An assessment of the implementation of peer academic support programmes at higher education institutions in South Africa: a case study of one university
- Authors: Tangwe, Magdaline Nji
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Peer teaching -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , M Ed
- Identifier: vital:16203 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1016084 , Peer teaching -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa
- Description: The purpose of the study was to assess the implementation of peer academic support programmes which are Language and Writing Advancement and Supplemental Instruction programmes in one University in South Africa. The study adopted a qualitative approach that used face-to-face interviews, focus group interviews and document analysis to collect data. Purposive sampling was used to select those who participated in the study. The participants were two coordinators of the programmes, ten facilitators working in the programmes for in-depth interviews and ten students who have been receiving services from the programmes for two focus group discussions. The study revealed that there was a general trend whereby peer facilitators of the programmes were recruited and trained. However, it was found that some facilitators abandoned the position immediately after the training which made it difficult for coordinators and Human Resource Staff (HR) to start the process of recruitment and retraining. In this regard, Teaching and Learning Centre, (TLC) and HR simply appointed other untrained facilitators to replace those who had deserted the positions. Also, some facilitators were unable to attend some of the regular trainings because of clashes with their classes. All these have a negative impact on the implementation of the programmes. The results also reveal that some of the facilitators were frustrated with students’ poor attendance in the sessions, and even those who attended their sessions, did not participate much in the discussions. It was found that most lecturers and students did not know the differences between supplemental instruction (SI) and tutorials. Neither did lecturers encourage their students to seek help from the TLC services. Reviewing of assignments from different disciplines by TLC facilitators was another burning issue that came up. Some facilitators reviewed assignments from different disciplines, because the disciplines were not represented and this is because they want to claim for more hours, which affects the quality of the programmes. The findings also show that some students did not like to take their assignment to the TLC for review because facilitators make unnecessary and harsh comments. On the contrary, some students acknowledged that they were fine with the way facilitators review assignments because it involves one-on-one consultation, and they always pass the assignments reviewed by PASS facilitators. The study also revealed that the coordinators monitored and evaluated facilitators through observation and the checking of attendance registers. Coordinators ware also monitored by senior colleagues of the department such as the manager of the TLC. Furthermore TLC has instituted a mentorship programme whereby senior facilitators mentor newly recruited facilitators. However not every facilitator had a mentor. The study also exposed the fact that the TLC venue was usually closed during examination periods to allow facilitators to prepare for their examinations. The findings show that some departments were not represented by facilitators and to remedy this situation, it is recommended that all departments be represented and lecturers encourage the students to get help from TLC. Most facilitators were undergraduate students, but they needed to be replaced by post graduates who did not have course work that will clash with PASS activities. The strategies used by facilitators were fairly good but more should be done to encourage students to participate in sessions. Finally, the monitoring and support mechanisms put in place were very functional but the TLC should make sure every facilitator is being monitored especially concerning the review of assignments. The significance of the findings of this study cannot be overemphasised. The strengths and challenges regarding the implementation of these programmes at this particular university have been revealed. Through the recommendations, it is hoped that the institution and the TLC would effect some changes in the implementation of these peer academic support programmes in order to better serve the students so as to achieve satisfactory throughput and retention rates.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Tangwe, Magdaline Nji
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Peer teaching -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , M Ed
- Identifier: vital:16203 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1016084 , Peer teaching -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa
- Description: The purpose of the study was to assess the implementation of peer academic support programmes which are Language and Writing Advancement and Supplemental Instruction programmes in one University in South Africa. The study adopted a qualitative approach that used face-to-face interviews, focus group interviews and document analysis to collect data. Purposive sampling was used to select those who participated in the study. The participants were two coordinators of the programmes, ten facilitators working in the programmes for in-depth interviews and ten students who have been receiving services from the programmes for two focus group discussions. The study revealed that there was a general trend whereby peer facilitators of the programmes were recruited and trained. However, it was found that some facilitators abandoned the position immediately after the training which made it difficult for coordinators and Human Resource Staff (HR) to start the process of recruitment and retraining. In this regard, Teaching and Learning Centre, (TLC) and HR simply appointed other untrained facilitators to replace those who had deserted the positions. Also, some facilitators were unable to attend some of the regular trainings because of clashes with their classes. All these have a negative impact on the implementation of the programmes. The results also reveal that some of the facilitators were frustrated with students’ poor attendance in the sessions, and even those who attended their sessions, did not participate much in the discussions. It was found that most lecturers and students did not know the differences between supplemental instruction (SI) and tutorials. Neither did lecturers encourage their students to seek help from the TLC services. Reviewing of assignments from different disciplines by TLC facilitators was another burning issue that came up. Some facilitators reviewed assignments from different disciplines, because the disciplines were not represented and this is because they want to claim for more hours, which affects the quality of the programmes. The findings also show that some students did not like to take their assignment to the TLC for review because facilitators make unnecessary and harsh comments. On the contrary, some students acknowledged that they were fine with the way facilitators review assignments because it involves one-on-one consultation, and they always pass the assignments reviewed by PASS facilitators. The study also revealed that the coordinators monitored and evaluated facilitators through observation and the checking of attendance registers. Coordinators ware also monitored by senior colleagues of the department such as the manager of the TLC. Furthermore TLC has instituted a mentorship programme whereby senior facilitators mentor newly recruited facilitators. However not every facilitator had a mentor. The study also exposed the fact that the TLC venue was usually closed during examination periods to allow facilitators to prepare for their examinations. The findings show that some departments were not represented by facilitators and to remedy this situation, it is recommended that all departments be represented and lecturers encourage the students to get help from TLC. Most facilitators were undergraduate students, but they needed to be replaced by post graduates who did not have course work that will clash with PASS activities. The strategies used by facilitators were fairly good but more should be done to encourage students to participate in sessions. Finally, the monitoring and support mechanisms put in place were very functional but the TLC should make sure every facilitator is being monitored especially concerning the review of assignments. The significance of the findings of this study cannot be overemphasised. The strengths and challenges regarding the implementation of these programmes at this particular university have been revealed. Through the recommendations, it is hoped that the institution and the TLC would effect some changes in the implementation of these peer academic support programmes in order to better serve the students so as to achieve satisfactory throughput and retention rates.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
The supervisor’s tale: postgraduate supervisors’ experiences in a changing Higher Education environment
- Authors: Searle, Ruth Lesley
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Graduate students -- Supervision of -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Educational change -- South Africa , Archer, Margaret Scotford -- Political and social views , Critical realism , Knowledge, Sociology of , Dissertations, Academic , Faculty advisors -- South Africa , Education -- Study and teaching (Graduate) -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- Graduate work
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1331 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1019952
- Description: The environment in which higher education institutions operate is changing, and these changes are impacting on all aspects of higher education, including postgraduate levels. Changes wrought by globalisation, heralded by rapid advances in technology have inaugurated a new era in which there are long term consequences for higher education. The shift towards more quantitative and measurable "outputs" signifies a fundamental change in the educational ethos in institutions. Effectiveness is now judged primarily on numbers of graduates and publications rather than on other aspects. The drive is to produce a highly educated population, especially through increasing postgraduates who can drive national innovation and improve national economies. This affects academics in a range of ways, not least in the ways in which they engage in teaching, what they are willing to do and how they do it. Such changes influence the kinds of research done, the structures and funding which support research, and thus naturally shapes the kinds of postgraduate programmes and teaching that occurs. This study, situated in the field of Higher Education Studies, adopting a critical realist stance and drawing on the social theory of Margaret Archer and the concepts of expert and novice, explores the experiences of postgraduate supervisors from one South African institution across a range of disciplines. Individual experiences at the level of the Empirical and embodied in practice at the level of the Actual allow for the identification of possible mechanisms at the level of the Real which structure the sector. The research design then allows for an exploration across mezzo, macro and micro levels. Individuals outline their own particular situations, identifying a number of elements which enabled or constrained them and how, in exercising their agency, they develop their strategies for supervision drawing on a range of different resources that they identify and that may be available to them. Student characteristics, discipline status and placement, funding, and the emergent policy environment are all identified as influencing their practice. In some instances supervisors recognise the broader influences on the system that involve them in their undertaking, noting the international trends. Through their narratives and the discourses they engage a number of contradictions that have developed in the system with growing neo-liberal trends and vocationalism highlighting tensions between academic freedom and autonomy, and demands for productivity, efficiency and compliance, and between an educational focus and a training bias in particular along with others. Especially notable is how this contributes to the current ideologies surrounding knowledge and knowledge production. Their individual interests and concerns, and emergent academic identities as they take shape over time, also modifies the process and how individual supervisors influence their own environments in agentic moves becomes apparent. Whilst often individuals highlight the lack of support especially in the early phases of supervision, the emergent policy-constrained environment is also seen as curtailing possibilities and especially in limiting the possibilities for the exercise of agency. Whilst the study has some limitations in the range and number of respondents nevertheless the data provided rich evidence of how individual supervisors are affected, and how they respond in varied conditions. What is highlighted through these experiences are ways pressures are increasing for both supervisors and students and changing how they engage. Concerns in particular are raised about the growing functional and instrumental nature of the process with an emphasis on the effects on the kinds of researchers being developed and the knowledge that is therefore being produced. As costs increase for academics through the environments developed and with the varied roles they take on so they become more selective and reluctant to expand the role. This research has provided insights into ideas, beliefs and values relating to the postgraduate sector and to the process of postgraduate supervision and how it occurs. This includes the structures and cultural conditions that enable or constrain practitioners as they develop in the role in this particular institution. It has explored some of the ways that mechanisms at international, national and institutional levels shape the role and practices of supervisors. The effects of mechanisms are in no way a given or simply understood. In this way the research may contribute to more emancipatory knowledge which could be used in planning and deciding on emergent policies and practices which might create a more supportive and creative postgraduate environment.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Searle, Ruth Lesley
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Graduate students -- Supervision of -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Educational change -- South Africa , Archer, Margaret Scotford -- Political and social views , Critical realism , Knowledge, Sociology of , Dissertations, Academic , Faculty advisors -- South Africa , Education -- Study and teaching (Graduate) -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- Graduate work
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1331 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1019952
- Description: The environment in which higher education institutions operate is changing, and these changes are impacting on all aspects of higher education, including postgraduate levels. Changes wrought by globalisation, heralded by rapid advances in technology have inaugurated a new era in which there are long term consequences for higher education. The shift towards more quantitative and measurable "outputs" signifies a fundamental change in the educational ethos in institutions. Effectiveness is now judged primarily on numbers of graduates and publications rather than on other aspects. The drive is to produce a highly educated population, especially through increasing postgraduates who can drive national innovation and improve national economies. This affects academics in a range of ways, not least in the ways in which they engage in teaching, what they are willing to do and how they do it. Such changes influence the kinds of research done, the structures and funding which support research, and thus naturally shapes the kinds of postgraduate programmes and teaching that occurs. This study, situated in the field of Higher Education Studies, adopting a critical realist stance and drawing on the social theory of Margaret Archer and the concepts of expert and novice, explores the experiences of postgraduate supervisors from one South African institution across a range of disciplines. Individual experiences at the level of the Empirical and embodied in practice at the level of the Actual allow for the identification of possible mechanisms at the level of the Real which structure the sector. The research design then allows for an exploration across mezzo, macro and micro levels. Individuals outline their own particular situations, identifying a number of elements which enabled or constrained them and how, in exercising their agency, they develop their strategies for supervision drawing on a range of different resources that they identify and that may be available to them. Student characteristics, discipline status and placement, funding, and the emergent policy environment are all identified as influencing their practice. In some instances supervisors recognise the broader influences on the system that involve them in their undertaking, noting the international trends. Through their narratives and the discourses they engage a number of contradictions that have developed in the system with growing neo-liberal trends and vocationalism highlighting tensions between academic freedom and autonomy, and demands for productivity, efficiency and compliance, and between an educational focus and a training bias in particular along with others. Especially notable is how this contributes to the current ideologies surrounding knowledge and knowledge production. Their individual interests and concerns, and emergent academic identities as they take shape over time, also modifies the process and how individual supervisors influence their own environments in agentic moves becomes apparent. Whilst often individuals highlight the lack of support especially in the early phases of supervision, the emergent policy-constrained environment is also seen as curtailing possibilities and especially in limiting the possibilities for the exercise of agency. Whilst the study has some limitations in the range and number of respondents nevertheless the data provided rich evidence of how individual supervisors are affected, and how they respond in varied conditions. What is highlighted through these experiences are ways pressures are increasing for both supervisors and students and changing how they engage. Concerns in particular are raised about the growing functional and instrumental nature of the process with an emphasis on the effects on the kinds of researchers being developed and the knowledge that is therefore being produced. As costs increase for academics through the environments developed and with the varied roles they take on so they become more selective and reluctant to expand the role. This research has provided insights into ideas, beliefs and values relating to the postgraduate sector and to the process of postgraduate supervision and how it occurs. This includes the structures and cultural conditions that enable or constrain practitioners as they develop in the role in this particular institution. It has explored some of the ways that mechanisms at international, national and institutional levels shape the role and practices of supervisors. The effects of mechanisms are in no way a given or simply understood. In this way the research may contribute to more emancipatory knowledge which could be used in planning and deciding on emergent policies and practices which might create a more supportive and creative postgraduate environment.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
