RESEARCH shows a four-year undergraduate degree would allow the higher education sector to support students whose school education had not adequately prepared them for higher education, the Council on Higher Education (CHE) said yesterday.
Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande has made better success rates in SA’s universities and colleges one of his priorities. Nzimande’s department is still considering changing the minimum number of years required to complete most South African first degrees from three to four, spokeswoman Ranjeni Munusamy said yesterday.
Research shows 40% of those who enrol at a higher education institution will never get a qualification, and 50% of that same group will take five years to graduate, said CHE advice and monitoring director Dr Judy Backhouse. Almost 40% (38,8%) study by correspondence, and many of these would be studying part- time, she said.
The CHE research is to be published later this year, said Backhouse.
The research found that better results were achieved when students were given a wider range of opportunities to learn, such as challenging assignments, “peer- facilitated” learning, writing- intensive courses, and discussions with academic staff, she said. Institutions needed more time to implement this type of learning intervention.
“We see it (the research report) as more than just an input to the (debate around) the four-year degree programme. It’s also about how institutions can improve teaching and learning,” she said.
“We are trying to encourage institutions to make use of valid data to improve teaching and learning, instead of ‘a hunch’. Hopefully this will lead to an increase in student pass rates.”
Black, Indian/Asian students reported significantly higher levels of academic challenge than white and coloured students, and the research shows that 54% of students had often worked “harder than they thought they could” to meet a lecturer’s needs. A racial breakdown showed 59% of black, 49% of coloured, 45% of white and 40% of Indian/Asian students felt this way.
The research comes from a pilot study at the universities of the Witwatersrand, Stellenbosch, the Free State, Fort Hare, Johannesburg and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and at two universities of technology, Tshwane and Cape Peninsula .
A second phase of the project, in which the higher education council hopes more institutions will participate, is being launched, with a kickoff workshop planned for the end of the month, Backhouse said.
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