Tshegofatso Setilo completed her Bachelor of Social Sciences and BSocSc Honours in Sociology at the UFS, and a master’s degree in Cultural Studies majoring in Transatlantic Studies at the University of Jagiellonian (Poland). Her PhD focuses on assets that typically-labelled disadvantaged students bring with them to higher education, social justice, and policy development. She currently works at the UFS South Campus where she manages the UFS access programmes. 

Title: Exploring the advantages of the 'disadvantaged' and how these contribute to success in higher education

Tshego says: "The purpose of my research is to explore the assets or advantages of less-privileged students – the so-called ‘disadvantaged’ – and the effect that these assets might have on students' performance. For example, a student who comes from a farm school to a university had to gather information about what a university is, gather information about how to enrol at that university, how to get to that university, gather enough money at least for registration, and information about National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), and accommodation. Upon arrival at the university, often they are told that they do not qualify to be placed in mainstream studies because of their poor matric results. Some of these students at the UFS are referred to the South Campus to do an access programme for a year in order to be placed on the Extended Programmes and mainstream studies after successfully completing the University Preparation Programme, and so enter university even though they have low Admission Point scores. Students with AP scores as low as 14 have moved on to mainstream studies. Despite these remarkable achievements of students commonly defined as ‘disadvantaged’, we know relatively little about how these students were able to succeed against the odds. Understanding the enablers of success for students who do not follow traditional access routes, would provide important pointers for ways in which universities can become more ready and equipped for the diverse students they now enrol."