Retention and dropout rates for a sample of national higher certificate students in the school of accounting
- Authors: Beck, Richard Alan
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: College dropouts -- South Africa , Learning ability , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Accounting -- Study and teaching
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MTech
- Identifier: vital:8971 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1408 , College dropouts -- South Africa , Learning ability , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Accounting -- Study and teaching
- Description: Higher Education retention rates in South Africa are among the lowest in the world. At the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, a trend has been noted for National Higher Certificate (NHC) students within the Faculty of Business and Economic Science’s School of Accounting. Dropout rates have increased and graduation rates have declined for students studying NHC programmes. Retention and dropout studies have rarely been undertaken for accounting students in higher certificate or diploma programmes, which provided the motivation for this study. The study aimed to determine the dropout and retention rates of NHC students and to identify the demographic and other characteristics of dropout students relative to those who persist with their studies. Furthermore, the study identified potential barriers to academic success in the sample. An exploratory descriptive research approach was adopted to achieve the general and specific aims of the study. Data were obtained from Management Information Services about NHC dropout students and students continuing with their studies for the period 2005 to 2009. Furthermore, information was gathered for separate samples from a Language Questionnaire and the Learning Enhancement Checklist (LEC) regarding barriers to student success. High dropout rates were found in that more than half of the students dropped out. Correspondingly, the retention rates were low. The findings for the gender, cultural and language groups were interesting but no definitive conclusions could be reached regarding trends related to student dropout and retention in relation to these biographical variables. Performance in Financial Accounting I and II yielded interesting trends. Students at risk for dropping out obtained a mark of 50 percent or less on average for Financial Accounting I and 40 percent or less for Financial Accounting II. The analysis conducted to determine barriers to student success revealed that students did not prepare adequately for lectures; experienced certain difficulties in lectures, tests and VIII exams; found it difficult to manage their studies and time; and experienced financial and psychological problems. The findings of the study can be used to identify students who might drop out at an early stage. Furthermore, the findings can guide the nature of the development and support that NHC students need to succeed. The limitations of the study are noted and suggestions are made for further research into the factors related to student dropout and retention in the field of accounting.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Beck, Richard Alan
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: College dropouts -- South Africa , Learning ability , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Accounting -- Study and teaching
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MTech
- Identifier: vital:8971 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1408 , College dropouts -- South Africa , Learning ability , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Accounting -- Study and teaching
- Description: Higher Education retention rates in South Africa are among the lowest in the world. At the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, a trend has been noted for National Higher Certificate (NHC) students within the Faculty of Business and Economic Science’s School of Accounting. Dropout rates have increased and graduation rates have declined for students studying NHC programmes. Retention and dropout studies have rarely been undertaken for accounting students in higher certificate or diploma programmes, which provided the motivation for this study. The study aimed to determine the dropout and retention rates of NHC students and to identify the demographic and other characteristics of dropout students relative to those who persist with their studies. Furthermore, the study identified potential barriers to academic success in the sample. An exploratory descriptive research approach was adopted to achieve the general and specific aims of the study. Data were obtained from Management Information Services about NHC dropout students and students continuing with their studies for the period 2005 to 2009. Furthermore, information was gathered for separate samples from a Language Questionnaire and the Learning Enhancement Checklist (LEC) regarding barriers to student success. High dropout rates were found in that more than half of the students dropped out. Correspondingly, the retention rates were low. The findings for the gender, cultural and language groups were interesting but no definitive conclusions could be reached regarding trends related to student dropout and retention in relation to these biographical variables. Performance in Financial Accounting I and II yielded interesting trends. Students at risk for dropping out obtained a mark of 50 percent or less on average for Financial Accounting I and 40 percent or less for Financial Accounting II. The analysis conducted to determine barriers to student success revealed that students did not prepare adequately for lectures; experienced certain difficulties in lectures, tests and VIII exams; found it difficult to manage their studies and time; and experienced financial and psychological problems. The findings of the study can be used to identify students who might drop out at an early stage. Furthermore, the findings can guide the nature of the development and support that NHC students need to succeed. The limitations of the study are noted and suggestions are made for further research into the factors related to student dropout and retention in the field of accounting.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
The integration of academic skills/support programmes into university department structures: a case study in the sociology of education
- Authors: Drewett, Michael
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: Education, Higher -- South Africa , Compensatory education -- South Africa , Education, Higher , Education -- Philosophy , Rhodes University. Academic Development Programme
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3327 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003115
- Description: This research focuses on the extent to which the Rhodes University Academic Skills Programme (ASP), now known as the Academic Development Programme, is able to act as an agent of progressive change within Rhodes University. In so doing it concentrates on the potential of the strategy of integrated academic development for dealing with the academic needs of university students within the context of South Africa as a society in transition. The candidate considers the inability of structuralist educational theory to account for the potential of human agency at the site of formal education. It is shown that structuralist theories provide deterministic and pessimistic accounts of the role of institutions of formal education. In support of this contention this study explores the history of ASP at Rhodes University, demonstrating that significant change in student academic development has already taken place. ASP has contributed to change within the said University through challenging traditional notions of academic development. This thesis suggests that the non-structuralist critical theory of Jurgen Habermas provides a more holistic account of ASP than do structuralist theories of formal education. Through the incorporation of Habermas's theory of communicative action a process of critical integration is explored, showing that a strategy of integrated academic development has the potential to involve all those who have an interest in university education through a process of rational discourse. This potential is strengthened by the fact that many students and staff have expressed an awareness of the need for an integrated academic development strategy. This thesis subsequently explores the possibility of there being a process of democratic and rational discourse which could lead to a progressive integration programme in the Rhodes University Department of Sociology and Industrial Sociology. This thesis stresses the contested nature of the integration process within departments. It is indicated that Habermas's critical theory is able to account for the changes which have taken place in the past and which are presently under way. It is argued that it not possible to predict future outcomes, but that if ASP pursues a process of rational discourse, it will indeed be able to stimulate a critical integrative approach to academic development in the Rhodes University Department of Sociology and Industrial Sociology.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1993
- Authors: Drewett, Michael
- Date: 1993
- Subjects: Education, Higher -- South Africa , Compensatory education -- South Africa , Education, Higher , Education -- Philosophy , Rhodes University. Academic Development Programme
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSocSc
- Identifier: vital:3327 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003115
- Description: This research focuses on the extent to which the Rhodes University Academic Skills Programme (ASP), now known as the Academic Development Programme, is able to act as an agent of progressive change within Rhodes University. In so doing it concentrates on the potential of the strategy of integrated academic development for dealing with the academic needs of university students within the context of South Africa as a society in transition. The candidate considers the inability of structuralist educational theory to account for the potential of human agency at the site of formal education. It is shown that structuralist theories provide deterministic and pessimistic accounts of the role of institutions of formal education. In support of this contention this study explores the history of ASP at Rhodes University, demonstrating that significant change in student academic development has already taken place. ASP has contributed to change within the said University through challenging traditional notions of academic development. This thesis suggests that the non-structuralist critical theory of Jurgen Habermas provides a more holistic account of ASP than do structuralist theories of formal education. Through the incorporation of Habermas's theory of communicative action a process of critical integration is explored, showing that a strategy of integrated academic development has the potential to involve all those who have an interest in university education through a process of rational discourse. This potential is strengthened by the fact that many students and staff have expressed an awareness of the need for an integrated academic development strategy. This thesis subsequently explores the possibility of there being a process of democratic and rational discourse which could lead to a progressive integration programme in the Rhodes University Department of Sociology and Industrial Sociology. This thesis stresses the contested nature of the integration process within departments. It is indicated that Habermas's critical theory is able to account for the changes which have taken place in the past and which are presently under way. It is argued that it not possible to predict future outcomes, but that if ASP pursues a process of rational discourse, it will indeed be able to stimulate a critical integrative approach to academic development in the Rhodes University Department of Sociology and Industrial Sociology.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 1993
Sustainability reporting guidelines for higher educational institutions in South Africa
- Authors: Zietsman, Jaco
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Education, Higher -- South Africa , Corporation reports Sustainability
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/33384 , vital:32754
- Description: In the higher education sector, a number of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are playing a leading role in promoting sustainable initiatives. Managing these initiatives effectively can be a complex task and requires data and information from multiple sources. HEIs must ensure financial sustainability, social sustainability, environmental sustainability and educational sustainability. HEIs in South Africa are required to produce a sustainability report for the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) on an annual basis. HEIs are not required to use a specific set of guidelines to create a report that complies with the DHET reporting requirements. HEIs face a number of challenges in effectively managing and reporting on sustainability information, such as poor sharing and communication of information and combining information from different sources to form an integrated report. Well-structured guidelines that adheres to institution standards and governmental reporting requirements can effectively streamline the sustainability reporting process. This study investigates the requirements and challenges of effective sustainability reporting for HEIs in South Africa. A set of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 guidelines were reworked to support effective sustainability reporting by South African HEIs. Nelson Mandela University is one such HEI, which is affected by the challenges of managing and reporting on strategic sustainability information. Nelson Mandela University was therefore used as a case study in this research study. An in-depth study was done exploring how prominent international universities apply the GRI guidelines to contribute and generate integrated sustainability reports for their specific HEIs and general reporting needs and requirements. Additionally, an in-depth study of the German integrated reporting guidelines for HEI’s was conducted. Furthermore, a study of the South African DHET reporting requirements was conducted to explore the similarities that exists between the GRI (G4) guidelines and DHET requirements. The guidelines were evaluated by Nelson Mandela University personnel and academics. The final product consists of a set of GRI guidelines that have been adapted to satisfy both GRI and DHET requirements for integrated sustainability reporting for South African HEIs. The contributions from this study are a set of GRI G4 guidelines and examples for integrated sustainability reporting and management for HEIs in South Africa. The set of adapted GRI guidelines for HEIs in South Africa was created with the assistance of the strategic management departments at Nelson Mandela University. The GRI guidelines have been reworded to be specifically applicable to South African HEIs and contain instructions and guidelines on how to generate an integrated sustainability report for a South African HEI.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Zietsman, Jaco
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Education, Higher -- South Africa , Corporation reports Sustainability
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MCom
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/33384 , vital:32754
- Description: In the higher education sector, a number of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are playing a leading role in promoting sustainable initiatives. Managing these initiatives effectively can be a complex task and requires data and information from multiple sources. HEIs must ensure financial sustainability, social sustainability, environmental sustainability and educational sustainability. HEIs in South Africa are required to produce a sustainability report for the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) on an annual basis. HEIs are not required to use a specific set of guidelines to create a report that complies with the DHET reporting requirements. HEIs face a number of challenges in effectively managing and reporting on sustainability information, such as poor sharing and communication of information and combining information from different sources to form an integrated report. Well-structured guidelines that adheres to institution standards and governmental reporting requirements can effectively streamline the sustainability reporting process. This study investigates the requirements and challenges of effective sustainability reporting for HEIs in South Africa. A set of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 guidelines were reworked to support effective sustainability reporting by South African HEIs. Nelson Mandela University is one such HEI, which is affected by the challenges of managing and reporting on strategic sustainability information. Nelson Mandela University was therefore used as a case study in this research study. An in-depth study was done exploring how prominent international universities apply the GRI guidelines to contribute and generate integrated sustainability reports for their specific HEIs and general reporting needs and requirements. Additionally, an in-depth study of the German integrated reporting guidelines for HEI’s was conducted. Furthermore, a study of the South African DHET reporting requirements was conducted to explore the similarities that exists between the GRI (G4) guidelines and DHET requirements. The guidelines were evaluated by Nelson Mandela University personnel and academics. The final product consists of a set of GRI guidelines that have been adapted to satisfy both GRI and DHET requirements for integrated sustainability reporting for South African HEIs. The contributions from this study are a set of GRI G4 guidelines and examples for integrated sustainability reporting and management for HEIs in South Africa. The set of adapted GRI guidelines for HEIs in South Africa was created with the assistance of the strategic management departments at Nelson Mandela University. The GRI guidelines have been reworded to be specifically applicable to South African HEIs and contain instructions and guidelines on how to generate an integrated sustainability report for a South African HEI.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
A Ranking Framework for Higher Education Institutions in South Africa
- Authors: Kanyutu, Teresia Watiri
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Education, Higher -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/48246 , vital:40746
