Until recently theses and dissertations (Masters and PhD) were only available in printed form. Now, worldwide, institutions are digitising their collections thus putting these resources into the public domain. See the centre column for information about UKZN's digitising project and the right hand column for access to national and international resources.
The search box on the main library page is for icatalogue. Type in details and run a search. When you get a results list, choose the theses option under format from the left hand column of the screen
UKZN theses are listed first in the results.
UKZN is digitising its theses starting with the most recent ones and working backwards so a free pdf copy is available.
1. All theses are always listed in the icatalogue in World Cat Local with a URL link to the full text. Nearly 700 law theses have been added to date.
2. The digitised theses are also available via Research Space and a thesis can be searched for via author, title and community. It is best to access Research Space via Firefox. A thesis usually appears on Research Space before the catalogue.
3. Research Space also provides links to sites that deal with publisher copyright policies.
4. Theses can also be traced via Google.
The UCTD (Union Catalogue of Dissertations and Theses) provides an index to all Masters and PhD theses completed in South Africa since 1918. This is the most comprehensive index to South African theses. If you want to see if the full text of a thesis is available, you will have to go to the library website of the institution through which the thesis was completed if a link is not provided on UCTD. When you get to the Sabinet home page, under Products, scroll down to the category SACat Plus to find UCTD.
Denise Nicholson of Wits Library has put together a useful guide of those South African institutions digitising academic materials inclusive of theses.
Google will also list theses in a results list.
It is a requirement to supply UKZN with one electronic copy (preferably pdf) for the Library (an additional print copy is optional). The pdf copy is uploaded onto Research Space for public access. These copies must be given to the relevant Higher Degrees office. Preferably submit a copy without signatures.