Student Support through Extended Programmes at South African - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Student Support through Extended Programmes at South African Universities

Prof AJM(Maritz) Snyders Director: Centre for Extended Studies

23rd First-year experience conference Hawaii 23rd First-year experience conference Hawaii

Presentation outline

• South Africa
• South African Higher Education System
• Port Elizabeth
• Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
• Alternative Access programmes at NMMU
• Foundation Programmes
• Extended Programmes
• Evaluation of programmes
• Conclusion

Port Elizabeth, South Africa

South Africa

• Population of SA about 50 million in 2009
• 80% African, divided in 8 major indigenous groups with

Xhosa and Zulu the largest

• 10% White
• 9 Provinces
• 11 Official languages – only 17% English home

language

• Capital Pretoria
• Parliament in Cape Town
• First Democratic election in 1994; ANC; President

Nelson Mandela; Jacob Zuma

South African Higher Education

• 39 Universities and Technikons before 1994
• Historically divided on racial grounds
• Access to all opened after 1994
• Reduced though mergers in 2004/5 to 23, divided in 3

categories (political rather than educational reasons):

• Traditional universities offering general formative and

professional degrees up to Doctoral level

• Universities of Technologies offering diplomas and

certificates with a strong vocational focus

• Comprehensive universities offering both degrees and

diplomas

South African Higher Education

• Typical Diploma structure: 3-year qualification including:
• 2 years academic and practical work on campus
• 1 year experiential learning in a workplace situation
• Typical degree structure:
• 3-year undergraduate formative Bachelors
• 1-year specialized Honours
• Or 4-year professional Bachelors eg Pharmacy,

Engineering

• Masters and Doctors
• Current debates around extending the formal undergraduate

time by 1 year by including foundational support to improve retention and graduation rates

Problems in SA HE

• Unequal schooling system with learners from

township and rural schools unprepared for Higher Education studies

• Low participation rate of certain population groups

– pressure on universities to increase access

• High drop-out rates
• Low retention and graduation rates
• Skewed level of performance between different

population groups

NATIONAL PARTICIPATION RATE IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Gross participation rate: All HE participants as % of 20-24 age-group National HE participation rate was 17% in 2008

Graduation in regulation time

• If we omit distance education students, only a

minority of the intake (about a third or fewer) graduate in 4 years, even though most programmes are formally 3 years or less. All Programmes (incl dist) 22% Universities (excl dist) 36% Technikons (excl dist) 26%

Graduation within 5 years (excl distance)

• General academic first B-degrees (3-year

programmes)

Field of study Overall White Black Business/ Management 50% 72% 33% Life & Physical Sciences 47% 63% 31% Mathematical Sciences 51% 63% 35% Social Sciences 53% 68% 34% Languages 47% 68% 32%

Attempted solutions

• Variety of support programmes outside the

curriculum since mid 1990’s, but no special financial support from government

• Alternative access programmes
• Earmarked foundational provision funding since

2004 in 3 year cycles for:

• One-year Foundation Programmes (only until

2006), and

• Extended Curriculum programmes
• Debates about increasing minimum time of first

qualifications

Port Elizabeth, South Africa

Port Elizabeth

• Port Elizabeth the largest city in Eastern Cape
• About R1.2m people
• Major automotive industry
• Part of larger Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan

area

• Host city for FIFA 2010 Soccer World Cup
• Known as “Die Baai – The Bay”, “The Windy City”
• r “The Friendly City”
• Only one university in the Metropolitan area, the

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), also known as the No More Money University

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

• Comprehensive university formed in 2005 through the

merger of:

• University of Port Elizabeth
• Port Elizabeth Technikon (University of Technology)
• Port Elizabeth campus of Vista University
• 22 000 students – 56% Black, 27% White, 52% Female
• 5 campuses in Port Elizabeth and 1 in George
• English used as Language of Teaching & Learning
• About 26% with English as home language – 40% Xhosa;

15% Afrikaans – more than 30 diff home languages

• Eastern Cape worst school performance of all provinces

GEOGRAPHIC SPREAD OF ALL 2009 NMMU ENROLLED STUDENTS

NMMU

• 7 Faculties (Colleges or Schools):
• Sciences, Health Sciences, Arts, Business & Economic

