South African Higher Education System Research Articles

Relatability's role in formative assessment and feedback practices of young Black academics in an access university

Transformation and diversification efforts in South African higher education system continue thirty years into democracy. Access universities play a crucial role in attracting students from previously excluded groups to higher education, specifically Black learners from poor schools with the least resources. Black lecturers in access universities, through shared cultural identities and backgrounds, carry an unspoken responsibility, beyond academic duties, to develop inclusive assessment and feedback practices. This unspoken responsibility must be carried out without compromising academic curriculum requirements and became acutely important during the COVID-19 lockdown period. Through transdisciplinary pragmatism in pedagogical practice, relatability ensures that students engage in meaning-making through participation in the development of solutions that address hyper-localised problems, thus contextualising science in real-world contexts. This study evaluates the role of relatability in the development of inclusive, transdisciplinary, and pragmatic formative assessment and feedback practices for student success in higher education. It does this by comparing the practices and experiences of young, Black lecturers in an access university. Our formative assessment and feedback methodologies and analysis of our teaching portfolios are presented to demonstrate how our personal student experiences have shaped more inclusive practices. In the discussion, we highlight the influence of unspoken responsibilities on Black lecturers to develop student outcomes beyond academic success through assessment and feedback. We seek to highlight how relatability can be leveraged to improve formative assessment and feedback practices towards strengthening inclusive teaching and learning for students’ academic success.

“Doing Just Enough to Get By”: Voices of Black Women Early Career Academics on Navigating the Publish or Perish Discourse in South Africa

In this article, we focus on the narratives of black women early career academics (ECAs) who are confronting and negotiating the “publish or perish” discourse in their professional lives in the university. Through a qualitative interpretivist case study, we purposively recruited and interviewed 10 education academics in one research-intensive university in South Africa. We relied on Nancy Fraser’s social justice framework to think through and to theorise the complex positionality of black women academics in a South African university. The findings reveal that black women ECAs often have challenges when it comes to research and publication, with some of the participants rejecting the publish or perish mantra, questioning the usefulness of publishing, and to what extent their own research will make a societal impact. The findings also reveal the deeply embedded patriarchal and gendered nature of the publish or perish discourse in how it disregards the role of wife/motherly/societal care work that women academics often perform. We end the article with broader reflections on the emergence of the publish and perish discourse in the South African higher education system and its implications for the attraction, retention, and wellbeing of black women ECAs in the sector.

A Re-Imagined Institutional Student Retention and Success Framework to Enhance Holistic Student Support

The focus on student retention and success is a core concern at higher education institutions world-wide. In the South African higher education system, the widening of access, high attrition, low throughput and low completion rates highlight the vast disparities with students entering university. Student diversity with regard to prior contexts influences the way students engage in the higher education environment. In addition, many South African universities are equally not prepared to cater for the diverse needs of their students. This paper highlights the development and implementation of a holistic institutional student retention and success framework. The framework places the student as the central focus and the institution as a key role player in supporting student retention and success. Quantitative and qualitative data were used to inform the development of the student retention and success framework. Data were collected from a cohort of students over a seven-year period (2010 to 2017). A trend analysis was conducted with 4 547 students, using quantitative data from the university management system; in 2017 qualitative data were collected from a purposively selected sample of 54 students to gain an in-depth understanding of how students navigate their university studies within the university systems. Bertalanffy’s general systems theory (GST) was used to analyse the data and bring into focus the significance of the interdependence and interrelatedness of systems, and structures which influence each other directly or indirectly. In the framework the phenomenon of student success is viewed holistically as a set of elements interacting with one another within the university as a system. The paper argues that each element in the framework has an important role to play in providing holistic student support, engagement and success.

Impact(s) of Quality Assurance Requirements for Private Higher Education Institutions in South Africa

The surge and expansion of Private Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs) in South Africa is an indication that the private sector education is making significant progress. As a result, the PHEIs are considered as being in competition with Public Higher Institutions. This situation is envisaged to influence the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) to tighten its policies in order to control the PHEIS. Using the Octet quality theory, developed by Zaki and Zaki Rashidi. and the documentary content analysis research method, this study analyses ways in which quality assurance is used to curtail the growth of PHEIS. The findings of the study showed that some of the contributions of PHEIs are driven by the demand for higher learning opportunities in the republic, though faced by various challenges and barriers in fulfilling the quality assurance requirements in respect of accreditation the DHET. The paper submits that PHEIS are not in competition with Public Higher Educational Institutions, rather they are to be seen as complementing the vision of the DHET in its efforts to improve the South African Higher Education System. Thus, partnership between the private and the public institutions is recommended for the achievement of desired positive impacts.

