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CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND: HIGHER EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA
Education in post-apartheid South Africa has been characterised by volatilities as well as progress in terms of transformation during the past two decades. Reddy (2004) aptly describes the expectations of two main stakeholders of universities in South Africa, namely the state and the public. On the one hand, the state demands that universities contribute to social and economic transformation. The democratically elected state wants universities to produce globally competitive graduates who will play a part in rebuilding a struggling economy. On the other hand, the public and, more specifically, previously marginalised groups, see higher education as an emancipation from poverty. These expectations have not changed much since Reddy’s observation more than 10 years ago.
The National Commission on Higher Education (CHE 1996) released A Framework for Transformation in 1996 that aimed to provide a guideline for a transformation process built on three pillars: participation, responsiveness and governance. Of interest to this study is the envisioned strategy to increase participation rates in higher education.
Under the apartheid system, quality higher education was available to mainly white students. The 1996 Framework for Transformation intended to open up the higher education system, changing it from “…an elitist to a ‘mass system’… a process referred to as ‘massification’” (CHE 1996:35). Massification is not a new phenomenon in higher education. It is observed in developed countries (Fallis 2015) as well as in the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa (Mohamedbhai 2014). Massification of higher education in South Africa, through the implementation of the 1996 Framework for Transformation , intended to provide access to higher numbers of poor and black students. This intention was executed by providing a greater diversity of degree programmes, incorporating changes into curricula and providing more funding opportunities (CHE 1996).
Whether this framework has played out as intended is debatable. Although South African universities have been transformed over the past two decades to be racially inclusive, the growing impatience of masses of students who felt their expectations have gone unmet was demonstrated during the 2016 protest actions. Student protests alluded to limited access to higher education due to funding and limited capacity of universities to accommodate all students. The frustration expressed by protesting students highlighted the desperate need for higher education as a means to escape socio-economic hardship. Students know that very few alternatives to higher education exist as the majority of school leavers are left without a recourse if they are not accepted into higher education (CHE 2017).
In South Africa, learners enrol for school at the age of six years for a preparatory or receptive year. Thereafter, a school learner’s primary school career comprises grades 1 to 7. Grades 8 to 12 make up a learner’s high school or secondary school years. At the end of Grade 12, a learner writes the final examination. This is referred to as the Grade 12 or matriculation examination (DoE 2018). South Africa does not apply a college system in the public school sector; therefore, school leavers apply for admission to universities with their Grade 12 results.
One of the underlying causes of underperformance in higher education is the poor schooling system in South Africa that seems to regress from bad to worse. The strong legacy of apartheid, 25 years after it was abolished, is still salient in the South African schooling system. Schools are categorised in terms of school quintiles, which is, in essence, a poverty indicator. Wealthier schools – and usually these are the schools that perform better academically – receive less financial support from government and are categorised as Quintile 5 schools. On the other end of the scale are Quintile 1 schools, where pass rates are often extremely low, evidence that, in general terms, poorer students perform worse academically (Branson, Hofmeyr & Lam 2014; Spaull 2015). Quintile 1 schools receive the biggest portion of their budgets from the government. The communities surrounding these schools are characterised by poverty and unemployment. Even though greater portions of funding is available to Quintile 1 schools, these schools are characterised by mismanagement, under-qualified teaching staff and an inability to increase academic performance (Spaull 2015). Low-quality education becomes a poverty trap to thousands of learners, because the schooling system becomes an “…intergenerational cycle of poverty where children inherit the social standing of their parents or caregivers, irrespective of their own abilities or effort” (Spaull 2015:1).
Students apply for admission to universities based on their Grade 12 marks. Prior research shows that, although there is a correlation between Grade 12 results and academic performance at university (Barnes, Dzanisi, Wilkenson & Viljoen 2009; Baard, Steenkamp, Frick & Kidd 2010; Papageorgiou 2017), some studies suggest that the marks are inflated (Nel & Kistner 2009; Schoër, Ntuli, Rankin, Sebastiao & Hunt 2010). Although Grade 12 results determine whether or not a student is granted access to university and admission to a particular degree programme, Grade 12 results cannot be used as a predictor of success at university. The relatively poor predictive power of Grade 12 results may be indicative of an ‘articulation gap’ between high school and university (Van Broekhuizen, van der Berg & Hofmeyr 2017). This implies that if the schooling system is questionable, universities run the risk of allowing underprepared students to enrol for a degree programme. Underpreparedness of South African school leavers is also a result of the insufficient development of life skills, such as assertiveness, time management skills, communication and listening skills (Maphosa 2014).
Universities recognise that some students lack certain academic skills and knowledge and, therefore, offer interventions that are perceived as relevant and effective in addressing academic deficiencies (Maphosa 2014). In an attempt to mitigate the risk of allowing underprepared students, universities assess the mathematic and language proficiencies of prospective students by means of the National Benchmark Tests (NBT) that was introduced in 1995. However, since students are admitted based on their performance at school, NBT results are only indicative of academic shortcomings. Students that were identified with unsatisfactory proficiencies in mathematics and readings skills are required to complete additional course work (Van Rooy & Coetzee-Van Rooy 2015).
