EXCEPTIONAL WSU SCHOLAR OBTAINS SECOND PhD

Dr Anthony Kambi Masha of WSU’s Faculty of Management Sciences recently obtained his second PhD at the University of Fort Hare which focused on youth entrepreneurship, policy, monitoring and evaluation.

Dr Masha, a Public Management lecturer at Komani campus is a social realist whose bible is education. He is, amongst other things. a Chartered Learning and Development Specialist in the South African Bureau of Personnel Practice.

Though Masha uses a multi-disciplinary approach in his doctorates, both his theses focused on youth matters. His first PhD focused on proactive and contemporary training methods for leadership development training for millennials.

“My thesis had a mentoring angle in it, I formulated a mentoring model that can be used by trainers to train millennials by taking into account visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learning style,” he said.

Masha finished his first Ph.D. in record time of one year and graduated in 2017. His love and passion for research had him pursue his second Ph.D. which he obtained in 2020.

“When I was still an undergraduate student at Walter Sisulu University I used to interact with the likes of Prof Peires, Prof Mwamwenda and Prof Norman Hodge and religiously read the prospectus and admired qualifications of most academics. I then made up my mind that that this is a route I was going to take,” said Masha.

He also emphasized that discipline, consistency and sacrifice, as adage as it may sound, is what got him to where he is. He further explained that he had to constantly read journals, theses and books to update himself on latest literature.

This eminent scholar said that with his devotedness towards education and research he wants to impact his students with the same mind-set he has.

“When I joined WSU, I said I will be flexible in my approach since most WSU students come from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, my motto to my students is a quote from Juan Pablo Barahona, ‘Begin today with an end goal in mind’. I tell my students to be futuristic and to be what Prof Nabudere calls ‘Glo-call’ – thinking globally but bringing matters locally,” added Masha.

Though Masha’s theses have focused on the youth, he has now gained interest in issues of employee engagement especially in family businesses.

“I have already started researching on this and I am thoroughly enjoying every moment of it. I am also researching on Research Methodology matters such as the use of focus group interviews, the use of phenomenology and the use of mixed methods in research.”

Masha has built collaborations with Dr Basu in India, Dr Ayansola from UNIZULU, Dr Shava of UJ and Dr Eze in Botswana.

• By Anita Roji