- Description: In the past 16 years, the use of League Tables and Rankings (LTRs) as a tool to rank or measure the performance of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) has grown in popularity. As a global practice, LTR outcomes are influencing how policies are developed and implemented within the Higher Education (HE) sector. Studies indicate that based on individual information requirements, HE stakeholders are using LTRs to compare HEIs with each other and make informed comparisons and decisions. University directors use LTRs as a basis for institutional strategic planning, reputation building and policy making, while students use LTRs to compare HEIs and make university of choice decisions. Further studies confirm that governments use LTRs for national higher education policy making, university funding, foreign partnerships and resource allocation. Globally and at a national level, the higher education sector has witnessed policy and structural changes, many of which are due to the increase in the use of international rankings and league tables. Despite the opportunities presented by participating in the production of and using LTRs, the ranking practice is contentious. Amongst the issues disputed by the HE stakeholders are the methodologies and criteria used in the production and publication of LTRs. Higher education experts argue that LTRs tend to favour institutional research output and ignore the teaching and learning function of HEIs. As a result, the ranking criteria differ across the higher education ranking institutions and their publication outcomes, which causes skepticism across the HE sector. Research indicates that these ranking criteria are often discussed from the standpoint of governments, the higher education management and the ranking institutions producing these LTR publications. The opinions of the students on the suitable ranking criteria used by ranking institutions lack. This study aims to address that gap. This study investigates the applicable criteria for ranking HEIs in South Africa, from the perspective of students. Building on the existing ranking criteria for three global and popular ranking institutions namely, Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), Times Higher Education World University Ranking (THEWUR) and Quacquarelli Symonds World University Ranking (QSWUR), the study poses the question; “What framework can be used to rank HEIs in South Africa, from a student’s perspective?” The study argues that although some HEIs in South Africa have in the past and most recently appeared in the global LTRs, the current choice of ranking criteria fails to consider the perspectives of the students, who are major consumers of LTRs and important stakeholders in the HE sector. A positivistic research method was used, based on a review of literature on the current ranking criteria for the selected global ranking institutions. An empirical study was conducted amongst students in a South African Comprehensive University. An online survey was distributed through convenient and snowball sampling, where the students were requested to participate in the survey and share the questionnaire link with others. Eight hundred and eighty six (886) responses were received and used for the data analyses of this study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Kanyutu, Teresia Watiri
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Education, Higher -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/48246 , vital:40746
- Description: In the past 16 years, the use of League Tables and Rankings (LTRs) as a tool to rank or measure the performance of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) has grown in popularity. As a global practice, LTR outcomes are influencing how policies are developed and implemented within the Higher Education (HE) sector. Studies indicate that based on individual information requirements, HE stakeholders are using LTRs to compare HEIs with each other and make informed comparisons and decisions. University directors use LTRs as a basis for institutional strategic planning, reputation building and policy making, while students use LTRs to compare HEIs and make university of choice decisions. Further studies confirm that governments use LTRs for national higher education policy making, university funding, foreign partnerships and resource allocation. Globally and at a national level, the higher education sector has witnessed policy and structural changes, many of which are due to the increase in the use of international rankings and league tables. Despite the opportunities presented by participating in the production of and using LTRs, the ranking practice is contentious. Amongst the issues disputed by the HE stakeholders are the methodologies and criteria used in the production and publication of LTRs. Higher education experts argue that LTRs tend to favour institutional research output and ignore the teaching and learning function of HEIs. As a result, the ranking criteria differ across the higher education ranking institutions and their publication outcomes, which causes skepticism across the HE sector. Research indicates that these ranking criteria are often discussed from the standpoint of governments, the higher education management and the ranking institutions producing these LTR publications. The opinions of the students on the suitable ranking criteria used by ranking institutions lack. This study aims to address that gap. This study investigates the applicable criteria for ranking HEIs in South Africa, from the perspective of students. Building on the existing ranking criteria for three global and popular ranking institutions namely, Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), Times Higher Education World University Ranking (THEWUR) and Quacquarelli Symonds World University Ranking (QSWUR), the study poses the question; “What framework can be used to rank HEIs in South Africa, from a student’s perspective?” The study argues that although some HEIs in South Africa have in the past and most recently appeared in the global LTRs, the current choice of ranking criteria fails to consider the perspectives of the students, who are major consumers of LTRs and important stakeholders in the HE sector. A positivistic research method was used, based on a review of literature on the current ranking criteria for the selected global ranking institutions. An empirical study was conducted amongst students in a South African Comprehensive University. An online survey was distributed through convenient and snowball sampling, where the students were requested to participate in the survey and share the questionnaire link with others. Eight hundred and eighty six (886) responses were received and used for the data analyses of this study.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
A model for the alignment of ICT education with business ICT skills requirements
- Authors: Calitz, André Paul
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Educational technology -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Information technology -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Information technology -- Study and teaching
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DBA
- Identifier: vital:8662 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1418 , Educational technology -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Information technology -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Information technology -- Study and teaching
- Description: The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) skills shortage is of national and international concern. Modern business practices require the implementation of new technologies supported by a workforce with current and diversified ICT skill-sets. Acquiring suitable ICT skills has become a difficult task and employers are seeing government intervention at all levels. The school system in South Africa is under increased pressure and is faced with continuously declining matriculation pass rates, specifically in subjects such as science and mathematics. Schools are experiencing a decline in the number of scholars (learners) enrolling for the Information Technology (IT) school curriculum. The IT curriculum at school level is being criticised; under-prepared teachers are blamed and lack of suitable facilities highlighted. Surveys conducted amongst grade 9 and grade 12 scholars in the Eastern Cape have shown that scholars are not considering careers in ICT. Teachers, career/guidance counsellors and parents contribute to scholars' career decisions and are not encouraging scholars to pursue careers in ICT. Tertiary institutions in South Africa and internationally, are experiencing a decline in student enrolments and in pass and throughput rates. Industry is holding tertiary institutions responsible for not providing the “correct” ICT graduate skill-sets and passing an insufficient number of quality ICT graduates desperately required by industry. The accreditation of computing degree programs, such as Computer Science (CS), Information Systems (IS) and Information Technology (IT), collectively referred to as CIT, offered by tertiary institutions is becoming an international requirement. The ICT industry is constantly changing and new job requirements and new career opportunities are frequently introduced. Graduates entering the ICT industry should have acquired knowledge about ICT career tracks in order to specialise and choose a suitable career path. Tertiary CIT degree programs should further be linked to specific career tracks and provide a multi-disciplined education to graduates. ii ICT graduates working in industry utilise skills obtained in under-graduate and post-graduate CIT degree programs. The ICT graduates have also obtained valuable skills working in industry, including business skills and soft skills. ICT skill surveys have identified the graduate skills gap, indicating ICT skills industry requires from graduates completing tertiary level qualifications. ICT graduates working in industry, for example indicated that programming in some cases is over-emphasised at school and tertiary level and that soft skills are ignored by tertiary institutions. An ICT Graduate Skills Classifications Framework is developed to address the graduate ICT skills gap and highlight important business skills, soft skills, technical skills and programming skills required by industry. In this thesis, an Industry ICT Value Chain Model is further developed that suggests a holistic approach to the problems experienced at all levels of ICT skills development, including government, industry, tertiary education institutions and at school level. Results from a number of research surveys conducted along the proposed Industry ICT Skills Value Chain Model indicated that problems exist at all stages in the value chain and that the problems can only be addressed involving government, industry and tertiary institutions collectively. A number of interventions is required and the support from industry is essential in achieving overall success in addressing the ICT skills shortage in South Africa. A proposed Industry ICT Skills Value Chain Model that can be utilised to address the ICT skills shortage in South Africa is presented.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
- Authors: Calitz, André Paul
- Date: 2010
- Subjects: Educational technology -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Information technology -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Information technology -- Study and teaching
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , DBA
- Identifier: vital:8662 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1418 , Educational technology -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Information technology -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Information technology -- Study and teaching
- Description: The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) skills shortage is of national and international concern. Modern business practices require the implementation of new technologies supported by a workforce with current and diversified ICT skill-sets. Acquiring suitable ICT skills has become a difficult task and employers are seeing government intervention at all levels. The school system in South Africa is under increased pressure and is faced with continuously declining matriculation pass rates, specifically in subjects such as science and mathematics. Schools are experiencing a decline in the number of scholars (learners) enrolling for the Information Technology (IT) school curriculum. The IT curriculum at school level is being criticised; under-prepared teachers are blamed and lack of suitable facilities highlighted. Surveys conducted amongst grade 9 and grade 12 scholars in the Eastern Cape have shown that scholars are not considering careers in ICT. Teachers, career/guidance counsellors and parents contribute to scholars' career decisions and are not encouraging scholars to pursue careers in ICT. Tertiary institutions in South Africa and internationally, are experiencing a decline in student enrolments and in pass and throughput rates. Industry is holding tertiary institutions responsible for not providing the “correct” ICT graduate skill-sets and passing an insufficient number of quality ICT graduates desperately required by industry. The accreditation of computing degree programs, such as Computer Science (CS), Information Systems (IS) and Information Technology (IT), collectively referred to as CIT, offered by tertiary institutions is becoming an international requirement. The ICT industry is constantly changing and new job requirements and new career opportunities are frequently introduced. Graduates entering the ICT industry should have acquired knowledge about ICT career tracks in order to specialise and choose a suitable career path. Tertiary CIT degree programs should further be linked to specific career tracks and provide a multi-disciplined education to graduates. ii ICT graduates working in industry utilise skills obtained in under-graduate and post-graduate CIT degree programs. The ICT graduates have also obtained valuable skills working in industry, including business skills and soft skills. ICT skill surveys have identified the graduate skills gap, indicating ICT skills industry requires from graduates completing tertiary level qualifications. ICT graduates working in industry, for example indicated that programming in some cases is over-emphasised at school and tertiary level and that soft skills are ignored by tertiary institutions. An ICT Graduate Skills Classifications Framework is developed to address the graduate ICT skills gap and highlight important business skills, soft skills, technical skills and programming skills required by industry. In this thesis, an Industry ICT Value Chain Model is further developed that suggests a holistic approach to the problems experienced at all levels of ICT skills development, including government, industry, tertiary education institutions and at school level. Results from a number of research surveys conducted along the proposed Industry ICT Skills Value Chain Model indicated that problems exist at all stages in the value chain and that the problems can only be addressed involving government, industry and tertiary institutions collectively. A number of interventions is required and the support from industry is essential in achieving overall success in addressing the ICT skills shortage in South Africa. A proposed Industry ICT Skills Value Chain Model that can be utilised to address the ICT skills shortage in South Africa is presented.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2010
Pivotal role of the UNISA council in corporate governance
- Authors: Nobatyi, Andile
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Corporate governance -- Education (Higher) -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:8770 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1012351 , Corporate governance -- Education (Higher) -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- South Africa
- Description: There have been calls the world over for academic institutions to adopt corporate forms of management. Unisa Council declared its commitment to corporate governance in the Annual report 2009. This study aims to determine whether Unisa Council activities and decisions comply with corporate governance as per the King III Code and identify any area(s) of improvement. Case study research was undertaken to investigate compliance with the principles of good governance as recommended in the Code. A checklist was used to collect data from university documents and this data was analysed by pattern matching. Unisa performance was then compared with that of University of KwaZulu-Natal. Unisa Council performed 91percent of recommended practices and thereby complied with 87 percent of principles of good governance as per the King III Code on Corporate Governance. Unisa did not comply with three principles and neither complied nor not-complied with five principles as the level of performance of corresponding recommended practices was below the threshold of 75 percent. UKZN achieved 91 percent performance of the recommended practices and thereby obtained 87 percent compliance. The study also showed that practicing corporate forms of management to improve academic governance does not necessarily relegate academic interest to lower levels. This means that these institutions delivered on their mandate from the Higher Education Act, 1997 (as amended). Unisa and UKZN are primarily public institutions of higher education and not profit driven, despite them embracing corporate forms of management.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Nobatyi, Andile
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Corporate governance -- Education (Higher) -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:8770 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1012351 , Corporate governance -- Education (Higher) -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- South Africa
- Description: There have been calls the world over for academic institutions to adopt corporate forms of management. Unisa Council declared its commitment to corporate governance in the Annual report 2009. This study aims to determine whether Unisa Council activities and decisions comply with corporate governance as per the King III Code and identify any area(s) of improvement. Case study research was undertaken to investigate compliance with the principles of good governance as recommended in the Code. A checklist was used to collect data from university documents and this data was analysed by pattern matching. Unisa performance was then compared with that of University of KwaZulu-Natal. Unisa Council performed 91percent of recommended practices and thereby complied with 87 percent of principles of good governance as per the King III Code on Corporate Governance. Unisa did not comply with three principles and neither complied nor not-complied with five principles as the level of performance of corresponding recommended practices was below the threshold of 75 percent. UKZN achieved 91 percent performance of the recommended practices and thereby obtained 87 percent compliance. The study also showed that practicing corporate forms of management to improve academic governance does not necessarily relegate academic interest to lower levels. This means that these institutions delivered on their mandate from the Higher Education Act, 1997 (as amended). Unisa and UKZN are primarily public institutions of higher education and not profit driven, despite them embracing corporate forms of management.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
An evaluation of the factors affecting student success at a South African higher education institution : implications for management
- Authors: Watkiss, Sheralyn Ann
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Education, Higher -- South Africa , College dropout -- Prevention , Management -- Education (Higher) -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:8817 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1018826
