Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
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South African institutions top THE Africa rankings pilot
Times Higher Education creates a top 15 table for Africa’s academies ahead of the inaugural THE Africa Universities Summit on 30-31 July
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Item Recruiting and retaining rural students: evidence from a Faculty of Dentistry in South Africa(Deakin University, 2012) McMillan, Wendy; Barrie, RobertThere is a shortage internationally of adequately trained health professionals to service rural areas. Health professionals are more likely to practice in communities that are like the one in which they grew up. The WHO therefore suggests targeted university admission policies to facilitate the enrolment of students from rural areas. In South Africa, rural students have special needs with regard to university access and throughput because they come from the most economically disadvantaged communities and often are the first in their families to attend university. This descriptive study, the first in South Africa with a cohort of dentistry students, draws on data from undergraduates at a single faculty of dentistry in South Africa. It investigates the factors affecting rural students’ access to university, their academic success, as well as their employment intentions.Item Writing in and for the academy: collaborative writing development with students and lecturers at the UWC Writing Centre(SUN Media, 2011) Clarence, SherranWriting and reading critically are core academic practices that many South African tertiary students struggle with throughout undergraduate study. This is partly due to a lack of competency in English as a first language, and partly due to a lack of preparation at primary and secondary school level. Critical reading and writing practices need to be developed simultaneously, and contextually. The Writing Centre at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) is currently exploring ways to make itself a more relevant and focused part of the University’s teaching and learning interventions and strategies, and to make it more responsive to the multiple reading, writing and language needs of students. Influenced theoretically and practically by New Literacy Studies and Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) approaches, the Writing Centre is working to position itself as part of a teaching and learning environment that develops and supports both student writers and disciplinary lecturers. We aim to do this by foregrounding, theorising, researching and building a culture of writing intensive teaching that imagines and uses writing as a tool for learning, thinking and evaluation, as well as for assessment. In order to become a significant part of teaching and learning in higher education more generally, Writing Centres will need to work increasingly with lecturers to address the writing and reading needs of students in a supportive, critical and collaborative space that better serves the needs of both parties.