Bachelor of Education Science Students’ Beliefs, Perceptions, and Experiences of Online Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case of Disadvantaged Students

This study examined Bachelor of Education science students’ beliefs, perceptions, and experiences of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. The investigation adopted an explanatory mixed method research design and involved purposively selected students enrolled for Bachelor of Education degree specialising in Physical and Life Sciences at a South African university. These students came from rural areas, townships, and informal settlements, which are characterised by a myriad of socio-economic challenges. These challenges have profound implications for students’ resilience within the higher education sector. The study was underpinned by Technology Ac ceptance Model as the theoretical framework. Quantitative data was collected through administration of a questionnaire while qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using SPSS and Atlas.ti, respectively. Findings showed that the students struggled to acquire appropriate digital devices and to access internet connectivity amongst other challenges because of their socio-economic backgrounds. They however demonstrated resilience through successful completion of their studies in the face of these critical challenges. Notwithstanding their socio-economic backgrounds, the students competed favourably with their peers from privileged backgrounds. The study has important implications for the alleviation of existing socio-economic disparities within the South African higher education system.

Mitigating the digital divide in the South African higher education system in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic

Access to higher education has been one of the critical areas of concern in South Africa, particularly for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Corona-virus (Covid-19) pandemic has brought the systemic cleavages into sharp relief, with ‘access’ and subsequent ‘success’ emerging as an important variable. Availability of digital facilities and internet connectivity have been important factors in enabling participation in higher education during the Covid-19 pandemic. The advent of the pandemic has, however, brought a new context to the challenges of higher education access, deepening the precarious position of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Thus, online teaching and learning intensified the digital divide between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’, exacerbating the already existing inequalities in the South African higher education system. The paper reflects on the question of how digital divide and access to learning infrastructure exacerbated inequality among students during the Covid-19 pandemic in South African higher education. This question is particularly important, given the rapid digitalisation of the curriculum that many South African institutions are still struggling to align with. This paper aims to interrogate the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic on South African higher education, highlighting the challenges of the digital divide and access to learning infrastructure using a social justice approach. The article draws on the work of Fraser (1999), which refers to the idea of social justice as distributional justice, re-allocating resources accessed solely by the privileged to the historically disadvantaged. It also aims to understand how the typology of inequality across the differentiated institutions affected the delivery of education during Covid-19. This is a qualitative research based on both secondary and primary data exploring official documents, statistics and published materials. The article argues towards a comprehensive and inclusive digital learning strategies with substantial coordination both from government and non-government stakeholders. It recommends that digital pedagogy and online platforms of learning should become an integral element of South African higher education services to ensure the continuity of education; this is necessary to avoid similar difficulties if crises that restrict physical movement occur in the future.

Policy Framework for the Internationalisation of Higher Education in South Africa: A Compass for Comprehensive Internationalisation?

On 6 November 2020, the Policy Framework for Internationalisation of Higher Education in South Africa was promulgated. It provides high-level principles and guidelines for the internationalisation of higher education in South Africa, lays down specific rules for certain aspects of the process and aims to shape the process of internationalisation at South African higher education institutions, redressing past inequalities whilst addressing policy imperatives of higher education in a democratic South Africa. In this paper, we analyse the context and content of the Policy Framework. We first explore the context by discussing the historical background leading to the development and drafting of the Policy Framework, whereafter we analyse the substantive content of the Policy Framework. We consider its suitability for advancing the South African higher education system's internationalisation objectives, interrogate whether it can provide direction for comprehensive internationalisation of higher education in the country and provide recommendations on the way forward devoting attention to strategies for successful policy implementation.

