Universities In South Africa Research Articles

Awareness, attitudes and perceptions of students towards leisure noise in Durban, South Africa.

Young adults are exposed to high noise levels in leisure venues, which increases their risk of hearing loss, and can affect their quality of life. The aim of this study was to describe the young adults' awareness, attitudes and perceptions towards leisure noise at a university in South Africa. A descriptive cross-sectional study design with quantitative methods of data was considered for this study. Students from first to fourth years in the Education Department of a local university in Durban, South Africa, who were aged 18 years old - 25 years old were invited to participate in an online survey. Of the 462 participants, most had a general awareness on noise and hearing loss but lacked knowledge on the negative effect of loud noise, with 95.2% using personal listening devices, followed by visiting restaurants and gyms, and 48.3% being unsure if noise can damage hearing permanently. They were unaware of methods to reduce their exposure to noise. A significant relationship between awareness of noise and attitudes (p= 0.029) indicated that the higher the level of awareness regarding leisure noise, the better their attitude and behaviour, thus the lower the risk of hearing loss. The results highlight the need for implementing the World Health Organization (WHO) noise regulations and providing education for this age group to prevent irreversible hearing loss through exposure to leisure noise.Contribution:A national study is recommended to increase research evidence.

Optimal power dispatching for a grid-connected electric vehicle charging station microgrid with renewable energy, battery storage and peer-to-peer energy sharing

The paper proposes an optimization approach and a modeling framework for a PV-Grid-integrated electric vehicle charging station (EVCS) with battery storage and peer-to-peer vehicle charging strategies. The main objective of the paper is to optimize the system for reliability and profitability while minimizing operational costs. The model considers factors such as energy demand, grid stability, battery health, and charging costs to efficiently utilize resources. A notable aspect of the proposed model is the introduction of a peer-to-peer energy sharing mechanism. Prosumers are allowed to trade energy with each other, enabling efficient utilization of resources and fostering a collaborative energy ecosystem. The dynamic power demand and pricing environment facilitate fair and optimized energy exchanges. The paper outlines the development of a mathematical algorithm formulation for the proposed model and validates its effectiveness and performance using a real-world case study conducted at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa. This comprehensive approach considers daily varying weather and load conditions, to ensure a realistic analysis of system performance and economic feasibility. The simulation results demonstrate significant energy demand cost savings, with a 38.14 % reduction considering time-of-use tariffs, and a 30.5 % reduction in maximum demand through optimal control and conducts a detailed techno-economic analysis over a 20-year period. The results indicate substantial reductions in grid costs and a break-even point within 8 years, highlighting the economic advantages of the optimization model. Furthermore, the results demonstrate significant cost savings, including energy demand cost savings and time-of-use savings.

Scaffolding African Language Intellectualisation: The Case of Sesotho and Setswana at a South African University

The call for the intellectualisation of African languages has become a topical agenda towards their use as languages of teaching and learning in institutions of higher learning in Africa. In their enunciation of language policies, South African universities are guided by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET)’s Language Policy Framework for Public Higher Education Institutions (LPFPHEI). The thrust of this paper is to interrogate how the language policy of one university in South Africa enables the intellectualisation of African languages. The study deploys Ruiz’s notion of language as a resource to examine the potential embedded within the university’s language policy to foster the intellectualisation of Sesotho and Setswana for use as LoTLs in a variety of disciplines. The university is one of the institutions of higher learning with the most recently revised language policy approved in 2022, hence its selection as the case study. The paper concludes that an enabling language policy that speaks to the linguistic realities, coupled with a variety of support structures within the university and also spelling out the implementation plan is what will result in the fruitful re-intellectualisation of African languages.

Micro language planning as a contested space: evidence from a South African university

ABSTRACT Micro language planning is often framed as democratic, transformative, inclusive, and therefore, less contested as it reproduces community consensus and support. This is contrasted with macro or top-down language planning which is power inflected and weaponised to serve interests of the dominant class. Through a theorisation of institutional language policies as products of micro language planning, this article analyses the language policy of one university in South Africa and reveals that, contrary to this widely held view, bottom-up language planning is also a site of struggle and contestation. In particular, we focus on specific language policy provisions that reveal the university’s underlying disposition towards multilingualism and linguistic identities. The analysis reveals multi-layered contestations on multilingualism and identity inherent in the university’s language policy. While the language policy purports to foster transformation by promoting multilingualism through the university’s ‘languages of choice,’ it is not exempt from the vagaries of essentialist identity politics and macro level language ideologies which legitimise English and Afrikaans. By identifying only four languages for promotion, the language policy envisages a kind of ‘exclusionary multilingualism’ that disregards the cosmopolitan character of the university and the identities marked by indigenous African languages left invisibilised by the language policy.

