The disabling influence of work-life imbalance and the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) on postgraduate research engagement and progress.

Abstract

The onslaught of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) requires employees to have a more complex combination of skills—the 21st century skills—than in the past. The corporate world expects employees to amass these skills from the education system, especially through acquisition of postgraduate qualifications. However, acquiring these skills presents challenges to the students as institutions rarely offer these skills at that level. Low competence in these skills, coupled with work-life imbalance, hampers research engagement and hence progress and completion among postgraduate students. In essence, a lack of the 4IR skills is a disabling reality for postgraduate research students. This chapter presents a desk-based conceptual review of the disabling effects of work-life imbalance and inadequate 4IR skills on postgraduate students’ research engagement and general academic progress. Implications for policy and practice include routine provision of hands-on experiences on the 21st century research skills and work-life balance in order to step up their research progress.