Martha van Niekerk

Institution: University of the Witwatersrand (Wits)

Unit & faculty: School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences

Research field: Regulation of health professions

Supervisors: Prof Mary Scholes, School of Animals, Plants and Environmental Sciences, Wits (main supervisor); Prof Laetitia Rispel, Wits (co-supervisor)

 

PROFILE

Matty completed a BProc law degree at the University of the Free State in 1996. After working with street children for a year, she enrolled for a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy at the University of Pretoria, which she completed in 2001. She also holds an Advanced Certificate in Labour Law and a Postgraduate Diploma in Vocational Rehabilitation. Matty obtained an MScMed (Bioethics and Health Law) in 2013 from Wits. For her PhD at Wits, her studies will focus on the regulation of health professions in South Africa. Health professions regulation has an impact on service delivery and the WHO found that insufficient scholarly attention has been given to the regulation of health professions. This PhD, which is a systems analysis of the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), will attempt to identify aspects of the system of the HPCSA that facilitates and inhibits the regulation of health professions.