Preface

We are very pleased to introduce the proceedings of 2023 International Conference on Mechanical, Aerospace and Electronic Systems (MAES 2023). The conference was held from November 24 to 26, 2023, which is co-sponsored by University of Johannesburg, South Africa and University of South Africa, South Africa. MAES provided opportunities for discussions about methods, technologies, systems, and best practices in the different areas of mechanical, aerospace and electronic systems from different places around the world. This conference provides opportunities for the delegates to exchange new ideas and application experiences in hybrid format, to establish business cases or research relations and to find global partners for future collaboration. The proceedings of MAES 2023 cover a range of topics, including, but not limited to applied mechanics, automation, CAD/CAM/CAE, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), aerodynamic’s fundamental concepts, aerodynamics, aerospace robotics and mechatronics, aerospace systems and technology, advances in aeronautics and astronautics, aerospace defense systems, aerospace materials, aerospace propulsion systems, etc. On behalf of the Organizing Committee, a special thanks goes to the keynote speakers that shared their research ideas with us. Thanks are also extended to the authors of the papers selected for presentation and publication. Thanks are as well extended to the paper reviewers and the members of the organizing committee for their contribution and commitment to putting together a conference program that hopefully participants have found beneficial to advance their professional endeavor. List of Conference Committee is available in this pdf.

Intergrating the performance management system of a university in South Africa with its strategic plan

Intergrating the performance management system of a university in South Africa with its strategic plan

Rethinking openness for learning in open distance learning institutions

The trends in open distance learning over the years and its evolution to higher education are interesting phenomena that continue to gain acceptance. While open distance learning serves as an intervening solution, initiated by most African higher institutions for students that missed out on the opportunity of studying in mainstream institutions, there is a need for her tertiary institutions to confront the challenge of making the Institutions open to meet the needs of upwardly enrolling higher education of adult students. However, this study argues that not only is this practice pedagogically unsound, but also clearly contradictory to the policy for open distance learning, for which the institutions were established in the specific context of the University of South Africa. It further highlights the rethink of the pedagogical approach by all stakeholders focusing more closely on the quality of openness in teaching and learning. It seeks guidelines for designing teaching and learning, particularly for Open Distance Learning (ODL) institutions, which only have a policy for distance and online learning and in contrast to the institutions’ agenda by creating opportunities through open distance e-learning nationally and on the African continent. The Transactional Distance Theory was adopted to underpin the study. Also, it highlights the openness in ODL and recommends different innovative ways to take the agenda of Open Distance Learning forward for optimal impact.

Financial Development and Economic Growth: A Bibliometric Analysis

This research conducts a bibliometric analysis of 662 documents from the Scopus database (1986-2022), using tools like Harzing’s Publish or Perish, Tableau Public, Biblioshiny - RStudio, Microsoft Excel, and VOSviewer for data visualization. It highlights historical trends, growth, and future prospects in finance, identifying key authors, publications, countries, and institutions. China, Turkey, and Malaysia lead in publications, with the University of South Africa being the most productive institution. The study offers insights into future research in green finance, FinTech, and sustainability, emphasizing the evolution of concepts like “financial inclusion” and “fintech.”

Career success, collegiality, and the intentions of early career academics to stay in the academic profession

ABSTRACT This article examines the relationship between the career success of early career academics (ECAs), collegiality, and their intentions to stay in the academic profession. Two different surveys were developed and administered to ECAs (n=68) and other academics (n=219) from a public university in South Africa. The data were analysed using bivariate correlation and hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The results revealed that career success factors that include career advising (research and teaching and learning), learning and development, rewards and recognition, and socialisation strengthen the intentions of ECAs to stay in the academic profession. Additionally, collegiality demonstrated a strong moderation effect on the relationship between career advising on research, teaching and learning and the intentions of ECAs to stay in the academic profession. The article further discusses the implications of the results in relation to how career success and collegiality reinforce the intentions of ECAs to stay in the academic profession.

The Association of Exercise and Self-Esteem among First-Year Students Registered at a Rural University In South Africa

Introduction Students who move from secondary school to tertiary institutions may experience stressors that lead to low self-esteem. This may, however, be alleviated by exercise. The aim of the study was to investigate the association of exercise with self-esteem among first-year students enrolled at a University in South Africa. Methods A cross-sectional survey design was used. The study sample consisted of 320 randomly selected first-year students, 160 students who exercised regularly and 160 students who did not exercise. Data was collected using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE). The data were analysed using both non-inferential and inferential statistics. Results There were no statistically significant differences between the different ages and ethnicities with exercise and self-esteem. Exercisers had a slightly larger (14%) likelihood than non-participants of having more positive self-esteem, as shown by the OR of 1.14 (CI 1.06, 1.22). Discussion: Men and women who exercised had higher self-esteem scores than those who did not exercise. Those who exercised had a higher likelihood of having a positive sense of self. Conclusion First-year university students should include exercise in their activities as this is related to higher self-esteem.

