Fatima Rahiman

The eighth annual Siyaphumelela Conference held virtually and hosted by Saide in July 2022 was a resounding success, with approximately 270 delegates in attendance. This ensured an engaging platform through the inclusion of a wide spectrum of voices from both within the higher education sector in South Africa and beyond. 

From traversing the inspiring keynotes and panel discussions to showcasing the work of the partner institutions, who play a leading role in the development of tools and services for the Siyaphumelela Network, all the presentations attested to the Siyaphumelela programme’s growing maturation. The emerging work of the nine participant South African universities in the concurrent presentations and their generous ‘sharing’ of evidence-based research and promising practices on student success interventions, made for a highly stimulating conference.

Highlights of the partner institutions’ work included Durban University of Technology (DUT)’s promotion of adaptive graduates - a key intent of DUT’s strategy and vision -  which was presented through a collage of student and academic voices, showcasing the student’s involvement in co-curricular activities that are aimed at developing adaptive attributes. The significance of student voices in student success interventions found further resonance in the University of the Western Cape’s (UWC) work. Moving reflections on first-year experience and mentorship programmes, highlighted the importance of collecting data on students and understanding their contexts.

The University of Free States’(UFS) commitment to transforming higher education institutions to become generators of ‘equity, opportunity, and social mobility’, with its pragmatic and innovative use of chatbots, enjoyed substantive discussion in the plenary session and was suggested as a possible future avenue of work for the Siyaphumelela programme. This innovative use of technology for student success interventions was further explored in the University of KwaZulu Natal’s (UKZN’s) presentation on their early tracking system called the Auto Scholar Advisor platform, featuring the use of artificial intelligence and algorithms.

The University of Cape Town (UCT) focused  on how systems thinking had influenced their various initiatives, highlighting how the various baseline tools such as the Institutional Capacity Assessment Tool and  the Component Mapping tool were used for reflections in building data analytics and student support systems.

Eight student success indicators with four artificial intelligence models as well as the Gateway to Success programme, a joint initiative of student and academic affairs, described some of the innovative work shared by the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits).

Concluding the partner sessions, Prof Cheryl Foxcroft, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Teaching and Learning, at Nelson Mandela University (NMU), made a presentation showcasing the Success Coaching as well as the First Year Success programme which form part of the Learning and Teaching  Collaborative for Success (LT Collab) programme and alternate access routes that enable higher retention rates at NMU.

In addition to the rich input by the Siyaphumelela partners, an excellent panel presentation on Open Textbooks focussed on collaborative approaches to open textbook production that supports innovative pedagogical practice and opens new pathways for student co-creation. This generated so much interest amongst participants that Saide has decided to include Open Educational Resources (OER) as a focal area of work to be undertaken by the Siyaphumelela partner institutions, thus creating an additional Siyaphumelela programme work stream in the coming year (link to work streams).

Delegates were also informed about the new Council of Higher Education (CHE) Quality Assurance Framework that is to be implemented at the beginning of the 2024. Dr Whitfield Green spoke about how the new framework will move away from the current focus on external quality assurance measures, to a focus on building internal institutional quality assurance capacity and a greater focus on self-regulation. Overall, a differentiated approach is being proposed by the CHE. Institutions that show strong evidence of internal quality assurance capacity will be given greater autonomy, including the authority to accredit their own programmes. While institutions with weaker quality assurance systems in place will continue to get support from the CHE and be reviewed on a more regular basis. 

The quality and wide range of this year’s presentations led many to remark that the 2022 Siyaphumelela Conference was the best yet!  Above all, as one of the conference delegates stated in their evaluation form:

… there was a thread of “can do, must do, and here’s how to do” student success work…

which left many conference attendees feeling energised and recommitted to their work in supporting the various student success initiatives at their respective institutions.