Throughput of UWC students who did at least one semester of third-year Statistics

Abstract

The study explores the completion rates (the number of years a student takes to complete a degree) of graduates at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa. The graduates in the study all did at least one semester of statistics in their final year of study. The students' completion will be described with respect to school results and socio-demographics. Differences between students who finished their studies in the prescribed time of three years and those who took longer than the prescribed time will be highlighted. Factors that aid or hinder students from successfully completing their studies in the prescribed time will be analyzed. An entry selection model will be developed to screen the students. This will assist with an enrolment strategy. The most significant result found was that the political environment played the most significant role in throughput. The next significant result from the study showed that the grade 12 aggregate played a significant role in throughput. It is suggested that UWC be proactive in developing alternative methods of selecting students, since the new Further Education Training (FET) school system, which will be implemented in 2006, will omit the grade 12 aggregate.