Impact of intellectual property rights on foreign direct investment in Africa

The study investigated the impact of intellectual property rights on foreign direct investment (FDI) in selected African countries (Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali, Kenya, Burundi, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Senegal, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania). The purpose of the study is to develop property rights policies that encourages FDI in African countries. How FDI is influenced by the combination of trade openness and intellectual property rights was also examined using the same data set and econometric methods such as the dynamic generalized method of moments (GMM), fixed effects, and pooled ordinary least squares (OLS). Panel data ranging from 2005 to 2019 were used for the purposes of this study. A 1% increase in intellectual property rights led to a 22.73% increase in FDI inflows under the dynamic GMM and a 45.55% increase in FDI inflows under the random effects. These results show that intellectual property rights significantly enhanced FDI under the random effects and dynamic GMM. FDI was insignificantly enhanced by intellectual property rights under the pooled OLS and fixed effects methods. A 1% increase in complementarity between intellectual property rights and trade openness (complementarity term) pushed up FDI inflows by 17.78% under the dynamic GMM, whilst a 1% increase in the complementarity term increased FDI inflows by 16.72% under the fixed effects. In other words, dynamic GMM and fixed effects approaches show that the complementarity component significantly improved FDI inflows. The paper recommends implementing the best property rights strategies to improve FDI inflows into African countries. AcknowledgmentThe author appreciates the moral support from the University of South Africa, his employer.

Assessment of teaching strategies and learning style preferences of lecturers and oral hygiene students at a higher education institution in South Africa

Lecturers and students at tertiary institutions have different teaching strategies and learning styles (TS&LS) and it is essential to align these strategies and styles to ensure that students understand the concepts they are taught. This study was conducted to assess and compare the TS&LS preferences among lecturers and undergraduate oral hygiene students at a university in South Africa.

Seven years of embracing the sustainable development goals: perspectives from University of South Africa’s academic staff

As this article was being finalised, the world was left with less than 7 of the 15 years of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation to 2030. There were still huge gaps in the attainment of the SDGs in institutions of higher learning globally, especially that COVID-19 brought a barrier leading to a known pushback. However, the pandemic did not imply there was no work done prior, during and after COVID-19. This article investigates the extent to which the University of South Africa’s academic staff activated and mainstreamed the SDGs in their core mandates between 2016 and 2022. Data was generated through a survey (n = 121), participatory action research, and document analysis. It emerged there is a greater degree of awareness of the SDGs, with 78% of academic respondents confirming this. However, the percentages drop across the four core mandate areas when it comes to SDGs implementation. About 52.6% of academics indicated they were promoting SDGs in their teaching, research (63.3%), community engagement (55.5%) and academic citizenship (54.5%). Findings further reveal key enabling institutional policies like the SDGS Localisation Declaration, and the Africa-Nuanced SDGs Research Support Programme. Large gaps remain on the publication front, where over 60% of the responding academics had not published an article explicitly on SDGs. There is also bias in publications towards certain SDGs. The work recommends that University of South Africa management continue raising awareness on the SDGs and systematically address barriers identified in the main article to enhance the mainstreaming of the SDGs across all core mandate areas.

African Knowledge Production Incubators: Approaching Indigenous and Decolonized Social Work from the Ground Up Through Stories of Our Lived Experiences

ABSTRACT Six social work academics from five universities in South Africa embarked on an African Knowledge Production Incubators project using PALAR methodology. We acknowledged the imperative to decolonise social work curricula in South African universities with the goal of centering African knowledges. This article reports on our project’s first objective viz. telling stories of our lived experiences of being an African. Our stories reflected the richness in the traditions and rituals we inherited from our ancestral and local knowledge holders and wisdom bearers. The key learnings translated into guidelines for the extended incubation and the decolonization of the social work curriculum.

Student disciplinary policies at a distance and online university in South Africa

Academic integrity is at the core of the academic project and is threatened if universities and the academics and students in them, do not take the quest of achieving academic integrity seriously. If other universities, businesses, and the general public lose trust in a specific university due to a perceived lack of academic integrity in the institution and its qualifications, this creates a threat to the sustainability of the university. In this paper I evaluate the student disciplinary policies and codes of a distance education university against the core elements of an exemplary academic integrity policy (Bretag, Mahmud, Wallace, Walker, James, Green et al., 2011). The five core elements identified by Bretag et al. (2011) are access, approach, responsibility, detail, and support. The university’s policies were evaluated against these elements and rated on whether each one has been achieved or not. This analysis is done at the policy level and also encompasses the policy experiences of this university during COVID-19, by unpacking how these policies played out when a major challenge was applied to them. Apart from the policy analysis, this paper is based on 10 months of fieldwork undertaken during 2021 when 28 people were interviewed; an analysis of policies; and an analysis of five years’ worth of records from student disciplinary procedures. I argue that the five elements for effective student disciplinary policies need to be present for the institutionalisation of academic integrity to occur.

