African Journal Of Higher Education Research Articles

Promoting access to, and success in postgraduate education in South Africa: A synthesis of emerging issues

This article evinces that policies and plans at the national level in South Africa recognise the importance of postgraduate education within the broader national education and training system, and that they place particular emphasis on promoting access to, and success in postgraduate education as one of the priorities on the country’s development agenda. It identifies and discusses ten issues that have a bearing on the national policies, plans, programmes and initiatives aimed at promoting access to, and success in postgraduate education. These issues emerge from the analysis, triangulation, and interpretation of sets of information and data obtained from multiple projects focusing on postgraduate education, that the Council on Higher Education has implemented since 2018. They are therefore referred to as “emerging issues”. They include the relatively small size of the postgraduate component of higher education, the pyramidal structure of the distribution of students across the different levels of postgraduate education, and the offsetting of the increase in the numbers of graduates produced at all levels of postgraduate education, by a corresponding increase in the numbers of students taking longer to complete their studies than the periods stipulated by the institutions, and by relatively high dropout rates. Other issues are about transformation, student funding, inadequate supervisory capacity, under-preparedness of students, and lack of adequate support services for postgraduate students. The article sets the scene for, and context of the other articles contained in this special issue of the South African Journal of Higher Education, and prepares the readers to understand and appreciate the contents of those articles.

Interactive Instructional: Theoretical Perspective and Its Potential Support in Stimulating Students’ Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)

Interactive Instructional: Theoretical Perspective and Its Potential Support in Stimulating Students’ Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)

Reflections on the conceptualisation and practices of community engagement as a core function of universities

The world saw the “human” side of universities during the Covid-19 pandemic as universities across the globe were at the forefront of efforts to control the spread of the Coronavirus, and to explore means of making the human population acquire immunity against the virulent disease. This article contends that, although this appeared as unusual, the universities were simply fulfilling their obligation to humanity because the raison d’être of universities includes being of service to society. Therefore, if they are unable to prevent crises from setting in, they should at least be at the forefront of efforts to combat the crises, and mitigate their effects on people. The article seeks to set the scene for the collection of articles that follow in this special issue of the South African Journal of Higher Education (SAJHE) on the theme of community engagement as a core function for universities. It argues that universities have social responsibility, and they should therefore serve as anchors of towns and regions; as engines of development in their respective geographical areas; and as champions of social causes. It presents and discusses the concepts and practices of community engagement that are critical to understanding the arguments and counterarguments in the articles that follow. These include the relationship between community engagement, on the one hand, and transformation of higher education as well as decolonisation of knowledge and ways of knowing, on the other. The article also reflects on the state of community engagement in universities in South Africa, and explains that it is mostly regarded as a stepchild because it is not valued, funded or supported in the same way as the other two core functions of teaching and learning, and research and innovation. The article also cautions against the use of rhetoric to romanticise community engagement when the projects on the ground leave much to be desired, and with not potential to make a difference to society.

Experiences of Students with Communication Related Disabilities in the TBL Classroom

Experiences of Students with Communication Related Disabilities in the TBL Classroom

A comment on critiques of the article Age- and education-related effects on cognitive functioning in Colored South African women

CITATION: Le Grange, L. 2018. A comment on critiques of the article Age- and education-related effects on cognitive functioning in Colored South African women. South African Journal of Higher Education, 33(4):9-19, doi:10.20853/33-4-3715.

On the polemic of academic integrity in higher education

Academic integrity is integral to credible scholarship. Yet, the escalation of publications and the desire to publish, even in this journal – South African Journal of Higher Education – often bring into play the important practice of academic integrity. As the rush for publications increasingly becomes an obsession, rather than an intrinsically loved scholarly activity, the ugly side of academic fraud, cheating and plagiarism begins to accelerate, and this manifests in research outputs. This introductory article takes a critical look at three significant developments in realising research outputs in higher education: Turnitin for turnitout, academic cheating and Google cutting and pasting. We proffer what academics should be doing to avoid the malaise creeping into and manifesting in higher education.

''Walking on eggshells to not offend people": Experiences of same-sex student couples at a South African university

CITATION: Lesch, E., Brits, S. & Naidoo, N. T. 2017. Walking on eggshells to not offend people : experiences of same-sex student couples at a South African university. South African Journal of Higher Education, 31(4):127‒149, doi:10.20853/31-4-893.

South African corresponding authors on perceived beneficiaries and the nature of university research

CITATION: Boshoff, N. 2017. South African corresponding authors on perceived beneficiaries and the nature of university research. South African Journal of Higher Education, 31(3):46‒62, doi:10.20853/31-3-803.