- Description: The context of this study centres on Higher Education in South Africa, the role that this sector plays in terms of economic development and the implications that face Institutional management in retaining students in the Higher Education system. Central to this study is the notion that student development theory can be used as a basis towards understanding the customers of Higher Education, how to better serve the customers needs and finally, retain students in the system through more effective management practices. The education sector is growing at an increasingly rapid rate as a result of strategic goals of countries and organisations such as the United Nations promoting the notion of education for all people (Altbach, Reisberg & Rumbley, 2009). The aim of the strategic goals adopted by developing countries in particular is to enhance the human capital or skills and knowledge of its people since education is a known contributor towards economic, social and political development. Higher Education in particular is known to contribute towards the human capital and economic development of a country. The Higher Education sector in South Africa for instance contributes approximately 1.5 percent to the country‟s gross domestic product (GDP), significantly higher than other industry sectors (apart from gold and agriculture) in the country (van Heerden, Bohlmann, Giesecke, Makochekanwa, & Roos, 2007). Figure 1.1 provides a context of the relevant importance of the higher education sector towards economic growth.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Watkiss, Sheralyn Ann
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Education, Higher -- South Africa , College dropout -- Prevention , Management -- Education (Higher) -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:8817 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1018826
- Description: The context of this study centres on Higher Education in South Africa, the role that this sector plays in terms of economic development and the implications that face Institutional management in retaining students in the Higher Education system. Central to this study is the notion that student development theory can be used as a basis towards understanding the customers of Higher Education, how to better serve the customers needs and finally, retain students in the system through more effective management practices. The education sector is growing at an increasingly rapid rate as a result of strategic goals of countries and organisations such as the United Nations promoting the notion of education for all people (Altbach, Reisberg & Rumbley, 2009). The aim of the strategic goals adopted by developing countries in particular is to enhance the human capital or skills and knowledge of its people since education is a known contributor towards economic, social and political development. Higher Education in particular is known to contribute towards the human capital and economic development of a country. The Higher Education sector in South Africa for instance contributes approximately 1.5 percent to the country‟s gross domestic product (GDP), significantly higher than other industry sectors (apart from gold and agriculture) in the country (van Heerden, Bohlmann, Giesecke, Makochekanwa, & Roos, 2007). Figure 1.1 provides a context of the relevant importance of the higher education sector towards economic growth.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
Accessing learner support services in a distance education context at UNISA Adult Basic Education Department
- Authors: Arko-Achemfuor, Akwasi
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Distance education -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- South Africa , Adult education -- South Africa , Educational innovations -- South Africa , Educational technology -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , M Ed
- Identifier: vital:16199 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1013382 , Distance education -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- South Africa , Adult education -- South Africa , Educational innovations -- South Africa , Educational technology -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa
- Description: This study investigated the access to learner support services by Unisa‟s ABET students in the Department of Adult Education in one of the rural provinces in South Africa. Specifically, a survey using questionnaire and focus group interview was carried out to determine the access gaps in to the learner support services by Unisa‟s adult students. A literature study preceded the empirical study to fully comprehend the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of the role of learner support in bridging the transactional distance between students on the one hand and the institution on the other hand. In the empirical study phase, a questionnaire was administered to 150 ABET Students in one province in South Africa through the stratified sampling technique and one focus group interview comprising 10 students who access support services at one of the regional offices to assess the importance they attach to the support services that are offered at the regional centres and the extent to which they are able to access them. The focus group interview comprised questions on the students‟ understanding of learner support services and their experiences in accessing them. Moore‟s theory of transactional distance was used as the theoretical base for the study. Out of a total of the 150 questionnaires that were distributed, 117 were the usable representing 78.0% response rate. One of the conclusions drawn from this study is that, although Unisa has most of the learner support services in place but for various reasons, a lot of the students are not able to access the support services as expected as the needs gap for almost all the support services were high. The chi-square tests found significant differences (p is less than 0.05) between the students on the extent to which they are able to access the support services. An integrated learner support framework was suggested for Unisa and other distance providing institutions to address the access gaps adult students‟ encounter in their studies.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
- Authors: Arko-Achemfuor, Akwasi
- Date: 2013
- Subjects: Distance education -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- South Africa , Adult education -- South Africa , Educational innovations -- South Africa , Educational technology -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , M Ed
- Identifier: vital:16199 , http://hdl.handle.net/10353/d1013382 , Distance education -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- South Africa , Adult education -- South Africa , Educational innovations -- South Africa , Educational technology -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa
- Description: This study investigated the access to learner support services by Unisa‟s ABET students in the Department of Adult Education in one of the rural provinces in South Africa. Specifically, a survey using questionnaire and focus group interview was carried out to determine the access gaps in to the learner support services by Unisa‟s adult students. A literature study preceded the empirical study to fully comprehend the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of the role of learner support in bridging the transactional distance between students on the one hand and the institution on the other hand. In the empirical study phase, a questionnaire was administered to 150 ABET Students in one province in South Africa through the stratified sampling technique and one focus group interview comprising 10 students who access support services at one of the regional offices to assess the importance they attach to the support services that are offered at the regional centres and the extent to which they are able to access them. The focus group interview comprised questions on the students‟ understanding of learner support services and their experiences in accessing them. Moore‟s theory of transactional distance was used as the theoretical base for the study. Out of a total of the 150 questionnaires that were distributed, 117 were the usable representing 78.0% response rate. One of the conclusions drawn from this study is that, although Unisa has most of the learner support services in place but for various reasons, a lot of the students are not able to access the support services as expected as the needs gap for almost all the support services were high. The chi-square tests found significant differences (p is less than 0.05) between the students on the extent to which they are able to access the support services. An integrated learner support framework was suggested for Unisa and other distance providing institutions to address the access gaps adult students‟ encounter in their studies.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2013
Conditions constraining and enabling research production in Historically Black Universities in South Africa
- Authors: Muthama, Evelyn
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Universities and colleges, Black -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- Research -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- History , Black people -- Education -- South Africa -- History , Discrimination in higher education -- South Africa -- History
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/131527 , vital:36591
- Description: The South African higher education system has a highly uneven landscape emerging from its apartheid past. Institutions remain categorised along racial lines within categories known as ‘Historically Black’ and ‘Historically White’ institutions, or alternatively ‘Historically Disadvantaged’ and ‘Historically Advantaged’ universities. Alongside such categorisations, universities fall within three types, which arose from the restructuring of the higher education landscape post-apartheid through a series of mergers: traditional universities, comprehensive universities, and universities of technology. This study which is part of a larger National Research Foundation-funded project looking at institutional differentiation in South Africa, sought to investigate the conditions enabling and constraining production of research in the Historically Black Universities (HBUs). By providing clarity as to the nature of truth and the concept of knowledge underpinning study, Critical Realism ensures that the study moves beyond the experiences and events captured in the data to the identification of causal mechanisms. Archer’s theory of Social Realism is used alongside Critical Realism, both as a meta-theory to provide an account of the social world and as a more substantive theory in the analysis of data. Social Realism entails understanding that the social world emerges in a complex interplay of powers in the domains of structure, culture and agency. Identifying the powers in each of these domains that enabled or constrained research development meant moving beyond suggesting simple causal relationships to ensure that I identified the complexities of the interplay of mechanisms. Data was collected from all seven institutions designated by the Department of Higher Education and Training as HBUs, by online survey, in depth interviews with academics and heads of research, and through the collection of a range of national and institutional documentation. Using analytical dualism, I endeavoured to identify some of the enablements and constraints at play. There were a number of areas of strength in research in the HBUs. There has also been a significant increase in research output over the last decade; however, the study also identified a number of mechanisms that constrained research productivity. The study found that while there were a number of mechanisms that appeared to have causal tendencies across all the institutions, there were a number of very specific institutional differences. There was very little consistency in understanding of the purpose of research as being key to what universities and academics do. The implication of this incoherence in the domain of culture (i.e. beliefs and discourses in Archer’s terms) is that various interventions in the structural domain intended to foster increased research output often had unintended consequences. Unless there are explicit discussions about how and why research is valuable to the institution and to the country there is unlikely to be sustained growth in output. In particular, the data analysis raises concerns about an instrumentalist understanding of research output in the domain of culture. This in part emerged from the lack of a historical culture of research and was found to be complimentary to managerialist discourses. Another key mechanism identified in the analysis was the use of direct incentives to drive research productivity. Such initiatives seemed to be complementary to a more instrumentalist understanding of the purpose of research and thereby to potentially constrain the likelihood of sustained research growth. While many of the participants were in favour of the use of research incentives, it was also evident that this was often problematic because it steered academics towards salami slicing, and other practices focused on quantity as opposed to quality research. Predatory publications, in particular, have emerged as a problem whereby the research does not get read or cited and so it fails to contribute to knowledge dissemination. Another constraint to research production was related to the increased casualisation of academic staff, which has exacerbated difficulties in attracting and retaining staff especially in rural areas. In South Africa, 56% of academics in universities are now hired on a contract basis which constrained the nurturing of an academic identity and the extent of commitment to the university and its particular academic project. In the HBUs, these employment conditions were exacerbated by increased teaching loads as a result of increased number of students (undergraduates and postgraduates) that have not been matched with similar increases in academic staff. There was a nascent discourse of social justice that focused on research as a core driver of knowledge production in some of the HBUs. This is potentially an area of strength for the HBUs especially emerging from their rural position as there was a complementary culture of social concerns. There was evidence that the nexus between research and community engagement could be a strong means of both strengthening institutional identity and increasing research productivity. But unless the nexus is clearly articulated, a systematic process of support is unlikely to emerge. Given the extent to which the rural positioning of HBUs has been acknowledged to constrain research engagement, this finding has a number of positive implications.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Muthama, Evelyn
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Universities and colleges, Black -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- Research -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- History , Black people -- Education -- South Africa -- History , Discrimination in higher education -- South Africa -- History
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/131527 , vital:36591
- Description: The South African higher education system has a highly uneven landscape emerging from its apartheid past. Institutions remain categorised along racial lines within categories known as ‘Historically Black’ and ‘Historically White’ institutions, or alternatively ‘Historically Disadvantaged’ and ‘Historically Advantaged’ universities. Alongside such categorisations, universities fall within three types, which arose from the restructuring of the higher education landscape post-apartheid through a series of mergers: traditional universities, comprehensive universities, and universities of technology. This study which is part of a larger National Research Foundation-funded project looking at institutional differentiation in South Africa, sought to investigate the conditions enabling and constraining production of research in the Historically Black Universities (HBUs). By providing clarity as to the nature of truth and the concept of knowledge underpinning study, Critical Realism ensures that the study moves beyond the experiences and events captured in the data to the identification of causal mechanisms. Archer’s theory of Social Realism is used alongside Critical Realism, both as a meta-theory to provide an account of the social world and as a more substantive theory in the analysis of data. Social Realism entails understanding that the social world emerges in a complex interplay of powers in the domains of structure, culture and agency. Identifying the powers in each of these domains that enabled or constrained research development meant moving beyond suggesting simple causal relationships to ensure that I identified the complexities of the interplay of mechanisms. Data was collected from all seven institutions designated by the Department of Higher Education and Training as HBUs, by online survey, in depth interviews with academics and heads of research, and through the collection of a range of national and institutional documentation. Using analytical dualism, I endeavoured to identify some of the enablements and constraints at play. There were a number of areas of strength in research in the HBUs. There has also been a significant increase in research output over the last decade; however, the study also identified a number of mechanisms that constrained research productivity. The study found that while there were a number of mechanisms that appeared to have causal tendencies across all the institutions, there were a number of very specific institutional differences. There was very little consistency in understanding of the purpose of research as being key to what universities and academics do. The implication of this incoherence in the domain of culture (i.e. beliefs and discourses in Archer’s terms) is that various interventions in the structural domain intended to foster increased research output often had unintended consequences. Unless there are explicit discussions about how and why research is valuable to the institution and to the country there is unlikely to be sustained growth in output. In particular, the data analysis raises concerns about an instrumentalist understanding of research output in the domain of culture. This in part emerged from the lack of a historical culture of research and was found to be complimentary to managerialist discourses. Another key mechanism identified in the analysis was the use of direct incentives to drive research productivity. Such initiatives seemed to be complementary to a more instrumentalist understanding of the purpose of research and thereby to potentially constrain the likelihood of sustained research growth. While many of the participants were in favour of the use of research incentives, it was also evident that this was often problematic because it steered academics towards salami slicing, and other practices focused on quantity as opposed to quality research. Predatory publications, in particular, have emerged as a problem whereby the research does not get read or cited and so it fails to contribute to knowledge dissemination. Another constraint to research production was related to the increased casualisation of academic staff, which has exacerbated difficulties in attracting and retaining staff especially in rural areas. In South Africa, 56% of academics in universities are now hired on a contract basis which constrained the nurturing of an academic identity and the extent of commitment to the university and its particular academic project. In the HBUs, these employment conditions were exacerbated by increased teaching loads as a result of increased number of students (undergraduates and postgraduates) that have not been matched with similar increases in academic staff. There was a nascent discourse of social justice that focused on research as a core driver of knowledge production in some of the HBUs. This is potentially an area of strength for the HBUs especially emerging from their rural position as there was a complementary culture of social concerns. There was evidence that the nexus between research and community engagement could be a strong means of both strengthening institutional identity and increasing research productivity. But unless the nexus is clearly articulated, a systematic process of support is unlikely to emerge. Given the extent to which the rural positioning of HBUs has been acknowledged to constrain research engagement, this finding has a number of positive implications.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
