Dr James Brown defended PhD thesis at VU Amsterdam
Dr James Brown successfully defended his PhD thesis at Vrije University Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
The Desmond Tutu Programme is an academic Programme of Vrije University (VU) Amsterdam and the National Research Foundation (NRF), South Africa, that aims to strengthen the cooperation between VU University Amsterdam and South African Higher Education Institutions. The Programme, which was established in 2009 in honor of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, has as its central theme “Bridging Diversities for Academic Advancement”.
James Brown was a recipient of this award, which enabled him to conduct his research at UCT with supervisory input from VU and UCT. This made him eligible to get his PhD degree from both UCT and VU Amsterdam, providing he passes the thesis examination according to the requirements from the respective Universities. He passed the UCT criteria, graduating in December 2014. On the 9th April he successfully defended his dissertation “Safety through BokSmart? An Evaluation of a Nationwide Injury Prevention Programme for Rugby Union in South Africa” at VU Amsterdam. James is the 2nd South African researcher to obtain his PhD degree in the framework of the collaborative programme between the NRF and VU Amsterdam.
Through his successful research programme he has managed to get a postdoctoral position at UCT, supported by BokSmart (SA Rugby) and the Chris Burger/Petro Jackson fund.