Nnovation in conducting writing retreats for academic staff in higher education

How do researchers and administrators in higher education plan and carry out writing retreats for academic staff? This paper presents a distinctive approach to developing creative writing retreats for academic staff in higher education. We distill lessons from our June 2016 writing retreat, which drew participants from the University of Venda and the University of Limpopo. Responding to the South African Journal of Higher Education’s invitation to “re-imagine” writing retreats, we specify the shortcomings of linear writing retreats and discuss how to enhance collaboration, participation, and leadership capacity in planning and carrying out writing retreats. We also focus on an oft-neglected yet crucial feature of retreats, follow-up. As we show, our approach offers general insights for creative designing and implementing writing retreats.

Rethinking and researching transformation in higher education: A meta-study of South African trends

Transformation is often loosely defined. We argue that the reason for this is its inherent complexity. Paradoxically, its lack of definition is an asset, which provides an opportunity to rethink and research transformation in higher education, rather than an urgent problem to be solved. In this article, the possibilities for researching and rethinking transformation are based on an exploration of transformation in higher education and the policy directives that influenced its development in South Africa. A meta-study was used to determine the national publishing trends in the South African Journal of Higher Education and the way transformation in higher education is situated in some of the articles in this journal. The population of the study comprised 1050 articles published between 2005 and 2015 in the South African Journal of Higher Education. These were analysed to determine the broad national publishing trends. Thereafter, an in-depth analysis was conducted on 30 of these articles to determine the approach to transformation in higher education and the context in which it was discussed. Based on the findings of the analysis, we recommend future directions for rethinking and researching transformation in higher education.

The writing centre: A site for discursive dialogue in Management Studies

This article contributes to the ongoing conversation, in the South African Journal of Higher Education (SAJHE) and other journals, about academic literacy development in higher education. It reports on a small-scale quantitative study on the effect of writing centre support on students' academic performance, in the disciplinary context of management studies. The study generated questions and areas for reflection about how to assess the ways in which writing centres can become more valuable programmatically, institutionally, theoretically and methodologically. Its uniqueness arises from the attempt to look at the development of academic literacy writing competences not during the transition from school to university, but at the exit point of an academic bachelor's degree programme. It raises questions, such as: Is there a value for academic discourse induction even at this exit stage, and what impact does it have on the development of writing competences? How does this impact become known?

The search for ecologies of knowledge in the encounter with African epistemicide in South African education

CITATION: Fataar, A. & Subreenduth, S. 2015. The search for ecologies of knowledge in the encounter with African epistemicide in South African education. South African Journal of Higher Education, 29(2):106–121, doi:10.20853/29-2-468.

Promoting access to higher education in an unequal society

This short paper serves as an introduction to the collection of papers in this special issue of The South African Journal of Higher Education. First, the editors set the scene by commenting on access and throughtput in South African higher education, showing how these continue to be racially skewed, and linked to an inequitable education system. It is then observed that some of the intervention programmes that are offered at tertiary level do not always achieve their intended goals, and that interventions are increasingly being sought at secondary school level. Second, the editors introduce and briefly comment on the seven papers selected for this special issue, noting the particular contribution each makes to an understanding of the theme of promoting access to higher education in an unequal society. Third and in conclusion, the editors point to three issues that they believe emerge from the papers, and which are argued to be important in mapping the way forward. These are: the need to acknowledge that injections of finance may secure access, but do not necessarily secure success; a concern about the proliferation and fragmentation of interventions which do not ultimately have systemic impact; and the need for multi-site, multi-method and longitudinal studies that track the experiences of students through university and beyond.

Higher education and local communities

This article examines some roles of higher education in relation to local communities and local economies. After first establishing the increasing significance of local economic planning, three categories of role for higher education in relation to local development are identified: the first as a stakeholder, involving direct engagement with the local economy; the second as a strategic partner and advocate for human resource development and the third, as a service provider, building intellectual capital. The article examines the proposition that the most significant contribution that a university or technikon can make to the development of a locality derives from its recruitment of students from the local community. A research model is presented whose purpose is to provide a framework for the evaluation of the local impact of higher education institutions as service providers. Finally, such local roles for HEIs are discussed specifically in the South African context with a comment on the Government's National Plan for Higher Education. (South African Journal of Higher Education: 2003 17 (3): 66-73)

Deracialising universities: reflexive conversations

As a policy goal, staff equity, more specifically at the level of "race" ushers in several implementation challenges for the university sector. This article seeks to contribute substantively to this complex phenomenon. It relates the need for staff transformation (in terms of "race") with that of the democratic imperative as required by our diverse society. Having established the broad rationale for change it hones in on micro-level staff equity practices of recruitment and curriculum. It focuses on the extent to which "race" operates and intersects with other social factors. Furthermore, given the close conceptual relationship between "race" and the dimension of perceived alienation on the part of black academics, the article offers some insights into the meanings associated with the notion of alienation. (South African Journal of Higher Education: 2003 17 (3): 144-151)

Transforming education in South Africa: paradigm shift or change?

