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Building a university where everyone can succeed

12 November 2020 | Story Prof Francois Strydom | Photo Anja Aucamp

Prof Francois Styrdom read more — Prof J Francois Strydom is the Senior Director: Centre for Teaching and Learning at the University of the Free State.

A university qualification is still viewed as one of the most powerful tools to change the economic prospects of students, their families and communities. In this sense universities can be generators of greater equality, social justice as well as economic prosperity. Improving all students’ chances of success is a notoriously difficult goal especially in one of the most unequal countries in the world.

Commitment to more equitable outcomes in student success is one of the less well-known achievements of the University of the Free State (UFS). Equitable outcomes refer to a university’s ability to offer students a chance to achieve success regardless of their background.

Change in student profile

The university’s commitment to success was started more than a decade ago but received significant strategic impetus in the UFS Strategic Plan: 2018-2022 in which improving students’ success and well-being is identified as the number one strategic priority. During the decade 2009-2019 the UFS has gone through a significant change in its student profile. The student profile has changed in different ways of which two are illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Increase in diversity

Figure 1 illustrates how the student body has diversified, in line with national and international trends, which has resulted in a richer learning environment and greater diversity in educational background and opportunities. An additional change over the past decade is the overall increase in first-generation students across racial groups. Seventy-five percent of first-year students are the first in their family to attend university. Although these students come with inspiring motivation to succeed, higher-education research shows that these students are at risk due to a lack of a role model in their immediate family. Other changes in the students’ profile have been increase reliance on NSFAS funding with 55% of UFS students making use of this funding for their studies.

In light of the financial background of our students the university has kept its degree costs as affordable as possible. A DHET comparison shows that the UFS has one of the lowest tuition fees in the sector.

Despite these challenges the UFS has stayed committed to the goal of creating more equitable outcomes for all students regardless of their educational and economic backgrounds.

Figure 2: Achievement gap according to success rates 2009-2019

Figure 2 shows that in the past 10 years the achievement gap between African and white students has narrowed by 5% (15% in 2009 vs. 10% in 2019). The figure also indicates that the UFS success rate has increased steadily by 9% between 2009 and 2019.

To achieve these gains three intentional approaches have been utilised:

Re-designing the learning environment based on globally benchmarked research and practice
The UFS success story regarding the improvements of students academic performance started with the South African Surveys of Student Engagement (SASSE), a national research project led by the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL). The survey is part of a global community of researchers who work on developing universities where students understand what they need to do to succeed and the institution knows which programmes or interventions need to be in place to provide all students with a chance to succeed. SASSE puts a data-driven student voice, based on strong empirical and theoretical foundations at the centre of institutional redesign. In addition to a strong research base, the UFS had the opportunity to learn from world leading institutions such as Georgia State University (GSU) through the Siyaphumelela Network which is focused on improving student success though data analytics and is funded by the Kresge Foundation.
Scaling high impact practices using data analytics
Student engagement research identifies certain high-impact practices (HIPs). These are practices that enable students, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to succeed and develop graduate attributes that make them more employable. In the past these high-impact practices were reserved for a small group of students in specific programmes. In line with international best practice and to enable greater success for more students, these practices have been scaled and linked to rigorous monitoring and evaluation using data analytics. Scaling of these HIPs has only been possible due to close collaboration between faculties and CTL. The four HIPs that have been scaled at the UFS are:
- First-year transition support which employs 60 senior students to support first years to learn success skills in the compulsory UFS module for which 7888 students were enrolled in 2019.
- Tutorials which employ 350 senior students as tutors and reached 18 300 students in 2019.
- Academic advising which helps students hone success skills and to align their educational and career goals. Some 17 455 students participated in academic advising initiatives in 2019.
- Academic Language and Literacy Development which helps students to develop the language skills they need to thrive through enrolment in literacy modules (10 500 in 2019) and/or make use of the writing centre (15 568 students in 2019) to support them with assignments.
Leadership focused on evidence-based decision-making and innovation

The leadership of the UFS has actively emphasised greater evidence-based decision-making. An evidence-based focus has been enhanced by the UFS strategic plan 2018-2022 and the Integrated Transformation Plan (ITP). These plans have created an atmosphere which intentionally facilitates change and innovation based on the use of evidence to inform planning, monitoring and decision-making.

Using a crisis to imagine a different future

More than a decade’s worth of commitment to implement the above-mentioned approaches enabled the UFS to take an evidence-based approach to managing the impact on the pandemic. Within the first week of lockdown the Rector and Vice-Chancellor put appropriate governance structures in place. A survey of 13 505 UFS students assessed access to devices and data and informed the development of 16 nuanced strategies to support vulnerable students. The Academic Advising team created #UFSLearnOn campaign materials that have been viewed 77 000 times by students and shared with 177 000 people via Facebook. The #UFSTechOn campaign provided support for staff in adapting their learning and teaching has been attended by 3800 academics to date.

