Going to University. The Influence of Higher Education on the Lives of Young South Africans

Delia Marshall, Jennifer Case

Description

Around the world, more young people than ever before are attending university. Student numbers in South Africa have doubled since democracy and for many families, higher education is a route to a better future for their children. But alongside the overwhelming demand for higher education, questions about its purposes have intensified. Deliberations about the curriculum, culture and costing of public higher education abound from student activists, academics, parents, civil society and policy-makers. We know, from macro research, that South African graduates generally have good employment prospects. But little is known at a detailed level about how young people actually make use of their university experiences to craft their life courses. And even less is known about what happens to those who drop out. This accessible book brings together the rich life stories of 73 young people, six years after they began their university studies. It traces how going to university influences not only their employment options, but also nurtures the agency needed to chart their own way and to engage critically with the world around them. The book offers deep insights into the ways in which public higher education is both a private and public good, and it provides significant conclusions pertinent to anyone who works in – and cares about – universities.

Sujets

• Éducation
• Education

Informations

• Publié par: African Minds
• Date de parution: 09 février 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781928331704
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

AFR ICAN HIGHER EDUCATION DY NA MICS SER IES VOLUME 3 JENNIFER M. CASE, DELIA MARSHALL, SIO Δ & DISAAPELE MOGASHANAUX MCKENNA GOING TO UNIVERSITY THE INFLUENCE OF HIGHER EDUCATION ON THE LIVES OF YOUNG SOUTH AFRICANS

African Minds Higher Education Dynamics Series Vol. 3

Going to University he Influence of Higer Education on te Lives of Young Sout Africans

Jennifer M. Case, Delia Marsall, Sioux McKenna and Disaapele Mogasana

A NOTE ABOUT THE PEER REVIEW PROCESS his open access publication forms part of te African Minds peer reviewed, academic books list, te broad mission of wic is to support te dissemination of African scolarsip and to foster access, openness and debate in te pursuit of growing and deepening te African knowledge base.Going to University: he Influence of Higer Education on te Lives of Young Sout Africanswas reviewed by two external peers wit expert knowledge in iger education. Copies of te reviews are available from te publiser on request.

First publised in 2018 by African Minds 4 Eccleston Place, Somerset West 7130, Cape Town, Sout Africa [e-mail] www.africanminds.org.za

2018 African Minds

his work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

ISBN: 978–1-928331–69-8 eBook edition: 978–1-928331–70-4 ePub edition: 978–1-928331–71-1

ORDERS: African Minds 4 Eccleston Place, Somerset West 7130, Cape Town, Sout Africa [e-mail] www.africanminds.org.za

For orders from outside Africa: African Books Collective PO Box 721, Oxford OX1 9EN, UK [e-mail]

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements Foreword

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Contextualising iger education

Navigating te undergraduate curriculum

Deliberations and decisions on study plans

he broader student experience

Non-completion of te first degree coice

Doing postgraduate studies

Entry to te workplace

he purposes of iger education

References Appendix A Metodology Appendix B List of participants About te autors Index

iii

iv v

1

17

37

59

79

91

102

127

144 149 158 161 162

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We gratefully acknowledge te financial support of te National Researc Foundation (NRF) of Sout Africa for tis project, under te Competitive Grants for Rated Researcers Programme (Grant Number 90374). Additional intellectual input came troug a project jointly funded by te NRF and te Economic and Social Researc Council (ESRC) of te United Kingdom, under te auspices of te Centre for Global Higer Education (CGHE), under te title ‘Patways to personal and public good: Understanding access to, student experiences of, and outcomes from Sout African undergraduate iger education’. We want to acknowledge te formative intellectual input of Dr Kevin Williams in conceptualising tis project. Unfortunately, e ad to leave te project early on due to ealt issues. We are grateful for all te interview participants in tis study, wo gave so freely of teir time to sare teir stories wit us. Finally, we are most appreciative of te support of family, friends and colleagues trougout our endeavours in tis project.

iv

FOREWORD

Sue Clegg, Emeritus Professor of Higer Education, Leeds Metropolitan University

A foreword can offer tose wo coose to read it some insigts into te broader context witin wic a book sits, wat contribution it makes, and a view about wy wat its autors are saying is important. Tis book contributes to broader debates about te significance and importance of iger education in a number of distinctive ways. First it is based on te narratives of students wo started degrees at a number of Sout African universities. Tis may not sound remarkable but I will argue it is because we ave limited knowledge of wat it means to tis generation of young adults to ave been to university, regardless of weter or not tey are deemed to ave succeeded. Tese stories are important and tey callenge many of our preconceptions. Second te book makes a virtue of writing in a way tat makes tese narratives open to a wider audience. It wears its academic credentials ligtly in order to extend te range of readersip beyond te narrow band of scolars wo study iger education as teir profession to include tose wo ave a broader interest in iger education. Tis is increasingly important in a context were debates about te purposes of a university education ave narrowed internationally to a concern wit te economic benefits to individuals and society. Tird te autors speak from and contribute to debates about te significance of iger education in te Sout African context. Te complexities and difficulties of te legacy of aparteid and te creation of systematic educational inequality by political design are of immense importance. Questions about ow tese migt be overcome ave provoked Sout African scolars to ask searcing questions about te roles and limitations of universities. Tis as eigtened significance in terms of te timing of tis book written at a time of student protests and a broader politicisation of te debate. Finally, tese arguments ave international significance because te Sout African case as sarpened te debate about equity and iger education. Some of te best writing about iger education in recent decades as come from Sout Africa. Te book is underpinned by an argument tat we need not just look at embedded structural constraints but tat we sould also consider ow people understand teir situation and teir own abilities to act; ence te importance of narratives. It offers readers an opportunity to tink about broader questions of agency and constraint, and issues of race, class and gender. It is an invitation to consider tese

