6540HE_MoniReport9:Monitor 9 4/6/10 8:27 AM Page 1 Council on Higher Education Published by: Council on Higher Education 1 Quintin Brand Street Persequor Technopark Brummeria Higher Education Monitor Pretoria South Africa PO Box 94 Access and throughput in South African Persequorpark 0020 Higher Education: Three case studies South Africa Tel: +27 12 349 3936 Fax: +27 12 349 3928 Website: http://www.che.ac.za Higher Education Monitor. Access and throughput in South African Higher Education: Three case studies Higher Education Monitor. ISBN 978-1-919856-75-9 Date of Publication: March 2010 Material from this publication may not be reproduced without the CHE’s permission. ©Council on Higher Education Pretoria HE Monitor No. 9 Designed by Blue Apple Publishing March 2010 CHE_MonitorProjectV9.qxp 2010/03/30 11:38 AM Page 1 Council on Higher Education ACCESS AND THROUGHPUT IN SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION: THREE CASE STUDIES CHE_MonitorProjectV9.qxp 2010/03/30 11:38 AM Page 2 ACCESS AND THROUGHPUT IN SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION: THREE CASE STUDIES The South African Council on Higher Education (CHE) is an independent statutory body responsible for advising the Minister of Higher Education and Training on all higher education policy issues, and for quality assurance in higher education and training. 1 Quintin Brand Street Persequor Technopark Brummeria Pretoria South Africa P O Box 94 Persequorpark 0020 South Africa Tel: +27 12 349 3936 Fax: +27 12 349 3928 Website: http://www.che.ac.za ISBN 978-1-919856-75-9 Date of Publication: March 2010 Material from this publication may not be reproduced without the CHE's permission. ©Council on Higher Education Pretoria Higher Education Monitor No. 9 CHE_MonitorProjectV9.qxp 2010/03/30 11:38 AM Page i CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................................................vii LIST OF FIGURES...................................................................................................................................................vii PREFACE ....................................................................................................................................................................viii LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS ......................................................................................................................................x ACRONYMS...............................................................................................................................................................xiii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS........................................................................................................................................xiv CHAPTER 1: ACCESS, RETENTION AND THROUGHPUT IN SOUTH AFRICA.........................................1 1. HIGHER EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA........................................................................................1 1.1 Policy developments ..........................................................................................................................................1 1.2 Changes in the institutions.................. .............................................................................................................3 1.3 Resourcing higher education............................................................................................................................4 1.4 Issues of access, retention and throughput...................................................................................................6 2. THE THREE UNIVERSITIES..............................................................................................7 2.1 Introducing the three universities....................................................................................................................7 2.2 The student bodies.............................................................................................................................................9 2.3 Faculty structures and degree programmes.................................................................................................12 2.4 Throughput.......................................................................................................................................................15 2.5 Resources...........................................................................................................................................................17 2.6 Staff profiles.....................................................................................................................................................18 3. HOW THE INSTITUTIONS ADDRESS ACCESS AND THROUGHPUT ......................21 3.1 Increasing access ..............................................................................................................................................21 3.2 Throughput at the University of Pretoria ...................................................................................................23 3.3 Throughput at the University of the Western Cape..................................................................................24 3.4 Throughput of the University of the Witwatersrand................................................................................27 4. CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................32 Access and throughput in South African Higher Education: Three case studies i CHE_MonitorProjectV9.qxp 2010/03/30 11:39 AM Page ii CHAPTER 2: EXPLAINING STUDENT ACCESS AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION: A THEORETICAL REVIEW .......................33 1. THE ACCESS AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE DEBATE IN SOUTH AFRICA: A BRIEF PERIODISATION............................................................33 1.1 First generation, 1970s to mid-1980s: The downfall of apartheid as a precondition for access ...........................................................................................................................................................33 1.2 Second generation, late 1980s to the end of the 1990s: Dealing with ‘educational disadvantage’......................................................................................................................................................34 1.3 Third generation, , into the 2000s: The advent of ‘retention and throughput’ debates......................35 2. THEORIES AND METHOD: COMPETING APPROACHES..........................................38 3. THE QUEST FOR A CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE ...........................................................39 3.1 Conceptions of institutional culture.............................................................................................................40 3.2 Institutional and pedagogic factors that affect students’ performance ..................................................41 3.3 Student’s agency: Social resources and academic achievement ................................................................43 4. DOMAINS OF INSTITUTIONAL AND SOCIAL MEDIATION OF STUDENT EXPERIENCE...................................................................................................46 5. DISCOURSES OF SOCIAL JUSTICE, GLOBALISATION AND AFRICANISATION ...............................................................................................................47 5.1 Discourses of social justice............................................................................................................................47 5.2 Discourses ofglobalisation............................................................................................................................49 5.3 Discourses ofAfricanisation .........................................................................................................................51 5.4 Points of contention .......................................................................................................................................52 5.5 Some implications............................................................................................................................................52 6. CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................53 ii Higher Education Monitor No. 9 CHE_MonitorProjectV9.qxp 2010/03/30 11:39 AM Page iii CHAPTER3: ‘WITS GIVES YOU THE EDGE’ HOW STUDENTS NEGOTIATE THE PRESSURES OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDY (Michael Cross, Yael Shalem, Judy Backhouse, Fatima Adam and Hlengani Baloyi) ...................54 1. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................54 1.1 Aims of the study............................................................................................................................................55 1.2 Methodology and conceptual framework....................................................................................................56 2. THE OFFICIAL DOMAIN..................................................................................................57 2.1 Imaging Wits: What do staff and students think of Wits? ......................................................................57 2.2 Institutional transformation at Wits .............................................................................................................59 2.3 Students experience