The effects of education on economic growth and global competitiveness: a statistical approach
- Mbatha, Erica Isabel Tavares Da Silva
- Authors: Mbatha, Erica Isabel Tavares Da Silva
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Economic development -- Effect of education on -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Educational attainment -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147558 , vital:38649
- Description: This thesis investigates whether there is a relationship between education, economic growth and global competitiveness and whether there is a relationship between South Africa’s current throughput rates in institutions of higher education, and its economic growth and global competitiveness. Economic growth is defined as a country’s ability to improve the life of its average citizen based on the strength of its economy. As such, it is increasingly important for a country to assess the factors that contribute to the improvement of their economy, which will ultimately result in its economic growth. Global competitiveness is an indication of how countries are able to provide for their people internally, as well as participate in the international market. To this end, economic growth and global competitiveness are two proxies that can be used to demonstrate the economic wellbeing of a country. Considering that prosperity under economic growth and global competitiveness of a country are driven by its people, one of the aims of this thesis was to investigate whether there is a relationship between education and economic growth and global competitiveness. Considering the recent demand in free education in South Africa, it is also important to understand whether there is a relationship between South Africa’s current throughput rates at higher education institutions and its economic growth and global competitiveness. Bearing in mind the political past which has led to inequality in the country, it is important to understand which types of education contribute to the economy and which types need to be further supported in order to increase the country’s economic productivity. Therefore, an additional aim of the thesis was to determine the relationship between South Africa’s current throughput rates in institutions of higher education, and its economic growth and global competitiveness. To address the aforementioned aims, data were collected from various open access online repositories. All the data were collated and numerous general linear models were constructed and tested to determine the different relationships as per the two aims. The results reveal that secondary school education had the highest impact on economic growth and global competitiveness on a global scale. This could be attributed to the fact that secondary school graduates tend to make up the largest part of the general workforce and as such, would make up a substantial proportion of the economy. Regarding South Africa, the only significant relationships were between green cluster universities (universities that focus on both research and technical training) and global competitiveness. Overall average throughput rates in all academic institutions were low; this could indicate that perhaps there are issues within the higher education system itself that need to be addressed in order to increase the throughput rate. From a managerial perspective, the results of this research stress the importance for the government to further investigate this area of study, as the call for free education becomes more prominent. The low throughput rates seem to suggest that the government is spending substantial amounts of money on students who do not always complete their studies. More research needs to be done to assess the root of the problem in South Africa’s tertiary education system, in order to ensure that this aspect increases its positive contribution towards the country’s economic growth and global competitiveness.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Mbatha, Erica Isabel Tavares Da Silva
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Economic development -- Effect of education on -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Educational attainment -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/147558 , vital:38649
- Description: This thesis investigates whether there is a relationship between education, economic growth and global competitiveness and whether there is a relationship between South Africa’s current throughput rates in institutions of higher education, and its economic growth and global competitiveness. Economic growth is defined as a country’s ability to improve the life of its average citizen based on the strength of its economy. As such, it is increasingly important for a country to assess the factors that contribute to the improvement of their economy, which will ultimately result in its economic growth. Global competitiveness is an indication of how countries are able to provide for their people internally, as well as participate in the international market. To this end, economic growth and global competitiveness are two proxies that can be used to demonstrate the economic wellbeing of a country. Considering that prosperity under economic growth and global competitiveness of a country are driven by its people, one of the aims of this thesis was to investigate whether there is a relationship between education and economic growth and global competitiveness. Considering the recent demand in free education in South Africa, it is also important to understand whether there is a relationship between South Africa’s current throughput rates at higher education institutions and its economic growth and global competitiveness. Bearing in mind the political past which has led to inequality in the country, it is important to understand which types of education contribute to the economy and which types need to be further supported in order to increase the country’s economic productivity. Therefore, an additional aim of the thesis was to determine the relationship between South Africa’s current throughput rates in institutions of higher education, and its economic growth and global competitiveness. To address the aforementioned aims, data were collected from various open access online repositories. All the data were collated and numerous general linear models were constructed and tested to determine the different relationships as per the two aims. The results reveal that secondary school education had the highest impact on economic growth and global competitiveness on a global scale. This could be attributed to the fact that secondary school graduates tend to make up the largest part of the general workforce and as such, would make up a substantial proportion of the economy. Regarding South Africa, the only significant relationships were between green cluster universities (universities that focus on both research and technical training) and global competitiveness. Overall average throughput rates in all academic institutions were low; this could indicate that perhaps there are issues within the higher education system itself that need to be addressed in order to increase the throughput rate. From a managerial perspective, the results of this research stress the importance for the government to further investigate this area of study, as the call for free education becomes more prominent. The low throughput rates seem to suggest that the government is spending substantial amounts of money on students who do not always complete their studies. More research needs to be done to assess the root of the problem in South Africa’s tertiary education system, in order to ensure that this aspect increases its positive contribution towards the country’s economic growth and global competitiveness.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Conceptualisations of and responses to plagiarism in the South African higher education system
- Mphahlele, Martha Matee (Amanda)
- Authors: Mphahlele, Martha Matee (Amanda)
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Plagiarism , Plagiarism -- Prevention -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Moral and ethical aspects , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Cheating (Education) -- South Africa , College students -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Africa , College discipline -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/162642 , vital:40963
- Description: Violations of academic integrity are a cause for concern in universities around the world and plagiarism is one of the most significant examples of these academic integrity issues with which universities are grappling . The approach taken to managing plagiarism depends to a large extent on the understanding of the phenomenon within institutions. This study investigated how plagiarism is conceptualised and responded to in the South African Higher Education system and how this impacts on teaching and learning. Data was collected from 25 out of the 26 South African public universities; the missing university had just been established and did not yet have policies or processes in place. The data was primarily in the form of documents known in these institutions as ‘plagiarism policies’, along with a wealth of other related policies and reports. This was supplemented by interviews as a means of verifying the document analysis with seven plagiarism committee members from across the three institutional types in South Africa, namely: traditional universities, comprehensive universities, and universities of technology. Using Bhaskar’s (2008) critical realism as a metatheory and Archer’s (1995) social realism as both a substantive theory and analytical framework, the experiences and events of plagiarism management were critically examined. Critical realism consider s these experiences and events at the level of the e mpirical and the actual , in order to identify the mechanisms at the l evel of the r eal from which these emerge. Social realism argues that when undertaking such an analysis in the social world, this entails identifying the emergent properties of both the parts (structure and culture) and people (agents). Therefore, the data was analysed using Archer’s analytical dualism to identify structural, cultural and agential mechanisms shaping the understanding of plagiarism and the practices associated with managing the phenomenon. The study found that dominant in the sector was an un derstanding of plagiarism as always being an intentional act, with implications for teaching and learning practices, which then focused on identifying and punishing incidents of plagiarism in student writing. A legal discourse was found to permeate the universities’ plagiarism management systems, such that most procedures replicated the legal framework. This was seen to undermine the identity of universities as teaching and learning spaces and of students as novice members of the disciplinary fields. The study further highlighted that due to plagiarism being perceived as an intentional act, punishment in almost all universities is prioritised as the key means of attending to plagiarism in the se institutions. This emerged as a structural constraint to students’ acquisition of academic writing norms. Such understandings and approaches were seen to be complementary to the risk-aversion of many institutions in a globalised era of university rankings. As increased bureaucracy has been put in place to attend to incidents of plagiarism, including obligatory reporting thereof, an unintentional consequence emerged, where it was at times simpler for academics to ignore incidences of plagiarism than to act on them. Turnitin was frequently referred to across the data as the preferred text - matching tool, but Turnitin together with other text-matching tools , was often used in a way that complemented the understanding of plagiarism as always being an intentional act. The stu dy found that text - matching software was largely misunderstood to be plagiarism software, where the similarity index was perceived to be a measure of plagiarism. This led to an understanding that students needed to paraphrase texts in order to avoid detect ion by the program me, and this may inadvertently encourage plagiarism , as students are taught to write towards the software. The research found that in those instances where educational responses to plagiarism were in place, they often demonstrated a lack of understanding of academic literacies development and the extent to which norms of knowledge production are disciplinary specific. Most (but not all) of the data about educational responses focused on add-on workshops and the signing of a declaration form, indicating that the student has not plagiarised. The workshops were seen to emphasise technical skills, such as the punctuation norms of referencing, and were often offered in a generic format by people outside of the target disciplines. These workshops were found to ignore the connection between the technical skills of referencing and the norms of knowledge construction, with a potential deleterious effect on the development of authorial identity. Finally, the data showed a few instances where particular institutions acknowledged that plagiarism occurs along a continuum, where on one side is intentional plagiarism associated with cheating and requiring punishment, and on the other side is unintentional plagiarism, which is understood to require an educational response , and was seen to emerge from either a lack of understanding of academic literacy norms , or from negligence. Literacy development with regard to taking on the norms of knowledge-making in the academy was seen to be a complex and lengthy process that was fundamental to educational endeavours of facilitating epistemological access, while cases of negligence were seen to be mainly caused by technical oversight rather than a lack of access to the relevant knowledge production norms. The study concludes by arguing that cases of intentional plagiarism require quick and appropriate punishment, but that there also needs to be an institution-wide understanding that unintentional plagiarism often emerges from students failing to access the specific knowledge-making norms of the discipline. There is thus a need for academics to be aware of the complexities related to taking on literacy practices, and who also understand the role of feedback in this process. But it ought not to be assumed that academics would have such insights simply by virtue of their expertise in the discipline. These academics need to have carefully constructed staff development support, as they take on such pedagogical approaches. The study argues that the dominant conceptualisation of plagiarism in the domain of culture as an intentional act and the complementary policies and processes in the domain of structure as focusing on detecting and punishing incidents of plagiarism, fail to address plagiarism in appropriate educational ways.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Mphahlele, Martha Matee (Amanda)
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Plagiarism , Plagiarism -- Prevention -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Moral and ethical aspects , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Cheating (Education) -- South Africa , College students -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Africa , College discipline -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/162642 , vital:40963
- Description: Violations of academic integrity are a cause for concern in universities around the world and plagiarism is one of the most significant examples of these academic integrity issues with which universities are grappling . The approach taken to managing plagiarism depends to a large extent on the understanding of the phenomenon within institutions. This study investigated how plagiarism is conceptualised and responded to in the South African Higher Education system and how this impacts on teaching and learning. Data was collected from 25 out of the 26 South African public universities; the missing university had just been established and did not yet have policies or processes in place. The data was primarily in the form of documents known in these institutions as ‘plagiarism policies’, along with a wealth of other related policies and reports. This was supplemented by interviews as a means of verifying the document analysis with seven plagiarism committee members from across the three institutional types in South Africa, namely: traditional universities, comprehensive universities, and universities of technology. Using Bhaskar’s (2008) critical realism as a metatheory and Archer’s (1995) social realism as both a substantive theory and analytical framework, the experiences and events of plagiarism management were critically examined. Critical realism consider s these experiences and events at the level of the e mpirical and the actual , in order to identify the mechanisms at the l evel of the r eal from which these emerge. Social realism argues that when undertaking such an analysis in the social world, this entails identifying the emergent properties of both the parts (structure and culture) and people (agents). Therefore, the data was analysed using Archer’s analytical dualism to identify structural, cultural and agential mechanisms shaping the understanding of plagiarism and the practices associated with managing the phenomenon. The study found that dominant in the sector was an un derstanding of plagiarism as always being an intentional act, with implications for teaching and learning practices, which then focused on identifying and punishing incidents of plagiarism in student writing. A legal discourse was found to permeate the universities’ plagiarism management systems, such that most procedures replicated the legal framework. This was seen to undermine the identity of universities as teaching and learning spaces and of students as novice members of the disciplinary fields. The study further highlighted that due to plagiarism being perceived as an intentional act, punishment in almost all universities is prioritised as the key means of attending to plagiarism in the se institutions. This emerged as a structural constraint to students’ acquisition of academic writing norms. Such understandings and approaches were seen to be complementary to the risk-aversion of many institutions in a globalised era of university rankings. As increased bureaucracy has been put in place to attend to incidents of plagiarism, including obligatory reporting thereof, an unintentional consequence emerged, where it was at times simpler for academics to ignore