2024 Student Development Workshop 
FAQs

The Annual Student Development Workshop (SDW) is a cornerstone event for SAASS members and one of many membership perks. Almost all SAASS information and participation is open access and requires no investment from the greater public. However, we as a society feel it is important to prioritise our members for the workshop, as they have invested a great deal of time and energy to make the society what it is. You can join today and be a part of this community!

Membership to SAASS is free and allows you access to helpful information on the website, a community network to help with queries and apply for the annual student development workshop.

You will not miss the deadline. Our turn around time for application will be kept to a minimum of a week during the application window.

Your accommodation, and food will be covered, as well as travel costs, subject to availability of funding. Please ensure you complete a travel grant to be considered for travel funding. Note that the most affordable option will be selected but travel time will be considered as a factor.

The number of students is dependent on the overall amount of funding obtained to cover the costs of participants. This is why there is an opportunity to apply for travel funding, as students who feel they can afford their travel fees may opt to do so. This may increase the overall budget available for attendance.

The accommodation will be on Wits campus itself.

The South Africa deadline is 1 November 2024, and the greater SADC region deadline is 18 October 2024. This is to reduce the cost of travel into SA for these students and ultimately increase the number of students who are included in the workshop.

There are 16 member states that form part of SADC, namely,  Angola, Botswana, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Yes, if your research is linked to a SADC region. However, depending on the country you are applying from, you will have to fund your own travel to Johannesburg to attend the conference.

A letter of recommendation will help us get to know you better and get a sense of your values. The letter does not have to be written by a lecturer, it can be written by a tutor, your boss at work, an excavation or lab team leader you have worked with. It is better to have a letter from someone who will speak about you so consider this when approaching someone.

This is your opportunity to tell us about yourself and make your case as to why you should attend. We want to know who you are beyond what your CV.

As this is the 10th student develoment workshop we wanted to include as many students as possible in this milestone event. Additionally, we wanted to host a workshop that would develop people’s lab and fieldwork skills as well as create long lasting networks. To achieve these two goals we have chosen to host the event at the University of Witwatersrand, as:

• Johannesburg is centrally located near a major international airport and bus station, thus reducing overall travel costs and potentially increasing the number of participants we will be able to accommodate

• The centrally of Johannesburg will allow us to invite a range of specialists and funders to attend events, creating valuable opportunities to network

• Wits and the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, has a range of resources, which will facilitate our goal of instilling hard skills linked to the lab and field into participants

• We have access to a diverse range of renowned researchers and Early Career Researchers at Wits and UJ. The cost of including these researchers elsewhere would have limited their inclusion and added additional costs limiting funding for SAASS members