UWC Centres and Institutes

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Browsing by Subject "Access"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Access and barriers to post-school education and success for disadvantaged black adults in South Africa: Rethinking equity and social justice
    (University of the Western Cape, 2022) Groener, Zelda
    Widespread national higher education student protests against proposed fee increases and demands for free higher education in South Africa that arose towards the end of 2015 drew international attention to disadvantaged students’ socio-economic conditions and the barriers that deter access to higher education. Adults’ experiences of socio-economic barriers to accessing post-school education are similar. Drawing on theoretical frameworks and secondary data, I conceptualise a distributive justice perspective on access for disadvantaged black adults premised on the relationships between interrelated equality rights and socio-economic rights, principles of social and economic justice, and redistributive policies.
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    Advances made by the University of the Western Cape in the support of remote online teaching and learning for student success and access
    (University of the Free State, 2023) Dankers, Paul; Stoltenkamp, Juliet
    During the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing advances were made by higher education institutions (HEIs) to support remote online teaching and learning for student success and access, which are increasing areas of research. The major objective of this paper is to address the shift to remote teaching and learning practices that Covid precipitated in higher education. We report on literature that captures the ongoing shift to remote teaching and learning practices. The response of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) to the crisis of the pandemic will be highlighted. Various themes related to the pedagogical value of emergency remote teaching (ERT), online learning, and continual post-pandemic support are discussed. We examine how challenges presented new opportunities for curriculum innovation and transformation at the UWC. The focus is the importance of a continual professional academic support structure and post-covid awareness campaigns in order to sustain fully online and hybrid teaching and learning approaches. Recommendations highlight that departments across faculties need to focus on training and support with regard to the attainment and effective application of eSkills and eTools; and that there is a need to intensify this, especially as part of the broader curriculum transformation agenda. More research that focuses on ongoing advances in the support of remote online teaching and learning for student success and access during a pandemic is necessary.
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    Equity, access and success: adult learners in public higher education
    (Council on Higher Education, 2007) Buchler, Michelle; Castle, Jane; Osman, Ruksana; Walters, Shirley
    Unlike research into access and success for school-leavers entering higher education (HE) in South Africa, very little research has been conducted into adult learners in HE. Apart from generalized, albeit extensive, socio-economic studies on poverty and inequality, including changing patterns of participation in education more generally (for example, Gelb, 2003), there is little information, at the systems level, on ‘deeper’ questions, such as the push/pull factors for adult learners entering higher education, the barriers they face and experience once in higher education institutions, their success and completion rates, and their reasons for entering HE institutions. These issues have taken on a much greater significance than before in post-1994 higher education policy developments that call for the widening of the social base of higher education to include, inter alia, adult learners. In this context, the broad purpose of the research was to find out whether a higher education system that facilitates access, equity and success for adult learners exists or is being formulated in South Africa. One aspect of the research was to investigate the participation rates of adult learners in the higher education system, in general, and to attempt to identify variables (apart from age), such as gender, class, race, marital status and family obligations, employment status and sectors, and funding sources, which may characterize adult learners as a distinct group. The second aspect of the research was to study the ways in which three public institutions – the Vaal University of Technology (VUT), the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and the University of the Western Cape (UWC) – engage with adult learners as a ‘special’ category of student. This aspect of the study was designed to identify systemic and contextual factors that facilitate or hinder the participation of adult learners, and to provide insights into the nature and quality of adult learners’ experiences of particular institutions and programmes. The questions that framed the research were: • Who are the adult learners in public higher education? How are they defined and characterized? How are these understandings of adult learners reflected in programme design? • Which programmes do adult learners access? What is the nature and quality of these programmes? • Are institutions responsive to adult learners, and to policies advocating an increase in their participation? Why, or why not?
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    Recruiting and retaining rural students: evidence from a Faculty of Dentistry in South Africa
    (Deakin University, 2012) McMillan, Wendy; Barrie, Robert
    There 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.
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    Writing in and for the academy: collaborative writing development with students and lecturers at the UWC Writing Centre
    (SUN Media, 2011) Clarence, Sherran
    Writing 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.