incidences of plagiarism than to act on them. Turnitin was frequently referred to across the data as the preferred text - matching tool, but Turnitin together with other text-matching tools , was often used in a way that complemented the understanding of plagiarism as always being an intentional act. The stu dy found that text - matching software was largely misunderstood to be plagiarism software, where the similarity index was perceived to be a measure of plagiarism. This led to an understanding that students needed to paraphrase texts in order to avoid detect ion by the program me, and this may inadvertently encourage plagiarism , as students are taught to write towards the software. The research found that in those instances where educational responses to plagiarism were in place, they often demonstrated a lack of understanding of academic literacies development and the extent to which norms of knowledge production are disciplinary specific. Most (but not all) of the data about educational responses focused on add-on workshops and the signing of a declaration form, indicating that the student has not plagiarised. The workshops were seen to emphasise technical skills, such as the punctuation norms of referencing, and were often offered in a generic format by people outside of the target disciplines. These workshops were found to ignore the connection between the technical skills of referencing and the norms of knowledge construction, with a potential deleterious effect on the development of authorial identity. Finally, the data showed a few instances where particular institutions acknowledged that plagiarism occurs along a continuum, where on one side is intentional plagiarism associated with cheating and requiring punishment, and on the other side is unintentional plagiarism, which is understood to require an educational response , and was seen to emerge from either a lack of understanding of academic literacy norms , or from negligence. Literacy development with regard to taking on the norms of knowledge-making in the academy was seen to be a complex and lengthy process that was fundamental to educational endeavours of facilitating epistemological access, while cases of negligence were seen to be mainly caused by technical oversight rather than a lack of access to the relevant knowledge production norms. The study concludes by arguing that cases of intentional plagiarism require quick and appropriate punishment, but that there also needs to be an institution-wide understanding that unintentional plagiarism often emerges from students failing to access the specific knowledge-making norms of the discipline. There is thus a need for academics to be aware of the complexities related to taking on literacy practices, and who also understand the role of feedback in this process. But it ought not to be assumed that academics would have such insights simply by virtue of their expertise in the discipline. These academics need to have carefully constructed staff development support, as they take on such pedagogical approaches. The study argues that the dominant conceptualisation of plagiarism in the domain of culture as an intentional act and the complementary policies and processes in the domain of structure as focusing on detecting and punishing incidents of plagiarism, fail to address plagiarism in appropriate educational ways.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
Factors influencing employee perceptions of a post-merger working environment
- Authors: Morrison, Selwyn Hilary
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Universities and colleges -- Mergers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Educational change -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Universities and colleges -- Administration , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Employee morale -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Employees -- Attitudes -- Evaluation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:8582 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1604 , Universities and colleges -- Mergers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Educational change -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Universities and colleges -- Administration , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Employee morale -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Employees -- Attitudes -- Evaluation
- Description: Higher Education in the late 1990’s experienced significant problems with capacity due to many black students applying to enter previously white institutions (Jansen, 2002:159). The main concern of the new ANC government was the status of historically black institutions. They were unstable due to the migration away from black to white universities and technikons. This reduced their financial status and viability. In addition, the anticipated huge increase in black enrolments in higher education had not materialised (Finweek Survey, February 2009). In order to overcome both of these problems, the then Minister of Education decided to press ahead with a merger programme aimed at reducing the number of higher education institutions from 36 to 21 (Jansen, 2002:6). The primary objective of this research is to investigate the factors that influence employee perceptions of a post-merger Working Environment and Organisational Commitment: a case study of the administration staff in the Finance Department at Walter Sisulu University. There seems to be a lack of efficiently and effectiveness in the he operations of the Finance Department of Walter Sisulu University which this research will investigate through finding solutions to factors of improving the relationship between employee perceptions of their post-merger Working Environment and their Organisational Commitment. This exploratory study collected primary data through the distribution of questionnaires to 59 employees from the Finance Department at the Walter Susulu University, with a 69.12% response rate. The survey included closed questions that were analysed using statistical techniques. The findings revealed overall low scores of 31% for employee perception of their post – merger Working Environment and 50.21% for Organisational Commitment, together with its sub-dimension Affective, Continuance and normative. These scores are disturbing and need to be urgently addressed by the management of the Institution. The implication of the Finance staff’s low perception of their post – merger Working Environment and organisation Commitment is that the institution’s goals will be difficult to be fulfilled due to the low morale of the staff and the non-conducive working conditions. The Institution’s Management should be more transparent, more trustworthy, and more supportive towards staff members and have a good overall communication strategy.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
- Authors: Morrison, Selwyn Hilary
- Date: 2011
- Subjects: Universities and colleges -- Mergers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Educational change -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Universities and colleges -- Administration , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Employee morale -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Employees -- Attitudes -- Evaluation
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:8582 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1604 , Universities and colleges -- Mergers -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Educational change -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Universities and colleges -- Administration , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Employee morale -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Employees -- Attitudes -- Evaluation
- Description: Higher Education in the late 1990’s experienced significant problems with capacity due to many black students applying to enter previously white institutions (Jansen, 2002:159). The main concern of the new ANC government was the status of historically black institutions. They were unstable due to the migration away from black to white universities and technikons. This reduced their financial status and viability. In addition, the anticipated huge increase in black enrolments in higher education had not materialised (Finweek Survey, February 2009). In order to overcome both of these problems, the then Minister of Education decided to press ahead with a merger programme aimed at reducing the number of higher education institutions from 36 to 21 (Jansen, 2002:6). The primary objective of this research is to investigate the factors that influence employee perceptions of a post-merger Working Environment and Organisational Commitment: a case study of the administration staff in the Finance Department at Walter Sisulu University. There seems to be a lack of efficiently and effectiveness in the he operations of the Finance Department of Walter Sisulu University which this research will investigate through finding solutions to factors of improving the relationship between employee perceptions of their post-merger Working Environment and their Organisational Commitment. This exploratory study collected primary data through the distribution of questionnaires to 59 employees from the Finance Department at the Walter Susulu University, with a 69.12% response rate. The survey included closed questions that were analysed using statistical techniques. The findings revealed overall low scores of 31% for employee perception of their post – merger Working Environment and 50.21% for Organisational Commitment, together with its sub-dimension Affective, Continuance and normative. These scores are disturbing and need to be urgently addressed by the management of the Institution. The implication of the Finance staff’s low perception of their post – merger Working Environment and organisation Commitment is that the institution’s goals will be difficult to be fulfilled due to the low morale of the staff and the non-conducive working conditions. The Institution’s Management should be more transparent, more trustworthy, and more supportive towards staff members and have a good overall communication strategy.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2011
Conditions enabling or constraining the exercise of agency among new academics in higher education, conducive to the social inclusion of students
- Authors: Behari-Leak, Kasturi
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Social integration -- South Africa , Students -- South Africa -- Social conditions , Educational change -- South Africa , College teachers -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Critical realism , Social realism , Agent (Philosophy)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1333 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020295
- Description: This study, which is part of a National Research Foundation project on Social Inclusion in Higher Education (HE), focuses on the exercise of agency among new academics, conducive to the social inclusion of students. Transitioning from varied entry points into higher education, new academics face numerous challenges as they embed themselves in disciplinary and institutional contexts. Given the complexity and contested nature of the current higher education landscape, new academics are especially vulnerable. Using Roy Bhaskar’s critical realism as meta-theoretical framing and Margaret Archer’s social realist theory, with its methodological focus on analytical dualism and morphogenesis, this study offers a social realist account of how new academics engage with enabling and constraining conditions at institutional, faculty, departmental and classroom levels. Through an analysis of six individual narratives of mediation, this study explicates and exemplifies the range of agential choices exercised by new academics to mediate their contested spaces. A nuanced social and critical account of the material, ideational and agential conditions in HE shows that the courses of action taken by these new academics are driven through their concerns, commitments and projects in higher education. Yet, despite the university’s espousal of embracing change, the current induction and transition of new academics is inadequate to the task of transformation in higher education. Systemic conditions in HE, conducive to critical agency and social justice, are not enabling. Bhaskar’s Seven Scalar Being, used as an analytical frame and heuristic, guides the cross-case analysis of the six narratives across seven levels of ontology. The findings highlight that, despite difficult contextual influences, the positive exercise of agency is a marked feature of new participants in HE in this study. This has immediate implications for ways in which professional and academic development, and disciplinary and departmental programmes, could create and sustain conducive conditions for the professionalisation of new academics through more sensitised practices. Using alternative research methods such as photovoice to generate its data, this doctoral study proposes that new research methodologies, located in the third space, are needed now more than ever in HE sociological research, to recognise the researcher and the research participants as independent, autonomous and causally efficacious beings. To this end, this study includes a Chapter Zero, which captures the narrative of the doctoral scholar as researcher, who, shaped and influenced by established doctoral practices and traditions in the field, exercises her own doctoral agency in particular ways.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
- Authors: Behari-Leak, Kasturi
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Social integration -- South Africa , Students -- South Africa -- Social conditions , Educational change -- South Africa , College teachers -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Critical realism , Social realism , Agent (Philosophy)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1333 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1020295
- Description: This study, which is part of a National Research Foundation project on Social Inclusion in Higher Education (HE), focuses on the exercise of agency among new academics, conducive to the social inclusion of students. Transitioning from varied entry points into higher education, new academics face numerous challenges as they embed themselves in disciplinary and institutional contexts. Given the complexity and contested nature of the current higher education landscape, new academics are especially vulnerable. Using Roy Bhaskar’s critical realism as meta-theoretical framing and Margaret Archer’s social realist theory, with its methodological focus on analytical dualism and morphogenesis, this study offers a social realist account of how new academics engage with enabling and constraining conditions at institutional, faculty, departmental and classroom levels. Through an analysis of six individual narratives of mediation, this study explicates and exemplifies the range of agential choices exercised by new academics to mediate their contested spaces. A nuanced social and critical account of the material, ideational and agential conditions in HE shows that the courses of action taken by these new academics are driven through their concerns, commitments and projects in higher education. Yet, despite the university’s espousal of embracing change, the current induction and transition of new academics is inadequate to the task of transformation in higher education. Systemic conditions in HE, conducive to critical agency and social justice, are not enabling. Bhaskar’s Seven Scalar Being, used as an analytical frame and heuristic, guides the cross-case analysis of the six narratives across seven levels of ontology. The findings highlight that, despite difficult contextual influences, the positive exercise of agency is a marked feature of new participants in HE in this study. This has immediate implications for ways in which professional and academic development, and disciplinary and departmental programmes, could create and sustain conducive conditions for the professionalisation of new academics through more sensitised practices. Using alternative research methods such as photovoice to generate its data, this doctoral study proposes that new research methodologies, located in the third space, are needed now more than ever in HE sociological research, to recognise the researcher and the research participants as independent, autonomous and causally efficacious beings. To this end, this study includes a Chapter Zero, which captures the narrative of the doctoral scholar as researcher, who, shaped and influenced by established doctoral practices and traditions in the field, exercises her own doctoral agency in particular ways.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2015
An investigation into the success of the extended programmes at Walter Sisulu University, with particular reference to throughput rate
- Authors: Solilo, Nikiwe Primrose
- Subjects: Walter Sisulu University for Technology & Science , College dropouts -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , College attendance -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Academic achievement -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:8893 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1020871
- Description: The purpose of the study was to investigate the success of the Extended Programme at Walter Sisulu University, with particular reference to throughput rates. Programmes offered by the institution to students are intervention measures to assist in improving student retention. This research investigated the role of the university with regards to retaining engineering students at Buffalo City. Also discussed will be the impact of financial support or lack thereof to paying for academic education. Lastly, the discussion will focus on Extended Programme courses offered to students and their impact on retention of students. Through Tinto’s model, Koen discussed that institutions have a responsibility for integrating academic and social activities to create holistic competent students (2007:65). It was also discovered that the institution through the Centre for Learning and Teaching Development (CLTD), offers services that benefit both students and lecturers. Merriam found out that the key to understanding qualitative research is the idea that meaning is socially constructed by individuals in their interaction with the world, (2002:3). This study called for qualitative research to get meaning from each participant. The research was conducted using questionnaires to both students and lecturers. The investigation discovered that an education institution is not only about academic studies. Data was collected and analysed using qualitative methods which included coding and colouring of responses. Research deduced that lecturers and students conclusively complained about the poor infrastructure of the university. It has been found that students think about their educational development, their personal growth and development, their employability and their prospects for career preparation or change (Moxley 2001:39). When students have this kind of attitude it means they have the courage to get through the choice no matter what challenges they face (2004: 212). According to Moxley, members of staff who expand their roles into tutorials, independent studies and small group projects, could be a pivotal strategy of the institutional retention mission, (2001:39). This is supported by Coetzee who state that lecturers should provide students with feedback quickly, promote independent thinking, guide and motivate students (2001:31).