Sciences, Law and Engineering, the Built Environment and Information Technology

• Higher Education Access and Development Services

(HEADS)

• Centre for Extended Studies (CES)
• Centre for Teaching, Learning and Media
• Student Counselling
• Centre for Admission Assessment and Research

Alternative Access Programmes

• Pre-merger:
• One year foundation programmes at UPE (since 1999) &

PET (since 1997)

• 4-yr Science degree at UV (since 2001)
• Post merger
• One-year Foundation Programmes until end of 2006
• Replaced from 2007 by series of extended degree,

diploma and certificate programmes

• Decision to changed due to financial reasons and not

educational reasons

• Current debates about ownership and management

NMMU Foundation and extended ‘04 to ‘10

• Merger in 2005, but started to cooperate in this area in 2004
• 2004 to 2006:
• Foundation for degrees in Science, Commerce, Pharmacy,

Nursing, Liberal Arts and Law

• Foundation for diplomas in Science, Engineering,

Commerce, Art and Health

• 2007 onwards:
• 4-yr degrees in Science, Commerce, Liberal Arts
• 5-yr degrees in Pharmacy, Law, Nursing
• 4-yr diplomas in Chemistry, Accountancy, Art, Engineering,

Management

Foundation vs Extended

FOUNDATION EXTENDED Additional year between school and university – also called bridging year Extending standard period of study by 1 year by spreading first year over 2 years Non-credit bearing and not funded by government Credit-bearing and funded by government (earmarked) Foundational and preparatory content First year content with additional foundational provision Outcome to prepare for entry into first year courses Outcome similar to that of first year courses Intensive support over 1 year Less intensive support spread over 2 years

Foundation vs Extended

FOUNDATION EXTENDED Lower admission requirements – focus on access Stricter admission requirements – focus on throughput & retention Strict rules for continuation to mainstream Less strict promotion criteria Offered by AD specialists and teachers Offered by AD specialists and faculty Managed from a centralized unit Matrix management between central unit and faculties Better integration between different components Better integration with mainstream

Special support given in Found & Ext progs

• Holistic approach
• Academic and Life management programme
• Language development
• Career guidance
• Mentoring – individual and group
• Integration
• Skills and content
• Vertical between Foundational and mainstream
• Horizontal between different components
• Dedicated staff – teachers rather than lecturers
• Small groups (25 to 30) & out of classroom consultations

Success of foundation and extended

• Ultimate measure of success is the number of students
• btaining a qualification
• Formative impact on the lives of student, even if they do not

qualify can unfortunately not be measured

• Can only trace the performance of students staying at own

university – often looses best students to other places, and are reflected as drop-outs

• Too early to determine graduation rates of extended

programme students as first intake of students in 2007 – first graduants end of 2010

Programme Evaluations

• Quantitative evaluations:
• Course pass rates
• Annual reports to government
• Comparison with mainstream students
• Comparison of retention rates of Found & Ext
• Graduation rates of Found
• Qualitative evaluations:
• Annual survey of student experiences while in programmes
• Focus groups with students 2/3 years after leaving

programmes

• Survey of perceptions about extended programmes

Access and retention rates degrees

UFP ‘04 to ‘06 Ext deg ‘07 to ‘09 Start in yr n 1207 916 (3 cohorts) yr n+1 889 819 (3 cohorts) % of start in yr n+1 74% 89% (3 cohorts) yr n+2 770 516 (2 cohorts) % of start in yr n+2 64% 78% (2 cohorts) % of yr n+1 in yr n+2 87% 88% (2 cohorts) yr n+3 692 207 (1 cohort) % of start in yr n+3 57% 67% (1 cohort) % yr of yr n+1 in yr n+3 78% 77% (1 cohort)

