The College of Law and Management Studies (CLMS) Three-Minute Thesis (3-MT) competition for its PhD students was won by Dr Kwabena Gyekye with Mr Alistair Marias second.
The competition is an initiative of Australia’s University of Queensland, and generally open to PhD and Masters students in the final stages of their research. It requires that students orate the substance of their research and its significance in just three minutes.
Competitors are challenged to consolidate their ideas and research discoveries in such a way that they can be presented concisely to a non-specialist audience.
In the CLMS competition, judges were Professor Claire Vermaak of the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance; Professor Paul Muzindutsi of the Graduate School of Business and Leadership, and Dr Damien Kunjal of the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance.
The audience comprised a variety of academics.
Said Vermaak: ‘The participants were judged on the comprehension and content of their presentation of the research. Specifically, they needed to convey the significance and key findings of the work to a non-specialist audience in an engaging way, without using jargon.
‘Overall, it was really exciting to see how the competitors rose to the challenge of communicating the substance of their research in such a limited time frame, and without the use of animated graphics.’
Gyekye and Marais will now compete against the winners and runners-up from the other UKZN Colleges with the overall winner and runner-up going on to participate in a national competition in October.
‘The competition gave me the ultimate test of presenting the core focus of my study in just three minutes, encouraging me to bring out the practical relevance of the research, which goes way beyond an academic context,’ said Gyekye. ‘It is a platform to shape my presentation and pitching skills and I am glad to be involved.’
Said Marias: ‘The competition has been a learning experience as you need to get to the heart of your research to present it effectively within three minutes, allowing one to showcase research to a broader audience and connect with people in the College with whom there is usually not a lot of interaction. It was a fun change of pace from the everyday slog of a PhD, and the competition got me motivated again.’
Words: Lungile Ngubelanga
Photograph: Supplied