- Full Text:
- Authors: Solilo, Nikiwe Primrose
- Subjects: Walter Sisulu University for Technology & Science , College dropouts -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , College attendance -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Academic achievement -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Universities and colleges -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:8893 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1020871
- Description: The purpose of the study was to investigate the success of the Extended Programme at Walter Sisulu University, with particular reference to throughput rates. Programmes offered by the institution to students are intervention measures to assist in improving student retention. This research investigated the role of the university with regards to retaining engineering students at Buffalo City. Also discussed will be the impact of financial support or lack thereof to paying for academic education. Lastly, the discussion will focus on Extended Programme courses offered to students and their impact on retention of students. Through Tinto’s model, Koen discussed that institutions have a responsibility for integrating academic and social activities to create holistic competent students (2007:65). It was also discovered that the institution through the Centre for Learning and Teaching Development (CLTD), offers services that benefit both students and lecturers. Merriam found out that the key to understanding qualitative research is the idea that meaning is socially constructed by individuals in their interaction with the world, (2002:3). This study called for qualitative research to get meaning from each participant. The research was conducted using questionnaires to both students and lecturers. The investigation discovered that an education institution is not only about academic studies. Data was collected and analysed using qualitative methods which included coding and colouring of responses. Research deduced that lecturers and students conclusively complained about the poor infrastructure of the university. It has been found that students think about their educational development, their personal growth and development, their employability and their prospects for career preparation or change (Moxley 2001:39). When students have this kind of attitude it means they have the courage to get through the choice no matter what challenges they face (2004: 212). According to Moxley, members of staff who expand their roles into tutorials, independent studies and small group projects, could be a pivotal strategy of the institutional retention mission, (2001:39). This is supported by Coetzee who state that lecturers should provide students with feedback quickly, promote independent thinking, guide and motivate students (2001:31).
- Full Text:
Mapping the transition from a traditional university into an entrepreneurial university
- Authors: Naidoo, Tharusha
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Rhodes University -- Management , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Economic aspects -- South Africa , Academic-industrial cooperation , Entrepreneurship , Business and education -- South Africa , Research -- Economic aspects -- South Africa -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/172214 , vital:42177
- Description: The study aims to map the transition of a traditional university into an entrepreneurial university. The concept of the entrepreneurial university has been established as a game changer in the development and innovation spheres at higher education institutions worldwide. In the year 2002, the South African Higher Education sector embarked on a modelling and redefining journey which gave birth to the National Plan for Higher Education. The Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education has undertaken work done on the entrepreneurial university which gave rise to the mapping that breeds ground towards policy. This study sought to investigate whether there is a conducive environment at Rhodes University, with an entrepreneurial climate to develop institutional capabilities and build new networks. The research highlights the current direction of Rhodes University and elaborates on the potential for the transition towards an entrepreneurial university. An overview of the entrepreneurial university was provided through an analysis of literature, which dominated in the more developed countries compared to South Africa. The researcher adopted a qualitative research study to capture the direct experiences of the individuals that are in the institution. A questionnaire was designed using the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Guiding Framework and the direct perceptions of academics from the university were documented. The objectives were firstly, to explore elements of leadership and governance that enhance transformation of Higher Education Institution from a traditional university towards an entrepreneurial university. Secondly, to investigate internal resources that enhance Organisational Capacity with specific reference to people and incentives. Lastly, to determine how Teaching and Learning strengthen entrepreneurship development. The interviews revealed that the challenges faced by the institution were closely linked to those recognized by existing literature. What was interesting to note, limited funding and support were regarded as the most significant problems, closely followed by unskilled people and lack of infrastructure. It is suggested that cultivating and nurturing an entrepreneurial culture is of paramount importance together with the creation of a policy framework. Furthermore, the study concluded with practical recommendations proposed to management regarding the three strategic lenses. The research also illustrated that Rhodes University may not be viewed as being entrepreneurial but certainly has pockets of entrepreneurship and innovative activities.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
- Authors: Naidoo, Tharusha
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: Rhodes University -- Management , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Economic aspects -- South Africa , Academic-industrial cooperation , Entrepreneurship , Business and education -- South Africa , Research -- Economic aspects -- South Africa -- Case studies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/172214 , vital:42177
- Description: The study aims to map the transition of a traditional university into an entrepreneurial university. The concept of the entrepreneurial university has been established as a game changer in the development and innovation spheres at higher education institutions worldwide. In the year 2002, the South African Higher Education sector embarked on a modelling and redefining journey which gave birth to the National Plan for Higher Education. The Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education has undertaken work done on the entrepreneurial university which gave rise to the mapping that breeds ground towards policy. This study sought to investigate whether there is a conducive environment at Rhodes University, with an entrepreneurial climate to develop institutional capabilities and build new networks. The research highlights the current direction of Rhodes University and elaborates on the potential for the transition towards an entrepreneurial university. An overview of the entrepreneurial university was provided through an analysis of literature, which dominated in the more developed countries compared to South Africa. The researcher adopted a qualitative research study to capture the direct experiences of the individuals that are in the institution. A questionnaire was designed using the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Guiding Framework and the direct perceptions of academics from the university were documented. The objectives were firstly, to explore elements of leadership and governance that enhance transformation of Higher Education Institution from a traditional university towards an entrepreneurial university. Secondly, to investigate internal resources that enhance Organisational Capacity with specific reference to people and incentives. Lastly, to determine how Teaching and Learning strengthen entrepreneurship development. The interviews revealed that the challenges faced by the institution were closely linked to those recognized by existing literature. What was interesting to note, limited funding and support were regarded as the most significant problems, closely followed by unskilled people and lack of infrastructure. It is suggested that cultivating and nurturing an entrepreneurial culture is of paramount importance together with the creation of a policy framework. Furthermore, the study concluded with practical recommendations proposed to management regarding the three strategic lenses. The research also illustrated that Rhodes University may not be viewed as being entrepreneurial but certainly has pockets of entrepreneurship and innovative activities.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021
Pushing the bounds of possibility: South African academics narrate their experiences of having agency to effect transformation
- Authors: Idahosa, Grace Ese-Osa
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Education, Higher -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Educational change -- South Africa , Higher education and state -- South Africa , Rhodes University
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/5845 , vital:20981
- Description: Over 20 years after the first democratic elections, the institutional cultures and structures of many South African universities remain un-transformed; they are embedded with racist and sexist discourses and attitudes that allow for the marginalisation and exclusion of students and staff (Department of Education 2008; Soudien 2010; van Wyk and Alexander 2010; Akoojee and Nkomo 2007; Hemson and Singh 2010). In order to effect change, research has noted the importance of leadership and staff involvement in the transformation process (Van-Der Westhuizen 2006; Portnoi 2009; Niemann 2010; Viljoen and Rothmann 2002). These studies argue that both leaders and staff members must be interested, and actively involved in, the transformation process. This suggests that the extent to which leaders and individual staff members have agency to effect transformatory practices determines the success of transformation policies. But what motivates this interest in transformation? While a number of studies have focused on the imperative to transform, few studies have focused on the role of individual agency in the transformation process. After all the world and in some ways structural properties are given to us and at the same time ‘actively constituted by us’ (van Manen 1997, XI). Drawing on interviews with academic staff members at one university in South Africa, this study uses a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to understand the nature of having agency to enable transformation drawing on the experiences of academic staff members. In the context of studies on the agency- structure divide and the need for a structural and cultural change in universities in South Africa, the project aimed to find out how transformation happens, when it does happen. I was interested in how individual agents are able to use their agency to ensure transformation amid limiting and rigid structures and cultures in the university. Given the fact that structures are only revealed in human action, the individual experience of transformation at once gives insight into the dominant structures, the social context and how their capacity to act was deployed to enable a change in such structures - at least in their own experience and understanding. This may help our understanding of transformation and what is needed to effect the transformation of deeply embedded apartheid legacies in university structures and cultures. This study aimed to reveal moments at which individuals embedded in what have been identified as rigid structures and cultures perceive themselves as having had the agency to interrupt and transform them despite their rigid nature. The study was interested in what characterises these moments and what individual and institutional contexts make them more or less possible/likely.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Idahosa, Grace Ese-Osa
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Education, Higher -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Educational change -- South Africa , Higher education and state -- South Africa , Rhodes University
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/5845 , vital:20981
- Description: Over 20 years after the first democratic elections, the institutional cultures and structures of many South African universities remain un-transformed; they are embedded with racist and sexist discourses and attitudes that allow for the marginalisation and exclusion of students and staff (Department of Education 2008; Soudien 2010; van Wyk and Alexander 2010; Akoojee and Nkomo 2007; Hemson and Singh 2010). In order to effect change, research has noted the importance of leadership and staff involvement in the transformation process (Van-Der Westhuizen 2006; Portnoi 2009; Niemann 2010; Viljoen and Rothmann 2002). These studies argue that both leaders and staff members must be interested, and actively involved in, the transformation process. This suggests that the extent to which leaders and individual staff members have agency to effect transformatory practices determines the success of transformation policies. But what motivates this interest in transformation? While a number of studies have focused on the imperative to transform, few studies have focused on the role of individual agency in the transformation process. After all the world and in some ways structural properties are given to us and at the same time ‘actively constituted by us’ (van Manen 1997, XI). Drawing on interviews with academic staff members at one university in South Africa, this study uses a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to understand the nature of having agency to enable transformation drawing on the experiences of academic staff members. In the context of studies on the agency- structure divide and the need for a structural and cultural change in universities in South Africa, the project aimed to find out how transformation happens, when it does happen. I was interested in how individual agents are able to use their agency to ensure transformation amid limiting and rigid structures and cultures in the university. Given the fact that structures are only revealed in human action, the individual experience of transformation at once gives insight into the dominant structures, the social context and how their capacity to act was deployed to enable a change in such structures - at least in their own experience and understanding. This may help our understanding of transformation and what is needed to effect the transformation of deeply embedded apartheid legacies in university structures and cultures. This study aimed to reveal moments at which individuals embedded in what have been identified as rigid structures and cultures perceive themselves as having had the agency to interrupt and transform them despite their rigid nature. The study was interested in what characterises these moments and what individual and institutional contexts make them more or less possible/likely.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
A social realist account of constraints and enablements navigated by South African students during the four year professional accounting programme at Rhodes University, South Africa
- Authors: Myers, Lyndrianne Peta
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Rhodes University -- Students , Accounting -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Finance -- South Africa , Higher education and state -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/93800 , vital:30946