According to the General Household Survey of 2017 (Statistics South Africa 2017), 87.5% of learners over the age of five years attended school in 2017. However, only 4.5% of learners became university students. This means that, in an attempt to implement the Framework for Transformation as set out by the NCHE (1996), as many students as possible need to be admitted to higher education institutions in order to increase the participation rate. Therefore, oversubscription (admitting large numbers of students into degree programmes) seems to be a strategy employed by universities to counter the risk of the admission of underprepared students (Cloete 2016). South African universities take in large numbers of students of whom only 30% are predicted to pass within 5 years (CHE 2013; Cloete 2016). Despite the pervasive problem of underprepared students, the South African Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), which is the primary funder of universities, expects high pass rates from universities (DHET 2015). At the same time, universities are expected to maintain high academic standards – universities are the custodians of academic standards and guardians of programme accreditation, so the academic requirements to obtain a degree are the same for all students, regardless of a student’s school background. This implies that the requirement of maintaining high pass rates may conflict with the requirement to maintain high standards. These two requirements are thus increasingly difficult to meet, especially since the DHET does not allow universities the autonomy to apply strict entrance requirements.
Programme placement in many South African universities has to consider racial demographics in order to comply with legislation such as the Higher Education Act 101 (as amended) of 1997 (RSA 1997) and to align with the government’s policy of increased admission of previously disadvantaged groups to tertiary education in order to address and eradicate historical inequities. Consequently, students (many of them first-generation students) from dysfunctional schools enter university with a handicap: they have not been prepared well enough to deal with studies at university level. Thus the transition from secondary school to university is more challenging for some students due to academic underpreparedness.
In the South African academic community, underpreparedness of school-leavers entering the higher education arena is accepted as the main underlying cause of poor performance (CHE 2007). Scott, Yeld and Hendry (2007) suggest that schools are not delivering students who are prepared for tertiary education. Müller et al. (2007) and Ogude, Kilfoil and Du Plessis (2012) argue along similar lines. Van Broekhuizen, van der Berg and Hofmeyr (2017) contend that poor school results are barriers to university access for black students, contrary to the belief that other barriers (such as financial constraints) cause inaccessibility.
Nevertheless, local universities cannot use the country’s failing school system as a convenient scapegoat – they are still expected to ensure retention and throughput of their students. However, this unintended outcome leaves universities with a predicament: on the one hand, universities need to maintain academic standards and international accreditation, whilst, on the other hand, they need to adhere to the Framework for Transformation through massification that might contribute to the admission of underprepared students into higher education. Unless universities explore preparatory courses or other similar interventions that can serve as bridging courses, the unsatisfactory throughput rate will remain unchanged. The poor throughput rate is exacerbated by high attrition rates at contact universities that range from 21.1% in the first year of study to 42.2% (cumulative figure) by the sixth (and final) year of study (CHE 2016).
Given that the largest disparities between pass rates and completion rates have been recorded in engineering, science and commercial degrees, courses in those degrees with low pass rates (High Impact Modules – HIMS) should be earmarked for interventions. One commercial course – offered by all the major universities in South Africa as a compulsory module for their undergraduate Baccalaureus Commercii (BCom) programmes (degrees or qualifications in commerce) – is a course in introductory Accounting. Aside from degrees that specialise in Accounting (for example, BCom Accounting Sciences), other BCom degrees also require Accounting to provide students with adequate financial knowledge for the purposes of their degree. Table 1Error! Reference source not found. provides a summary of the requirements of seven of the biggest universities in South Africa. It illustrates Accounting as a prescribed and, thus, compulsory module in one of the years of study.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABSTRACT
DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT AND RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY
1.3 AIM
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.5 IMPORTANCE AND BENEFITS OF THE STUDY
1.6 LIMITATIONS AND ASSUMPTIONS .
1.7 METHOD
1.8 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS
2 CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND: HIGHER EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA
3 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW: INTERVENTIONS AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 TYPES OF INTERVENTIONS
3.3 INTERVENTIONS IN ACCOUNTING
3.4 EVALUATION OF ACADEMIC INTERVENTIONS
3.5 DEVELOPMENT OF RESEARCH QUESTIONS
3.6 CONCLUSION
4 CHAPTER 4: PREPARATION FOR TERTIARY ACCOUNTING – A DESCRIPTION OF THE INTERVENTION
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 WHY A PRE-UNIVERSITY INTERVENTION IS NEEDED IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONTEXT
4.3 A DESCRIPTION OF THE INTERVENTION
4.4 CONCLUSION
5 CHAPTER 5: LITERATURE REVIEW AND RESEARCH DESIGN: CONTROL VARIABLES
5.1 INTRODUCTION
5.2 PREDICTIVE FACTORS FOR ACADEMIC SUCCESS
5.3 CONCLUSION
6 CHAPTER 6: RESEARCH DESIGN: EMPIRICAL TESTING
6.1 INTRODUCTION .
6.2 RESEARCH STRATEGY: ONTOLOGY AND EPISTEMOLOGY
6.3 RESEARCH DESIGN
6.4 METHOD
6.5 LIMITATIONS
6.6 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
6.7 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
7 CHAPTER 7: RESULTS
7.1 INTRODUCTION
7.2 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
7.3 TESTING FOR NORMALITY .
7.4 INDEPENDENT-SAMPLES T-TEST
7.5 COMPARISON OF MEANS BETWEEN GROUPS
7.6 MULTIPLE REGRESSION .
7.7 HECKMAN’S SELECTION AND TREATMENT MODELS
7.8 CONCLUSION
8 CHAPTER 8: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
8.1 INTRODUCTION
8.2 BACKGROUND TO MY STUDY
8.3 DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
8.4 THE EFFECT OF CONTROL VARIABLES
8.5 CONTRIBUTION
8.6 IMPLICATIONS
8.7 LIMITATIONS
8.8 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
8.9 CONCLUDING REMARKS
9 REFERENCES
APPENDIX
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