THE EFFECTS OF VOLUNTEERING ON STUDENT VOLUNTEERS

Abstract

The aim of this study was to find out how students are influenced by the practical work (‘volunteering’) they do as part of a course in psychology at Unisa. Psychological and educational theories that can be related to volunteering are discussed briefly. Qualitative research was done by analysing students’ feedback on their voluntary work. Students reported mostly on the positive effects of volunteering, which is consistent with existing research. The most prominent of the positive psychological effects is that of self-awareness. A further very important effect is increased open-mindedness with regard to people of other cultures and socio-economic backgrounds. Other positive effects found are career awareness, a sense of achievement, and the opportunity to put theory into practice. It is concluded that students at an open distance learning university benefit from doing practical work related to their field of study, and they also contribute to communities’ development nationally and worldwide. ‘Volunteering’ (implemented more than 10 years ago) is compared to newer concepts such as ‘work-integrated learning’, ‘experiential learning’ and ‘service-learning’, and it is recommended that future planning for this course should attempt to bring volunteering more into line with these new concepts. A further recommendation is that more intensive research be done on the effects of volunteering on the transactional distance between students and university.