1. Title and cover page
  2. Table of contents
  3. Introduction [max 4 pages]
     • Context and background to the study (1-2 pages)
     • Problem statement (1/2 page)
     • Research objectives (1/2 page)
     • Research hypotheses (1/2 page)
     • Significance of the study (1/2 page)
     • Outline (1/2 page)
  4. Short (but informative) preliminary literature review [3 pages]
     • Short literature review – you need to provide evidence that you have read widely and report on the latest or recent academic literature on the topic (journal articles and textbooks)
     • Theoretical AND empirical literature review
     • From the literature review, you need to identify the information gap or research problem – it must be supported with evidence
  5. Research methodology [3 pages]. A discussion of the research approach and estimation techniques. This should include:
     • Model specification
     • Explanation of variables and a priori expectations
     • Data and data source(s)
     • Estimation technique(s) and how will you analyse these data
  6. List of references. (it is difficult to say what is sufficient, but about 30 is reasonable. Use the Harvard referencing method. References should not be older than 10 years, unless they pertain to seminal work in the area of research)
• The page limit excludes the cover page and list of references. We are interested in well-articulated expressions, demonstrating a clear research focus and understanding of the research topic.
• As you develop your research outline, you also need to read far and wide to ensure you do not duplicate existing studies.
• If you intend using econometrics in your study, you must show evidence of competency in this regard by providing us with details such as the courses in econometrics and/or other quantitative methods that you have taken and passed accordingly.

Proposal assessment

After acceptance, and as part of the qualification, admitted students must first complete a proposal. A students must develop and present a viable proposal which will be approved by the Departmental Higher Degrees Committee (HDC) before the student can proceed to writing the dissertation or thesis.

• Proposals are assessed using a formal internal review. MCom and PhD students are also encouraged to present their proposal via MS Teams.
• The M&D coordinators communicate the outcome of the proposal evaluation to the student and the supervisor and also provides all parties with the reviewer comments within a week of the presentation.
• Where the outcome is positive and minor corrections are required, students have 14 days to effect the suggestions and comments and submit the final proposal to the supervisor, together with detailed feedback on how comments and suggestions were addressed.
• In the case where the proposal needs to be revised, the corrections/comments from the reviewer and HDC should be addressed, and the student may be requested by the HDC to submit the proposal for evaluation again. Students whose proposals have to be revised and resubmitted have no more than 4 months to do so.
• The outcome of the research proposal can be any of the following:
• The proposal is accepted, and the student may continue to the dissertation/thesis.
• The proposal is not yet acceptable, and the student should continue working with the supervisor to improve the proposal and submit the final version to the satisfaction of the supervisor for recommendation of the latter to the HDC.
• In rare cases, the student does not comply with the requirements for the research proposal and may not continue with his/her studies for the degree. (Reasons for non-compliance with the requirements as well as a copy of the myUnisa M&D activities are to be provided to the M&D Coordinators).