Master's & doctoral degrees

Doctor of Education

Qualification stream: Technology Education
Qualification code: 90038 - TED
Qualification type: Full Research
NQF level: 10
Total credits: 360
SAQA ID: 5917

Admission requirements

An appropriate Master of Education Degree with an average of 60%.
In addition to the above requirements, applicants must submit a transcript or an academic record, as well as a document describing their intended research.
Students will be accepted on the following criteria: Suitability and viability of the intended research; adequate supervisory capacity and research expertise in the discipline or department and an approved selection procedure which is in line with Unisa's policies on equality and diversity in the discipline or department.
All students with foreign qualifications, including those with qualifications from African countries, must have their qualifications evaluated at SAQA. (www.saqa.org.za)


Time limits for this degree

All master's and doctoral qualifications are structured over a defined period. Refer to sections 4.12 and 4.13 in the Procedures for master’s and doctoral degrees.

A student registered for a research doctoral programme must complete the study programme within six years. A student may make application to the Registrar for one additional year of study who will only consider the application if it is recommended by the Executive Dean of the College in which the student is registered.

Doctoral degree

A doctoral degree will require you to undertake research at the most advanced academic levels culminating in the submission, assessment and acceptance of a thesis. Coursework may be required as preparation or value addition to the research, but does not contribute to the credit value of the qualification. The defining characteristic of this qualification is that you will be required to demonstrate high-level research capability and make a significant and original academic contribution at the frontiers of the discipline or field. This work must be of a quality to satisfy peer review and merit publication.

Research focus areas

Click here to view a list of departments and research focus areas for the College of Education.


Research outline

Unisa’s admission policy has changed and you are now required to submit a detailed research outline for the qualification for which you apply. No application submitted without a detailed research outline will be considered. Although this research outline may differ for each qualification or academic department, the basic information required is as follows:

  • Title
  • Summary of topic
  • Short literature review
  • Expected contribution of the study
  • Methodology to be followed
  • Availability of the data
  • List of references
  • Reasons why you are interested in the topic

Your research outline must align with one of the departmental research focus areas. Please also take note of Unisa's Catalytic Niche Areas; you should strive to incorporate at least one of the Catalytic Nice Areas (CNAs) into your research. These include the following: 

  1. Marine studies      
  2. Aviation and aeronautical studies      
  3. Automotive      
  4. Energy      
  5. Space study and square kilometre array      
  6. Fourth IR and digitalisation      
  7. Natural sciences (biotechnological studies)      
  8. Health studies/medicine      
  9. Feminist, womanist and bosadi theorisations      
  10. Student support and co-curricular activities      

You can join the CGS-facilitated CNA working groups for the next series of meetings. For more information, visit www.unisa.ac.za/cgs 

Click here for the guidelines on how to prepare a research outline. 

Plagiarism of any form is unacceptable. Please take note of Unisa's Policy for Copyright Infringement and Plagiarism.

Student fees and funding your studies

Application fee

Pay the online application fee of R140,00 once you have received your Unisa student number.

Please note: 

  • The application fee is non-refundable even if you decide not to study through Unisa or do not qualify for admission to Unisa.
  • Use the student number you receive from Unisa AND the application fee reference number (eg STUDENTNUMBER 5370810030). 
  • Send your proof of payment to susdepid@unisa.ac.za 
  • Visit www.unisa.ac.za/paymentinfo for Unisa's payment methods and banking details. International students are advised to use the Flywire payment option

An application for a student number does not constitute an application for admission. After you receive your student number, you must still complete the online application for admission process and upload the compulsory supporting documents. 


Student fees

Click here for the 2024 student fee information. The fee information for the 2025 academic year will be available at the time of registration. 

Students registering for qualifications through the Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL) should visit the SBL website for fee information, as the SBL uses a different fee structure.

Click here for student funding/bursary opportunities.

Apply for a student number and apply for admission

Application are online only! Applications for admission to master's and doctoral degrees to be open from 2 September to 22 November 2024

Applications for the following qualifications will, however, remain open until the end of June 2025: 

  • All qualifications in the College of Science, Engineering and Technology (excluding Computer Science & Information Science qualifications)
  • Doctor of Philosophy (90040) - SET, MAT, TEC, CHE, COM, LIF, AST, STA, SCE & PHY options
  • Master of Science in Nature Conservation (full dissertation) (98022)
  • Qualifications in the Department of Decision Sciences (98597 - ORE; 98598; 98701)  
  • MPhil in Financial Management (90158) 
  • PhD in Management Studies (90021 - FIN)

Click here to apply for a student number and apply for admission.

Please ensure that you apply for a Unisa student number (if applicable), apply for admission and upload all the supporting documents during the application period. If you already have a Unisa student number, you proceed to apply for admission and upload all the supporting documents.

You have 10 working days to upload all the supporting documents during the application period. If you do not comply with this requirement, your application will be declined and you will have to re-apply for admission during the current/next application period.

Registration

Only students whose application for admission was approved and re-registering students (who made sufficient progress during the current academic year) will be allowed to register online within the approved registration period for the 2025 academic year. Coursework master's degree students must await the official approval of their research proposal module, before attempting to re-register for the next academic year. Students with outstanding fees or a Library block on their accounts, will not be able to register online until these issues have been resolved. No printed registration forms will be accepted.

Click here for registration information.

Curriculum

The curriculum information for this qualification will be available closer to the registration phase.