v

GOING TO UNIVERSITY

matters because tey ave wider societal and political significance. Wat makes teir contribution impressive is tat te analysis is underpinned by considerable teoretical sopistication. Tat it is accessible and readable, and made available troug open access, makes teir arguments more, not less, important. Te words of tose interviewed are te core of tis book. Te study is based on 73 interviews six years after tey first enrolled as students and we are skilfully introduced to 20 individuals wose stores are revealed in some detail as te book progresses. Tis gives te book a unique feel. It proves a subtle device for teasing out te pressures tese young adults face, te resources bot material and cultural tey draw on, and te way tey weave teir narratives in accounting for teir trajectories to date. From te very beginning, wic starts wit two stories, we are callenged to revise our expectations of failure and success. Superficially one student is a success, te oter not; one as is degree and is going on to anticipated success at te very igest level of qualification, te oter is back at ome not aving finised is degree and trying to find work in order to get te funds to complete. In te negative language of many discussions of students’ trajectories tose like tat of te second student are represented as student failure or, in even more pejorative terms, as wastage. However, because te autors are concerned wit understanding and explanation, a more complex picture emerges. Time at university is not witout value for tose students wo ave not yet completed, or may not complete. Wat tey take from it is varied and complex but it expands te ways tey see te world and te ways tey can imagine teir roles witin it. In many instances it canges ow tey see temselves and people from different racial and class backgrounds. Te struggles of some of tese students are palpable and te form of presenting te narratives allows te autors to explore multiple strands. Some of tese are material and relate to financial support but some are more subtle. Students also describe ow tey navigate te university itself; starting wit knowing wat course to opt for, and ow muc flexibility a course offers, and wat appens if tey come to te realisation tat tey are struggling academically or tat tey just don’t like te subjects tey ave cosen. Te language of coice sounds rational and instrumental but tese are also deeply emotional journeys. Te stories also alert te reader to te impact of relationsips and in particular for women te consequences of aving a cild wose care still falls to tem and can interrupt or cange te ways tey navigate troug a degree. Parents and oter carers also feature in terms of material resources and teir lack, but also as a source of emotional support, encouragement and of know-ow. Again, te autors callenge us to re-examine wat we tink we know, for example, in terms of race and class; some parents are poor but not witout oter resources and provide support to tese young adults as tey are making teir way troug university and beyond. So, wat is important about te use of narrative is tat it allows for an examination of te broader structural constraints and cultural and structural conditions wic allow some of te participants to flouris but wic impede te development of oters. Wat we see ere are autors in complete command of teir material, offering us a very sopisticated understanding of te meaning of going to university wic far transcends simple

vi

FOREWORD

ideas of success/ failure and makes us question and look beind some of te numbers about wo succeeds, wo fails, and wat jobs tese young people get and aspire to. Te experiences of university tat emerge from te descriptions of te individuals in te book is about more tan individual social mobility and te autors quite consciously ask us to reflect on tat. Te use of te narratives gives te book an engaging and readable quality. Tis is not to be scoffed at. Many academic books are tedious and dull, and indeed incompreensibility is often seen as a mark of profundity. But as I ave argued above tere is noting unsopisticated about te analysis in tis book. By cumulatively introducing more narratives te autors callenge us to recognise te complexity of teir subject matter. Tey invite a muc wider readersip to recognise tat wat goes on in universities as broader relevance and is of societal importance. Tey lead us to ask some of te bigger questions about te purposes of a university education, wat are te limits and scope of individual agency, and ow we can tink about te relationsip between individual and economic development and uman flourising. Tese are issues wic are debated by tose of us wo work in te field of iger education studies but are too often reduced to an over simplistic eiter/or in broader political debates. Tis is wy decisions about style and readersip are not neutral. Tere is a democratic impulse in te writing of tis book and an encouragement, made easier by te accessible web-based form of publication, to engage a wider audience. Tere is also a recognition tat we as readers are, like te participants tey describe, moved by emotion as part of our rational deliberations. I was deeply engaged in reading tis book; engagement is important because it allows us to commit to tings tat matter to us. I tink universities matter. As a first generation, working-class beneficiary, iger education transformed my life and it was not just as a route to a better job. If tat was true for me it raises te question of weter it can be and sould be true for tis generation of students and young adults. Te autors do not put tis so baldly but I tink tey create a space were tese questions can be asked. Tis brings me to te importance of te Sout African setting were tese questions ave an especial urgency. Wile te Sout African university system is caracterised by te autors as an incipiently ‘mass’ one, participation is relatively low by international, altoug not African, standards. It is also a system wic still bears te scars of te past wit istorically wite universities being more privileged tan istorically black universities wit long-term consequences into te future for its students. Most disturbingly, altoug not surprisingly, wile black participation as increased, black success still lags beind tat of teir wite counterparts. Altoug tere is financial support for te very poorest students, many more face financial ardsip. Increasing numbers of studies are also sowing tat being at university is touger in many more subtle ways for black students, not least because tose students wo enter but wom te university tinks unlikely to succeed witout additional support follow a different curriculum to tat of teir better qualified peers. Tis often means an additional year and given te state of Sout African scooling tis extra year becomes a space for te least privileged black students. Te #FeesMustFall protests were surely also fuelled by tese

vii