The transformation of the content of the educational curriculum in South Africa is an imperative of historical justice. Though the final constitution of South Africa represents a substantive improvement on the rights condition of many South Africans, it is at the same time an impediment to transformation. This is because it is not vested with credentials that make it a truly homegrown South African constitution. At the same time bounded reasoning in its aspect of impermeable boundaries renders the quest for transformation impossible. It is therefore urged that dialogue from within the permeable boundaries of all those involved is the optimal way to pursue the transformation of the content of the educational curriculum. (South African Journal of Higher Education: 2003 17 (3):137-143)

Students' conceptions of learning: using the ASSIST instrument

The focus of the study has been on students' conceptions of learning in three South African Technikons amidst the changing circumstances of teaching and learning from subject-based to outcomes-based education. First-year students face a particular measure of unpreparedness as they graduate from a conventional high school teaching methodology to an OBE methodology in the Technikon. It is for this reason that this study concentrated more on the advanced students as it has been assumed that they had greater interaction with the OBE format of teaching and learning. This article will describe the results obtained in a survey that used the ASSIST instrument. The Approaches to Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) has been developed as a simplification but a strengthening of the Approaches to Study Inventory (ASI) as developed by Tait, Entwistle and McCune (1998). The ASSIST was administered to 377 Technikon students (N=377) at three different Technikons in South Africa. The purpose of the study was to determine to which extent students pursue deep, strategic or surface apathetic learning approaches within a changing teaching and learning environment with the aim of establishing best practice. The findings seem to suggest that methods of assessment, direction given by lecturers and relevance of learning material are key factors in enhancing deep approaches to learning. (South African Journal of Higher Education: 2003 17 (3): 178-183)

A developmental focus to admissions testing: admissions and placement standards development

With the introduction of the Admissions and Placement Assessment Programme (APAP) at the University of Port Elizabeth (UPE) in 1998, it was felt that many learners entering higher education needed some form of academic development. It was also felt that testing at admission should provide information about the level of learners' proficiency on core academic competencies, to assist with decision-making about academic development. This article describes how the research team went about defining performance standards on the battery of measures used at UPE using a multidimensional cluster analysis approach. K-means cluster analysis was used as a method to classify 380 examinees in the Faculties of Science, and Economic and Building Sciences into groups similar in levels of proficiency on the Admissions and Placement Battery (APAB). The top and bottom borderline clusters of the final cluster solution were used to set cut scores on the measures. The clusters and cut scores were validated on a hold-out sample of 725 learners. The cut scores successfully identified learners who were not yet proficient enough to be successful without support, but who would benefit from development, as opposed to those learners who probably would not benefit, or were not in need of development. The importance of using performance standards in a multidimensional manner was emphasised. (South African Journal of Higher Education: 2003 17 (3): 192-208)

Re-thinking the role of theology in higher education: striving for deeper transformation

Since the first democratic elections of1994 every area of life in South Africa has been undergoing transformation. Higher education has not been exempt from this process. Within this context there have been attempts to minimise and sometimes, eliminate theology departments and faculties from institutions of higher learning because theology is often perceived as irrelevant. But if theology is taught in a contextual and engaging manner higher theological education can help learners reflect critically on contemporary life and the contribution they can make to society. Three modules from Unisa's Department of Missiology are examples of learning designs that are contextual and have the potential to evoke a deeper transformation in learners. (South African Journal of Higher Education: 2003 17 (3): 74-81)

Hundred per cent successful throughput rates of masters and doctoral research students

This article describes how 25 masters and doctoral students commenced their dissertations, with the writer as their supervisor, and how all subsequently succeeded in graduating, many within a time period of one to three years. These students also efficiently produced 18 articles in refereed journals, ten refereed published international conference papers, ten papers published in national conference proceedings, ten published seminar papers and several books as an integral part of the work for their dissertations. Most of these publications were written, under guidance, by students who either originated in historically disadvantaged backgrounds, or were handicapped by speaking English as a second language, or both. The article presents and discusses the teaching strategies, interventions and time management techniques adopted to ensure research student success even under adverse conditions, resulting in zero dropouts and a zero through-put failure rate under supervision from the early 1980s through to 2002. (South African Journal of Higher Education: 2003 17 (3): 217-225)