Access and retention rates diplomas

FP ‘04 to ‘06 Ext Dip ‘07 to ‘09 First reg (yr n) 854 634 (3 cohorts) yr n+1 564 495 (3 cohorts) % of start in yr n+1 66% 78% (3 cohorts) yr n+2 484 313 (2 cohorts) % of start in yr n+2 57% 70% (2 cohorts) % of yr n+1 in yr n+2 86% 89% (2 cohorts) yr n+3 404 132 (1 cohort) % of start in yr n+3 47% 55% (1 cohort) % yr of yr n+1 in yr n+3 72% 67% (1 cohort)

Conclusion about access and retention

• Include students continuing in same programme and

change to other qualifications

• Greater levels of access provided through

Foundation (2061) than through Extended (1550)

• Drop out much higher at end of first year in

Foundation than in Extended

• Retention as a percentage of those who “survived”

first year similar in two types, although slightly higher for Foundation

• Slightly larger numbers expected to graduate from

Foundation than from Extended

Retention & graduation rates Foundation

3-yr degrees Foundation ’04 to ’06 Mainstream ’02, ‘03 % return for 2nd yr 87% 82% % return for 3rd yr 80% 51% Graduate 30% 48% Still studying 35% Diplomas % return for 2nd yr 86% 72% % return for 3rd yr 72% 63% Graduate 25% 44% Still studying 30%

Deductions from tables

• Comparing apples with pears: group of high risk and

underprepared learners is compared with a group including top performers

• Retention rates in foundation programmes higher
• A total of 1191 entered degrees and diplomas after doing

foundation in 2004, 2005 and 2006:

• 373 obtained degrees or diplomas
• 495 still busy with 1st qualification
• 20 also obtained post-graduate qualifications
• 85 currently registered for post-graduate qualifications
• Many individual success stories/anecdotes of top

performance in academics and leadership

Perceptions and practices in Ext progs Survey done in 2009 to:

• To determine practices followed by SA

Universities and to compare these with what NMMU is doing

• To determine the perceptions of various

stakeholders about extended programmes

Research methodology

• Survey questionnaire to lecturers teaching foundational

modules at NMMU – 27/48 responses received

• Survey questionnaire to managers of academic units at

NMMU – 15/30 responses received

• Survey questionnaire to selected extended programme

administrators at universities – 7/9 responses received

• Informal discussions with programme administrators at 7
• ther universities regarding management of programmes
• Directed interviews with senior managers at NMMU: Deputy

Vice-Chancellor (Academic); SD: HEADS (now Dean of Teaching and learning) and Executive Deans of Faculties

Why offer Extended Programmes

• 100% agree that there is a need for extended

programmes

• Lecturers and managers: Social responsibility to

address inequalities and need to improve throughput rates chosen as most important

• Senior managers: Provision of access and

increased throughput rates

• Universities: Social responsibility towards learners

and increased pass rates

Structure of programmes

Is there still a place for one year foundation programmes and should it be funded:

• 40% of lecturers and 47% of managers have no opinion
• Most of remaining lecturers and managers believe there

should be FP’s in addition to ext programmes

• 4 of 7 universities believe FP’s should be funded and 3 not
• All senior manager believe FP’s has a place along ext progs

and should be funded

• Reasons given:
• For FP’s: One year foundation programmes are seen to

target a different group of students

• Against FP’s: Should be on FET level, not HE

Management of extended programmes

Models:

• Fully Centralized (0)
• Matrix with central unit as primary driver (7)
• Matrix with faculty or department as primary

driver (2)

• Fully Decentralized (4)

Conclusion

• Extended Programmes can both make a

contribution towards address issues of access, retention and graduation rates.

• More inter-institutional cooperation is needed
• A lot more research is needed
• Current practices is probably too diverse to draw

clear conclusions about best practices

• All eyes on the national debate regarding the

minimum period of undergraduate studies, to see if the extended format may become the norm

References

• Scott, I et al. “A Case for Improving Teaching and

Learning in Higher Education”, in the Higher Education Monitor of the CHE, 2007.

• Sheppard, Charles. Presentation to NMMU

management on cohort throughput, retention and graduation rates, May 2008

• Snyders, Maritz. Research report: Extended

programmes: Practices and Perceptions, August 2009

THANK YOU!!!! maritz.snyders@nmmu.ac.za www.nmmu.ac.za/ces