The CTL created a monitoring system using data analytics through weekly reports. These analytic reports have monitored the number of staff and students on the Learning Management System; how much time they are spending learning; and whether they are completing assessments. These efforts have resulted in 99.95% of students learning through the electronic Learning and Management System (Blackboard) in the first semester. For the 0.05% of students who were not able to participate in learning the UFS has developed plans to support their learning journey at the institution.

The UFS response to the COVID crisis has created opportunities to accelerate the development of e-tutorials, e-advising and innovative blended learning design for future teaching and learning and the scaling of new high-impact practices.

As the last decade has shown, the UFS is committed to creating equitable outcomes through intentional student-centered design of interventions and the measurement of their impact using data analytics.

This means that a student’s destiny (or success) is less dependent on their demographics (race, generation status, disadvantage, etc.) and more on how they choose to behave and make use of success support at the UFS.

Opinion article by Prof Francois Strydom, Senior Director: Centre for Teaching and Learning, University of the Free State

News Archive

Gender bias still rife in African Universities

2007-08-03

At the lecture were, from the left: Prof. Magda Fourie (Vice-Rector: Academic Planning), Prof. Amina Mama (Chair: Gender Studies, University of Cape Town), Prof. Engela Pretorius (Vice-Dean: Humanties) and Prof. Letticia Moja (Dean: Faculty of Health Sciences).
Photo: Stephen Collett

Gender bias still rife in African Universities

Women constitute about 30% of student enrolment in African universities, and only about 6% of African professors are women. This is according to the chairperson of Gender Studies at the University of Cape Town, Prof Amina Mama.

Prof Mama was delivering a lecture on the topic “Rethinking African Universities” as part of Women’s Day celebrations at the University of the Free State (UFS) today.

She says the gender profile suggests that the majority of the women who work in African universities are not academics and researchers, but rather the providers of secretarial, cleaning, catering, student welfare and other administrative and support services.

She said that African universities continue to display profound gender bias in their students and staffing profiles and, more significantly, are deeply inequitable in their institutional and intellectual cultures. She said women find it difficult to succeed at universities as they are imbued with patriarchal values and assumptions that affect all aspects of life and learning.

She said that even though African universities have never excluded women, enrolling them presents only the first hurdle in a much longer process.

“The research evidence suggests that once women have found their way into the universities, then gender differentiations continue to arise and to affect the experience and performance of women students in numerous ways. Even within single institutions disparities manifest across the levels of the hierarchy, within and across faculties and disciplines, within and between academic and administrative roles, across generations, and vary with class and social background, marital status, parental status, and probably many more factors besides these”, she said.

She lamented the fact that there is no field of study free of gender inequalities, particularly at postgraduate levels and in the higher ranks of academics. “Although more women study the arts, social sciences and humanities, few make it to professor and their research and creative output remains less”, she said.

Prof Mama said gender gaps as far as employment of women within African universities is concerned are generally wider than in student enrolment. She said although many women are employed in junior administrative and support capacities, there continues to be gross under-representation of women among senior administrative and academic staff. She said this disparity becomes more pronounced as one moves up the ranks.

“South African universities are ahead, but they are not as radically different as their policy rhetoric might suggest. A decade and a half after the end of apartheid only three of the 23 vice-chancellors in the country are women, and women fill fewer than 30% of the senior positions (Deans, Executive Directors and Deputy Vice-Chancellors)”, she said.

She made an observation that highly qualified women accept administrative positions as opposed to academic work, thus ensuring that men continue to dominate the ranks of those defined as ‘great thinkers’ or ‘accomplished researchers’.

“Perhaps women simply make realistic career choices, opting out of academic competition with male colleagues who they can easily perceive to be systematically advantaged, not only within the institution, but also on the personal and domestic fronts, which still see most African women holding the baby, literally and figuratively”, she said

She also touched on sexual harassment and abuse which she said appears to be a commonplace on African campuses. “In contexts where sexual transactions are a pervasive feature of academic life, women who do succeed are unlikely to be perceived as having done so on the basis of merit or hard work, and may be treated with derision and disbelief”, she said.

She, however, said in spite of broader patterns of gender and class inequality in universities, public higher education remains a main route to career advancement and mobility for women in Africa.

“Women’s constrained access has therefore posed a constraint to their pursuit of more equitable and just modes of political, economic and social development, not to mention freedom from direct oppression”, she said.

Prof Mama concluded by saying, “There is a widely held agreement that there is a need to rethink our universities and to ensure that they are transformed into institutions more compatible with the democratic and social justice agendas that are now leading Africa beyond the legacies of dictatorship, conflict and economic crisis, beyond the deep social divisions and inequalities that have characterised our history”.

She said rethinking universities means asking deeper questions about gender relations within them, and taking concerted and effective action to transform these privileged bastions of higher learning so that they can fulfil their pubic mandate and promise instead of lagging behind our steadily improving laws and policies.

Media Release
Issued by: Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt.stg@ufs.ac.za
02 August 2007

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