Research Report (Centre for Development Support)

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    Assessment of the LLB programme of the Faculty of Law (University of the Free State) as perceived by alumni and employers
    (University of the Free State, 2008) Pelser, André; Botes, Lucius; van Rooyen, Deidré
    Table A portrays a breakdown of the outcome of the fieldwork. Quite a large proportion of the telephone numbers (28.6%) were faulty or did not exist. Furthermore, 29.3% of the numbers just rang or were on voicemail. Another 1.9% of the alumni were not employed, or were still studying and could therefore not complete the questionnaire. In the end, a total of 156 questionnaires were completed. It is quite clear that the University-based contact details (of the originally registered LLB students) get easily outdated. An alumni association could thus assist in maintaining and regularly updating a data base of contact details of alumni (See responses on an alumni association in Figure 7 and Figure 8). Fourteen well-trained research assistants/ fieldworkers, capable of conversing fluently in several languages, conducted telephonic interviews from the offices of the CDS. The racial divide was kept in mind – i.e. black respondents were interviewed by black fieldworkers. A standard fieldwork training manual was used and the fieldworkers were trained on all aspects of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was available in English and Afrikaans (See Annexure 1). At the end of every interview, respondents were asked to give the details of their immediate line manager / supervisor. These details were then used to develop a database in order to contact the responsible line heads or supervisors. Many of the alumni did not feel comfortable to give these details, while others were self-employed. The details for a total of 114 line heads were obtained. These respondents were also contacted, and a total of 44 interviews were completed. Several supervisors / line heads (27,2%) were too busy or refused to participate in the study. Furthermore, 18,4% of the supervisors / line managers were either on leave, or the contact details were faulty.
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    Behaviour analysis of households selected for participation in a load-management pilot programme
    (University of the Free State, 2010) Pelser, André; van Rooyen, Deidré; Botes, Lucius
    This report stems from an initiative by Eskom Research to investigate the viability of new technology that will allow the power utility to limit the power supply to individual households during peak and off-peak time periods, rather than resorting to all-out blackouts. It is believed that the new technology will enable residential consumers to control their energy consumption in order to assist Eskom the better to manage the load on the national grid during high-demand periods. In a first step to assess the effectiveness of the Utility Load Manager (ULM), Eskom Research initiated a pilot programme in Gauteng Province. The Centre for Development Support (CDS) at the University of the Free State was commissioned to monitor both the experiences and the behavioural change of the pilot population regarding the installation of a ULM in selected households. This document mainly reports on the findings of two primary surveys – briefly referred to as the benchmark and the monitor surveys - among a sample of residential electricity consumers who participated in the said pilot programme. The surveys were built on a similar survey conducted in April 2008 among a limited sample of electricity consumers as part of the field trial of the load-limiter device and display. During the 2009-2010 roll-out of the load management pilot programme, a third (secondary) survey was also conducted amongst a sample of non-participants, i.e. households who, though invited to participate in the programme, declined to do so. The purpose of this survey was to capture and document the reasons for failing to take part in the pilot programme. The findings of this survey are reported in Section 5 of this report. The two primary surveys set the following aims: (i) to profile the energy-consumption patterns of the selected households to serve as a benchmark for tracking future behavioural change in this regard; (ii) to document the experience and perceptions of the selected households following the installation and use of the ULM; (iii) to determine the confidence levels amongst the selected households pertaining to their adaptation to, and usage of, the display; (iv) to identify any significant correlations between the cultural and socio-economic characteristics of the sampled population, on the one hand, and their adaptation to and usage of the display, on the other; and, (v) to identify any requirements in respect of education that might be necessary to strengthen the abilities of electricity consumers to operate the device.