South African Higher Education: Transformation or/and Decolonisation?

Transformation is the christened name of institutional activities seeking to change South Africa ‘into the opposite of apartheid’, including in higher education (HE). However, transformation failures meant that students at universities in South Africa, through several #MustFall movements, protested around their misgivings about ‘transformation’ and advocated for a decolonial turn. Decolonisation, therefore, has become the preferred name for change to some sections of HE, thereby creating a conflict with ‘transformation’. Our study collected responses on the meaning of transformation and decolonisation and their capability to change the hegemonic structure and Western institutional culture in universities. The qualitative study was anchored in Fomunyam’s social transformation theory and used semi-structured interviews to collect data from 11 participants from a South African university. They were analysed thematically (reflexively). Findings depicted opinions favouring both transformation and decolonisation to achieve changes required in HE. The liberal and linguistic nature of transformation means it can be manipulated for different agendas and research purposes. Meanwhile, decolonisation, anchored in histories of Africa’s oppression, is specific about recentring Africa in the universities. In conclusion, it is vital to exercise caution to avoid ‘decolonial fatigue’ which would make decolonisation a rhetoric just like transformation.

New Media and Self-directed Learning: Enhancing Pedagogical Transformation in an Open Distance Learning Landscape

In essence, open educational resources (OERs) are transforming the education landscape in many different fields. They are swiftly becoming important elements in support of open educational practices and the open education movement. Modern technological innovations permeate every aspect of life, and higher education is no exception. This study investigated the types and pedagogical value of the new media that academics have adopted to promote self-directed learning at the University of South Africa (Unisa). To realise the aim of the study, the following questions were addressed: Which new media approaches have academics adopted to enhance self-directed learning? What is the pedagogical value of using new media in an open and distance learning environment? The study was informed by the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology. A qualitative approach was employed, and data were collected through face-to-face interviews with 30 purposively selected Unisa academics from across different schools. Upon analysing the data using open and axial coding, dominant themes from the discussions were identified and discussed in detail. The findings revealed that various new media platforms, such as OERs, blogs, Camtasia Studio, Google Docs, and so forth, are used to promote self-directed learning at Unisa and have proven to be pivotal in opening avenues of communication and collapsing the transactional distance at this ODL institution. New media thus serve as strong catalysts for fostering pedagogical transformation.

Pedagogical Translanguaging as a Socially Just Strategy for Multilingual Students in Occupational Therapy

Multilingual speakers’ languaging practices are undervalued and problematised in formal teaching and learning spaces in higher education. The environment has legitimised monolingualism as the only acceptable practice, hence students often lack the confidence to recruit their full linguistic repertoires. In the third and fourth years of their Occupational Therapy studies, many African students faced challenges due to socio-historic-political factors that put them at risk of failure. These challenges were addressed in academic support tutorial spaces using pedagogical translanguaging. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate the use of translanguaging as a socially just strategy, its affordances, and its challenges. This paper utilises data from a case study within a larger project aiming to describe the use of translanguaging in multilingual teaching and learning settings at a historically White university in South Africa. The case study comprised of eight African students. Linguistic ethnography and Moment analysis were employed. Pedagogical translanguaging and humour were used to create a space conducive to collaborative learning and co-construction of knowledge that granted epistemic access to occupational therapy discourse. Respect and dignity were fundamental in fostering cohesion, improving confidence, enacting speaking rights, and creating a sense of belonging among students who often felt alienated.

De-migranticizing as methodology: rethinking migration studies through immobility and liminality

De-migranticization is becoming a core strategy for overcoming the fetishization of migrants in migration studies. However, this shift in perspectives raises questions about what categories to use instead. This paper contributes to these debates by considering the potential of studying immobility as a tool for de-migranticization. It looks at immobility through the lens of liminality: as a transitory phase, as a transformative stage and as one which enables epistemological subversion. In doing so, it goes beyond other border spanning terms to offer methodological insights into using immobility and liminality to de-migranticize. The paper suggests that these qualities of reading immobility through theories of liminality has implications for when, where and how to study migration. The empirical case draws on 165 semi-structured interviews with distance education students from Zimbabwe, Namibia and Nigeria studying at the University of South Africa (UNISA).

Respecting individual religious autonomy at secular public universities in South Africa

Respecting individual religious autonomy at secular public universities in South Africa