Institutional culture and academic career progression: Perceptions and experiences of academic staff

Orientation: The South African higher education system is highly dependent on institutional cultures to enable the progression of academics with the aim to unlock the research potential of the country. Institutional cultures are directed by the values, practices and behaviours of its members.Research purpose: Establish and present, from the academics’ point of view, the values, practices and behaviours that facilitate an enabling institutional culture, which supports the career progression of academic staff.Motivation for the study: A comprehensive and deeper understanding of any higher education institutional culture requires analysis beyond the structural elements and established procedures of the institution. An understanding of how individuals interpret their environment, to support their career progression, is equally important.Research approach/design and method: A qualitative, phenomenological approach was followed, through individual, semi-structured interviews with 17 academics, across all career phases.Main findings: An institutional culture in support of academic career progression includes three major values of: equity and inclusion, an ethic of care and collaboration, that are interconnected to practices such as performance management, a career management system, a comprehensive induction and orientation, a collaborative structure, remuneration, as well as resources and support, together with behaviours, comprising the articulation of team values, alignment of individual and institutional values, as well as a systemic approach.Practical/managerial implications: Understanding the values, practices and behaviours within the context of higher education offers leaders and talent management practitioners the necessary factors to consider as they grapple to understand a culture that enables the career progression of academic staff.Contribution/value-add: Deeper understanding, from the academics’ point of view, the values, practices and behaviours that facilitate an enabling institutional culture, which supports the career progression of academic staff.

Tranformation of a health sciences postgraduate population (2008-2017) at a higher education institution in South Africa: Has this occurred?

Despite efforts to prioritise transformation of the previously disadvantaged population, inequalities created by the Apartheid system persist in the South African higher education system. This study assessed transformation in relation to population affinity and gender of first-time enrolments of Health Sciences (HS) postgraduate students at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburg. A retrospective study of the Wits HS postgraduate student database was used for this assessment. The probability of a postgraduate student being Black African increased by 7.5 per cent per year [OR: 1.075, 95% CI (1.052–1.099), p<0.001] over the period 2008–2017 and of being female, increased by 5.6 per cent per year [OR: 1.056, 95% CI (1.033–1.081), p<0.001]. While transformation has occurred, Black African females are still under-represented. The transformation of the postgraduate student body as observed in this study is of importance to other countries struggling with racial and gender equity in the health workforce.

Decolonising the curriculum to reinvigorate equity in higher education: A linguistic transformation

This article outlines the severity of historical injustices in the South African Higher Education system and introduces the key concepts that underpin the argument. Reporting on a series of interviews will be provided to demonstrate how these injustices continue to be perpetuated. “The subject of dissension” regarding “decolonisation” insinuates that the universities implicated in the study are colonial; “they are an integral part” of an empire that has a role in preserving fixed values for the wellbeing of an elite. This elite has the racial connotation of being white. Whiteness is an avenue for preserving their opulence and echelon within an ideological, theocratic capitalist modus operandi. This wrangle is disingenuous and ahistorical. Despite the revised language policy that seeks to promote multilingualism and facilitate inclusivity, social cohesion and meaningful participation by all students through focusing on previously marginalised languages, the associated institutions’ curricula, reproduce the community’s wider inequalities.  

Gazing at South African higher education transformation through the potential role of the Wesleyan quadrilateral: A theological approach

The 2015–2016 South African higher education student movements evoked critical conversations regarding the extent to which institutions of higher learning have transformed into democratic and inclusive spaces. One of the key gaps in this field is the paucity of research that explores the potential role of theology in steering the direction of transformation in South African higher education system. Through a Wesleyan approach, the paper argues that the four quadrilaterals of the Wesleyn approach, scripture, tradition, reason and experience will be used as a theological tool to weight beliefs in the levels of dogma and doctrine, opinion and so as not to confuse critical reflection with negativity and judgmentalism in critically reflecting on the South African higher education struggles for transformation and decolonization. In our attempt to contribute meaningfully to the broader debates, started by scholars such as Nadar and Reddy ( 2015 ) and more recently, Phiri and Nadar ( 2018 ), who locate their work in theology to think through gender, curriculum and African feminism differently, counter-hegemonically. In this paper, we aim to contribute to this emerging body of work by arguing that theology has a critical role to play in helping us to imagine what a transformed, inclusive and socially just higher education could look like.

Transformation, stratification and higher education: exploring the absorption into employment of public financial aid beneficiaries across the South African higher education system

Improving access to higher education is an important strategy for achieving equity in the labour market. Against the backdrop of the ‘massification’ of higher education in a number of countries, most notably in the UK during the 1990s, a growing literature on graduate un/employment has aimed to investigate whether the graduate labour market has absorbed the increasing number of university completers. In post-apartheid South Africa, this question assumes an added significance corresponding with the need to redress sharp inequalities in access to higher education inherited from the colonial and apartheid eras. Measuring graduate employment outcomes, however, is notoriously difficult. Graduate employment studies are often ad hoc and focus on graduates from only a handful of universities or degree programmes. Exploring a novel dataset, this paper presents the first analysis of the labour market absorption rates of publicly funded (through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS)) graduates from low-income households across all South African universities between 2005 and 2015. While our findings illustrate the expected differences in the probability of employment by race and gender, we also identify a strong and significant association between the type of university from which NSFAS students graduate and the probability of employment and show that this association holds irrespective of race, gender and the field of study in which a degree is obtained. We conclude with a reflection on what a hierarchical higher education system means for the role of higher education in transformation and creating an equitable society.

