In our efforts to overcome apartheid's legacy, South Africa has aimed at creating an homogeneous education sector. But what the country needs, instead, is stronger differentiation.
In our efforts to overcome apartheid's legacy, South Africa has aimed at creating an homogeneous education sector. But what the country needs, instead, is stronger differentiation.
That is the basis of a new Rhodes-based research project aimed discovering why many students aren’t achieving, and why they drop out.
The Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning (CHERTL) at Rhodes University has been awarded a grant of R700 000 from the National Research Foundation (NRF) to undertake a PhD-level research project to investigate this question.
It will assess the differentiated nature of 23 public universities, across South Africa.
Project Director, Professor Sioux McKenna, said, "If higher education is to meet the needs of our country for social transformation and economic growth, then a differentiated system is essential.”
The concept of institutional differentiation relates to differences in institutional type, history and purpose, such as academic goals, vision, and aims.
McKenna argued that the unevenness in higher education is largely a result of apartheid, during which many universities were disadvantaged. Funding and the manner in which those in power sought to structure ideologies and courses, resulted in inequities.
More freedom for higher education institutions, however, does not mean that the scars of inequality do not remain, she said.
A team of seven PhD students from various universities will be undertaking this research on a part-time basis, looking at various aspects of differentiation within the sector.
They will be supervised by eight experienced academics from across the sector.
Students will undertake a year of coursework before commencing with their individual research projects.
The idea of including coursework at PhD level is unusual, but McKenna said that it is needed so that students can develop a strong base in the theoretical framework to be used for their research.
The research idea emerged out of a study conducted by Professor Chrissie Boughey.
McKenna joined the project halfway and noticed that differentiated education was an area which needed further research. “In my work as part of the Council on Higher Education, I saw many applications for new programmes from different universities and noticed how these applications varied.
"We need to look at why students aren’t achieving and why there is a low student throughput across the sector,” said McKenna.
McKenna said she and her team of PhD students from across South Africa looked forward to undertaking this four-year project.