- Description: This dissertation is an analysis of the enablements and constraints navigated by 43 students from different academic years within the Department of Accounting, Rhodes University, in their pursuit of obtaining the postgraduate Diploma in Accounting (DipAcc) qualification. Passing this diploma year entitles students to become Trainee Accountants, which is one of the requirements for their ultimate goal of becoming a chartered accountant. In the course of semi-structured, face-to-face interviews conducted for this study, students from across the four years of the professional degree programme, shared what had helped or hindered them on their journeys to and through Rhodes University, and within the Department of Accounting at this university. Focus group discussions were then held with academics from the department, where the student participants’ experiences were shared. The responses of the members of the focus groups confirmed many of the student participants’ experiences as did interviews with representatives from the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA). These representatives also spoke about students’ experiences at other campuses. To determine how localised the student participants’ experiences were, selected individuals from a number of other Departments or Schools of Accounting at SAICA-accredited institutions in South Africa were also interviewed. SAICA representatives also discussed the ‘pervasive skills’ which trainee accountants are expected to acquire. The perspectives from these different groups, have provided validation of the student research participants’ experiences. Critical Realism and Social Realism were used as theoretical underpinnings while Social Realism, Bernstein’s Pedagogic Device, Legitimation Code Theory and New Literacies Theory were used as explanatory theories. Using these theories, the participants’ experiences were analysed and could be understood in a different way. This dissertation reveals how this unequal privileging of individuals as a result of the existing structures is perpetuated at university level. It is the poorer students from under-resourced schools who generally struggle with the language and the practices and ways of being required for success at university. Student participants’ experiences of constraint and enablement arose primarily in the areas of the finances required for tuition and living expenses while at university; having English as a language of learning; and difficulties experienced with taking advantage of the learning opportunities within the department. Research participants also spoke about their experiences of transformation in terms of both student protests, and a mentoring programme which assisted them in gaining access to the practises and ways of being required for the discipline. In so doing they were inducted into the discipline’s community of practice. This dissertation has assisted in providing an understanding of what has helped and what has hindered students at Rhodes University, on their journeys towards obtaining the Postgraduate Diploma in Accounting qualification. It has also provided insight into the mechanisms which lie behind these experiences. This study will provide practitioners and policy-makers with the opportunity to be better informed about students’ struggles, to contemplate their interactions with students and to identify, remove or reduce unnecessarily burdensome hurdles. Equally and perhaps more importantly, this study and the work which emerges as a result of this research, will provide students with tools to assist them in their academic journeys, to manage essential hurdles, and to eliminate or avoid unnecessary hurdles.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
- Authors: Myers, Lyndrianne Peta
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Rhodes University -- Students , Accounting -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Social aspects -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- Finance -- South Africa , Higher education and state -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/93800 , vital:30946
- Description: This dissertation is an analysis of the enablements and constraints navigated by 43 students from different academic years within the Department of Accounting, Rhodes University, in their pursuit of obtaining the postgraduate Diploma in Accounting (DipAcc) qualification. Passing this diploma year entitles students to become Trainee Accountants, which is one of the requirements for their ultimate goal of becoming a chartered accountant. In the course of semi-structured, face-to-face interviews conducted for this study, students from across the four years of the professional degree programme, shared what had helped or hindered them on their journeys to and through Rhodes University, and within the Department of Accounting at this university. Focus group discussions were then held with academics from the department, where the student participants’ experiences were shared. The responses of the members of the focus groups confirmed many of the student participants’ experiences as did interviews with representatives from the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA). These representatives also spoke about students’ experiences at other campuses. To determine how localised the student participants’ experiences were, selected individuals from a number of other Departments or Schools of Accounting at SAICA-accredited institutions in South Africa were also interviewed. SAICA representatives also discussed the ‘pervasive skills’ which trainee accountants are expected to acquire. The perspectives from these different groups, have provided validation of the student research participants’ experiences. Critical Realism and Social Realism were used as theoretical underpinnings while Social Realism, Bernstein’s Pedagogic Device, Legitimation Code Theory and New Literacies Theory were used as explanatory theories. Using these theories, the participants’ experiences were analysed and could be understood in a different way. This dissertation reveals how this unequal privileging of individuals as a result of the existing structures is perpetuated at university level. It is the poorer students from under-resourced schools who generally struggle with the language and the practices and ways of being required for success at university. Student participants’ experiences of constraint and enablement arose primarily in the areas of the finances required for tuition and living expenses while at university; having English as a language of learning; and difficulties experienced with taking advantage of the learning opportunities within the department. Research participants also spoke about their experiences of transformation in terms of both student protests, and a mentoring programme which assisted them in gaining access to the practises and ways of being required for the discipline. In so doing they were inducted into the discipline’s community of practice. This dissertation has assisted in providing an understanding of what has helped and what has hindered students at Rhodes University, on their journeys towards obtaining the Postgraduate Diploma in Accounting qualification. It has also provided insight into the mechanisms which lie behind these experiences. This study will provide practitioners and policy-makers with the opportunity to be better informed about students’ struggles, to contemplate their interactions with students and to identify, remove or reduce unnecessarily burdensome hurdles. Equally and perhaps more importantly, this study and the work which emerges as a result of this research, will provide students with tools to assist them in their academic journeys, to manage essential hurdles, and to eliminate or avoid unnecessary hurdles.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2019
Knowledge and knowing in the public management and public administration programmes at a comprehensive university
- Authors: Lück, Jacqueline Catherine
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Knowledge and learning , Public administration -- Study and teaching (Higher) , Knowledge, Sociology of , Learning, Psychology of , Knowledge, Theory of , Educational equalization -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Literacy -- South Africa , Technical institutes -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1326 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013166
- Description: Knowledge is often tacit and under researched in educational fields. In order for student access to knowledge and its related academic discourses to be facilitated, a deep understanding needs to be gained of the form that this knowledge takes. This study interrogates the ways in which knowledge is constituted in the first year of a Public Management Diploma and a Public Administration Degree at a comprehensive university in South Africa. The study takes a social realist approach that understands reality as fact but sees our knowledge thereof as a social phenomenon. The study was concerned with knowledge structures and knower structures as it argues that these have not been adequately accounted for in the sociology of education research. But this study comes to this concern from a strongly ideological view of student reading and writing. This study calls on a social practices approach that sees literacy as embedded within specific academic discourses, which vary from context to context. It uses this ideological understanding of literacy as the orienting framework for the study of knowledge. The study takes place in a Higher Education mileu that has begun to transform from its divisive past. The transformation brought about new institutional formations such as the comprehensive university, with its mix of vocational, professional and formative programmes and varied emphasis on contextual and conceptual curriculum coherence. Increasingly, the transformation agenda also shifts concern from simply providing physical access to a previously disenfranchised majority to ensuring full participation in the context of high attrition rates in first year and low retention rates. The data was analysed using the Specialisation Codes of Legitimation Code Theory to see what was being specialised in the Diploma and Degree curricula of the Public Management and Administration fields. These fields are characterised in the literature by ongoing tensions about focus, and perceptions of there being a theoretical vacuum and an inability to deal adequately with challenges in the South African public sector. Analysis of lecturer interviews and first-year curriculum documentation showed that both the Public Management Diploma and Public Administration Degree have stronger epistemic relations (ER), with an emphasis on claims to knowledge of the world. The data showed relatively weak social relations (SR), in that there was not the valuing of a particular lens on the world or a specific disposition required for legitimation within this field. The combination of ER+ and SR- indicates that these curricula are Knowledge Codes, where legitimation is through the acquisition of a set of skills and procedures. The programmes were characterised by fairly low-level procedural knowledge, which may point to a workplace-oriented direction that is dominant in the comprehensive university. In keeping with concerns raised in the literature about this field, there was little evidence of theoretical or propositional knowledge in the Public Management Diploma and while the Public Administration Degree had some evidence of this, it was arguably not to the extent expected of a degree as described in the National Qualifications Framework. This study was limited to the first-year of the Diploma and Degree and subsequent years could present different findings. Lecturers showed awareness of student challenges with literacy practices and made concerned attempts through various interventions to address this but they were found to value the surface features of writing practices over personal engagement with the knowledge. Though the expectations of student literacy practices in tests and assignments were aligned to the ways in which knowledge was constructed in the curriculum, there was little evidence of student induction into disciplinary discourses of the field as knowledge was presented as being neutral and student writing primarily took the form of retelling objective facts. The implications of these findings could include student exclusion from higher-level academic discourse, more powerful knowledge in the workplace and, finally, constrain them from becoming producers of knowledge.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014
- Authors: Lück, Jacqueline Catherine
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Knowledge and learning , Public administration -- Study and teaching (Higher) , Knowledge, Sociology of , Learning, Psychology of , Knowledge, Theory of , Educational equalization -- South Africa , Education, Higher -- South Africa , Literacy -- South Africa , Technical institutes -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1326 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1013166
- Description: Knowledge is often tacit and under researched in educational fields. In order for student access to knowledge and its related academic discourses to be facilitated, a deep understanding needs to be gained of the form that this knowledge takes. This study interrogates the ways in which knowledge is constituted in the first year of a Public Management Diploma and a Public Administration Degree at a comprehensive university in South Africa. The study takes a social realist approach that understands reality as fact but sees our knowledge thereof as a social phenomenon. The study was concerned with knowledge structures and knower structures as it argues that these have not been adequately accounted for in the sociology of education research. But this study comes to this concern from a strongly ideological view of student reading and writing. This study calls on a social practices approach that sees literacy as embedded within specific academic discourses, which vary from context to context. It uses this ideological understanding of literacy as the orienting framework for the study of knowledge. The study takes place in a Higher Education mileu that has begun to transform from its divisive past. The transformation brought about new institutional formations such as the comprehensive university, with its mix of vocational, professional and formative programmes and varied emphasis on contextual and conceptual curriculum coherence. Increasingly, the transformation agenda also shifts concern from simply providing physical access to a previously disenfranchised majority to ensuring full participation in the context of high attrition rates in first year and low retention rates. The data was analysed using the Specialisation Codes of Legitimation Code Theory to see what was being specialised in the Diploma and Degree curricula of the Public Management and Administration fields. These fields are characterised in the literature by ongoing tensions about focus, and perceptions of there being a theoretical vacuum and an inability to deal adequately with challenges in the South African public sector. Analysis of lecturer interviews and first-year curriculum documentation showed that both the Public Management Diploma and Public Administration Degree have stronger epistemic relations (ER), with an emphasis on claims to knowledge of the world. The data showed relatively weak social relations (SR), in that there was not the valuing of a particular lens on the world or a specific disposition required for legitimation within this field. The combination of ER+ and SR- indicates that these curricula are Knowledge Codes, where legitimation is through the acquisition of a set of skills and procedures. The programmes were characterised by fairly low-level procedural knowledge, which may point to a workplace-oriented direction that is dominant in the comprehensive university. In keeping with concerns raised in the literature about this field, there was little evidence of theoretical or propositional knowledge in the Public Management Diploma and while the Public Administration Degree had some evidence of this, it was arguably not to the extent expected of a degree as described in the National Qualifications Framework. This study was limited to the first-year of the Diploma and Degree and subsequent years could present different findings. Lecturers showed awareness of student challenges with literacy practices and made concerned attempts through various interventions to address this but they were found to value the surface features of writing practices over personal engagement with the knowledge. Though the expectations of student literacy practices in tests and assignments were aligned to the ways in which knowledge was constructed in the curriculum, there was little evidence of student induction into disciplinary discourses of the field as knowledge was presented as being neutral and student writing primarily took the form of retelling objective facts. The implications of these findings could include student exclusion from higher-level academic discourse, more powerful knowledge in the workplace and, finally, constrain them from becoming producers of knowledge.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2014