Reimagining academic identities in response to research demands at Universities of Technology

In the last volume of this journal, Garraway and Winberg called for a reimagination of Universities of Technology (UoT) within the South African higher education system. This article continues that conversation by looking at the implications that the formation of the UoT had for academics’ identities. Technikon lecturers’ identities were closely tied to workplace expertise, but demands for research in UoTs have changed this. A social realist analysis of interviews with fifteen academics at three UoTs finds that research remains a contested issue. Interviewees understood research to take the form of acquiring postgraduate qualifications, rather than as an ongoing activity tied to their identities. Echoing Garraway and Winberg’s study, the bureaucratic nature of the institutional culture was referred to as a constraint. There was also a view that for this programme, Dental Technology, a demand for research was needed from industry if this was to be a valued aspect of academics’ identities.

The development of South African higher education within the apartheid system (1948-1994) – selected aspects

The article include the consideration of development of South African Higher Education System in Apartheid Era (1948-1994). Particular emphasis was placed on reconstructing educational practices and policy that is implemented toward different racial groups in South Africa. An attempt was made at examining the relationship between schooling, segregation processes, discrimination practices and the development of higher education institutions.

Learning through Linguistic citizenship: Finding the “I” of the essay

In recent years, the South African higher education system has seen growing calls for broadened epistemic access, decolonised curricula and transformed institutions. Scholars across South Africa have taken up the challenge and are working on new theoretical approaches to teaching and learning in higher education. In this paper, we reflect on students’ experiences of a multilingual, multimodal module called Reimagining Multilingualisms, which was jointly offered by the Universities of the Western Cape and Stellenbosch in April and May of 2018. In this paper, we provide an overview of the module and the different types of activities it involved. We reflect on these experiences using the theoretical lenses of decolonial scholar Mignolo (2009) on the ‘locus of enunciation’, and Stroud (2018) on ‘Linguistic Citizenship’. We present extracts from focus group interviews with students from both campuses to illustrate the involvement of ‘the body’ in ‘knowing’ and the ways in which the module enabled different ‘voices’ to emerge. We focus particularly on the role played by students’ perceived ‘vulnerability’ in the transformative benefits of the module and discuss this by way of conclusion. In sum, we suggest how the centring of multilingualism and diversity – not only as core pedagogic principles, but also as a methodology for transformation – may be used to enhance access and recapture voice in the building of a more integrated and just society.

Reconceptualising undergraduate entrepreneurship education at traditional South African universities

Orientation: The relatively high number of unemployed graduates in South Africa is a major cause for concern. Entrepreneurial start-ups have been heralded as the panacea to the unemployment challenge.Research purpose: The aim of this study was to ascertain how entrepreneurship education, at traditional South African universities, measured against existing entrepreneurship education frameworks.Motivation for the study: Despite a plethora of entrepreneurship education initiatives, the South African higher education system fails to produce sufficient entrepreneurs; hence, the need to explore how entrepreneurship education is structured.Research design, approach and method: The research design was exploratory and both quantitative and qualitative in nature. The population comprised the eleven traditional universities in South Africa and all of them were included in the study. Secondary data was obtained from the respective universities’ websites. The search sequence in the websites were as follows: Faculty of commerce/Management Sciences, Year/handbook, undergraduate/postgraduate programmes. The word ‘entrepreneurship’ was also used as a keyword to search within the university website.Main findings: The findings revealed some entrepreneurship modules, with low total credit value in relation to total programme credit value, at the undergraduate level and specialisation at the postgraduate level with some form of centre or incubator initiatives. It was also found that little attention is given to the development of entrepreneurial skills such as perseverance, resilience and self-efficacy.Practical/managerial implications: The significance of this article lies in its potential to guide the reconceptualisation of entrepreneurship education at South African universities.Contribution/value-add: This study integrates an existing framework and model to reconceptualise the undergraduate entrepreneurship programme. The reconceptualised structure entails a programme where modules from other disciplines are integrated into an entrepreneurship programme as opposed to the current structure where entrepreneurship modules are integrated into other career-focussed programmes.

Micro-politics of student participation in university leadership across the historically black universities

In the post 1994 South African higher education system, there have been significant moves and achievements at the transformation of higher education institutions. The chief instrument of institutional transformation has been the university governing councils. The key assumption was that transformation of the university council was key to the transformation of the universities. However, over the same period several former historically black universities have experienced periods of unrest and protest. As a result, several of these universities have remained in a state of a risk of protest. This state of tension and uncertainty that characterizes these institutions has made the different stakeholder begin to question their faith and confidence in the institutional values that govern these institutions. This paper argues that participation in leadership is key to effective governance. The paper makes use of the concept of culture within a micro-political framework to generate modes of good governance within such stakeholder institutional environments. To have been able to collect and analyze this kind, the study relied on data collected through documents, interviews and surveys. The paper ends with implications for effective governance in stakeholder governed university environments.

Boundaries of the Episteme: Decolonising the International Law Curriculum

ABSTRACTDebates on many university campuses call for a refocused or “decolonised” university curriculum. These demands reject curricula that are considered narrow and unreformed and cultures that position many in the university as unwelcome outsiders. In response to these calls, there have been attempts at a renewal of the South African higher education system, and several universities are currently revising their curricula in an endeavour to be responsive to students’ concerns. Drawing on Michel Foucault's idea of the “episteme”, this article narrates a university professor's quest to reconceptualise the undergraduate and postgraduate international law curricula at the university where she lectures, and highlights the lessons she has learnt in the process about the boundaries of her and other international law scholars’ knowledge and ways of knowing.

Of being a container through role definitions

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to reflect critically on the roles that women leaders in higher education institutions (HEIs) take on. Therefore, a systems psychodynamic view is used from a theoretical stance, while an autoethnographical methodology is applied to provide an in-depth emic view of, and reflections on, women leaders’ roles in the described context.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on the authors’ personal and organisational autoethnographical experiences as women leaders in HEIs in South Africa. Two women of different background reflect on their roles, and on becoming “containers” for certain issues within the described context over a period of time.FindingsThe autoethnographies show the roles women leaders take on within the organisations and how this relates to becoming a container for issues and underlying anxieties and fears that arise within the South African higher education system. The women leaders take on roles which contain fear and insecurities with regard to racial belonging, segregation and inclusion, national belonging, gendered roles, marginalisation and connection through self and others, authority and decision making.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited to autoethnographic experience descriptions of two academic women working in post-apartheid South African HEIs.Practical implicationsPresenting the self-described roles of two academics, the paper provides a critical perspective on issues of racialised and gendered roles, marginalisation and inclusion, authority and decision making, workplace stereotyping, gendering and racism, and thereby increases awareness about the impact of roles within the system’s context.Originality/valuePresenting the self-described roles of two academics, the paper provides a critical perspective on issues of racialised and gendered roles, marginalisation and inclusion, authority and decision making, workplace stereotyping, gendering and racism, and thereby increases awareness about the impact of roles within the system’s context.

Designing the South African Higher Education System for Student Success

South Africa’s higher education system is falling far short of producing the mix of competent graduates required to meet the country’s need for social and economic development. The problem of poor patterns of student success is longstanding, and is persisting despite the policy changes and many educationally sound interventions that have taken place in recent decades. This points to entrenched underlying obstacles, including but going beyond the legacy of apartheid, and indicates that they will not yield to supplementary or ad hoc improvement initiatives, however well-conceived individually. This paper is thus based on the proposition that there is a pressing need to design the South African university education system to focus unequivocally on student success and equity of outcomes. This implies, intentionally, that the current system is not designed around any clear commitment to student success. Correcting this must involve a re-prioritisation of goals in the higher education sector, aimed at ensuring that student success is accepted as the end goal of the educational mission of higher education. The paper argues that, if this is to be achieved, what is required is a sophisticated, realistic, coherent and comprehensive strategy for positive change. Given the nature of the higher education system, such a strategy must involve not only a clear vision of the scope of the changes and interventions needed to make a real difference to the performance patterns – in terms of equity as well as overall outcomes – but also an in-depth understanding of the responsibilities that must be taken by the key stakeholders and the underlying obstacles that must be addressed. The paper offers an outline of the major points of the argument, including the importance of applying design principles to any comprehensive response to the need to place student success at the heart of the higher education agenda.